Stewart Granger (May 6, 1913 – August 16, 1993), born James Lablache Stewart, was an English film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. Tall, dark, dignified and handsome, Granger was a popular leading man in the 40s, 50s and 60s.
He was born in London, and educated at Epsom College, and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. The grandson of the opera singer Luigi Lablache, he was obliged to change his name in order to avoid being confused with the famous American actor James Stewart. As Granger reported in an interview once, his off-screen friends called him "Jimmy".
In 1933, he made his film debut as an extra. His first starring role was in the Gainsborough Pictures period melodrama The Man in Grey (1943), a film that helped to make him a huge star in Britain. In the early 1950s, he moved to Hollywood and starred in a number of swashbucklers and other adventure films for which his theatrical voice, stature (6'3" 191 cm) and dignified profile made him a natural, such as King Solomon's Mines (1950), Scaramouche (1952) and the 1952 remake of The Prisoner of Zenda, but he was just as dashing in comedies, as demonstrated by his performance in North To Alaska with John Wayne.
In Germany, Granger acted in the role of Old Surehand in three western movies adapted from novels by German author Karl May, with French actor Pierre Brice (playing the fictional Indian chief Winnetou), in Unter Geiern (Frontier Hellcat) (1964), Der Ölprinz (Rampage at Apache Wells) (1965) and Old Surehand (Flaming Frontier) (1965).
He was united with Pierre Brice and Lex Barker, also a Karl May movie hero, in Gern hab' ich die Frauen gekillt (Killer's Carnival) (1966). In the German Edgar Wallace movie series of the 1960s, he was seen in The Trygon Factor (1966). Towards the end of his career, Granger even starred in a German soap-opera called Das Erbe der Guldenburgs (The Guldenburg Heritage) (1987).
He was married three times:
Stewart Granger revealed in his autobiography that Deborah Kerr had tried to seduce him in the back of a London cab in 1950. Although they were married to others, they went on to have an affair. They remained lifelong friends.
In 1956, Granger became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
He died in Santa Monica, California from prostate cancer at the age of 80.
