Michael Rennie (born Eric Alexander Rennie; 25 August 1909 – 10 June 1971) was a British film, television and stage actor, who had leading roles in a number of Hollywood films, including his portrayal of the space visitor Klaatu in the science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). In a career spanning more than 30 years, Rennie appeared in more than 50 films and in several American television series.
Rennie was born in Idle near Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, the second son of a Scottish wool mill owner, James Rennie, and his English wife Amelia (née Dobby). He had an elder brother William, younger brother Gordon and sister Edith. The Rennie business had operated for over 150 years, and the family was relatively well off. He was educated at the Leys School, Cambridge.
He went to work at the family mill in Bradford, but did not enjoy it. He worked in a number of occupations, including a stint as a car salesman, and sweeping floors in his uncle's steel ropes factory. He eventually decided (at the time of his 26th birthday, in 1935) on a career as an actor. He retained his surname but adopted Michael as his professional name. He cited Ronald Colman as his role model.
The 6' 4" tall Rennie attracted the interest of a casting director at Gaumont British, who took him on as an extra. Rennie said entering the film industry at this level was a deliberate strategy, so he could learn how pictures were made. Head of production Michael Balcon said Rennie was taken on "because he was good-looking and athletic. He knew nothing of acting, but was given a contract to play small parts and to work as stand-in for players such as Robert Young and John Loder."
Rennie's first screen acting was an uncredited bit part in the Alfred Hitchcock film Secret Agent (1936), standing in for Robert Young. Balcon says he saw Rennie act in a scene in East Meets West (1936) and fired him immediately afterwards. Balcon wrote "I had seen the rushes of that day's filming and had at once decided that Rennie was far too inexperienced to justify big screen parts."
The 1937 screen test, which exists in the British Film Institute (BFI) archives under the title "Marguerite Allan and Michael Rennie Screen Test", did not lead to a film career for either performer.
Balcon says Rennie "took his setback well, left the studios, and went off to learn his job in repertory." Rennie worked mostly in Yorkshire, eventually becoming a star with the York Repertory Company. One of his roles was Professor Henry Higgins in Pygmalion.
He also played other bit parts and minor unbilled roles in other films, including The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936), Conquest of the Air (1937), The Squeaker (1937), Gangway (1937), The Divorce of Lady X (1938), Bank Holiday (1938), This Man in Paris (1939) and The Briggs Family (1940). He later said he strove to perfect a "mid-Atlantic accent" that could easily be understood by American as well as British audiences which resulted in people thinking he was Canadian.
Shortly after the outbreak of war in Europe on 1 September 1939, Rennie began to receive offers for larger film roles, including This Man Is Dangerous (1940), Dangerous Moonlight (1941) and Pimpernel Smith (1941). Rennie auditioned again for Michael Balcon, now head of Ealing Studios, and was cast in Ships with Wings.
While that film was being prepared, Rennie continued repertory work and accepted a one-line role in George Formby's Turned Out Nice Again. Balcon says Rennie "declared that he enjoyed it as he was playing a motor salesman, and this reminded him of the days when he tried to sell cars – without securing a single buyer."
Rennie had his first big film role in the suspense drama Tower of Terror (1941). This starred Wilfrid Lawson in the lead role as a crazed Dutch lighthouse keeper in the German-occupied Netherlands, while the second-billed Rennie and third-billed Movita had the romantic leads. In a 1951 interview Rennie said this was his worst part.
Michael Balcon also used him in The Big Blockade (1942). He was called a "rapidly rising newcomer". Another profile referred to him as an "athletic, Gable-ish young man."
Rennie enlisted in the RAF Volunteer Reserve on 27 May 1941. "There has been a pause in Rennie's film career", wrote Balcon in 1942. "But there will be parts awaiting him when the war is over".
He was officially discharged on 4 August 1942, and then on the following day, he was commissioned "for the emergency" as pilot officer number 127347 on probation in the General Duties Branch of the RAFVR. On 5 February 1943, he was promoted to flying officer on probation. He resigned his commission on 1 May 1944 (not discharged on disability, as the studio publicity stated).
Rennie had carried out his basic training near Torquay in Devon, after which he was sent to the United States for fighter pilot training under the Arnold Plan. In this programme, pilots of the RAF were trained by United States Army Air Forces instructors. One of his fellow students was RAF Sergeant Jack Morton, who told an anecdote about when he and Rennie were in the same class:
At the end of our primary course we were posted to a Basic Flying School at Cochran Field, Macon, Georgia. The class which completed the course at Cochran Field was now split up, half were posted to Napier Field, Dothan, Alabama, to train on single-engine planes, and the remainder were posted to twin-engine schools. Like Cochran, Napier Field was a large permanent Air Corps Base and most of us were quite content to stay on the camp when we had time off. One of the cadets on our course had told us that he was a film actor, but no one took him seriously. We had to admit that he was right however when a film came to the camp cinema called Ships with Wings starring Michael Rennie.
I'll Be Your Sweetheart and The Wicked Lady
With the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, Rennie was given his first film break, when he was cast alongside Margaret Lockwood—then at the peak of her popularity—in the musical I'll Be Your Sweetheart (1945), directed by Val Guest for Gainsborough Studios. Rennie was billed below Lockwood and Vic Oliver, given an "introducing" credit, but his character was the actual protagonist of the film. The movie was not a large hit, but Rennie received excellent notices, including a review from the US trade paper Variety which said his performance made the film "noteworthy" and that he was: