James Robert MacGeorge Donald (18 May 1917 – 3 August 1993) was a Scottish actor.[1] Tall and thin, he specialised in playing authority figures, particularly military doctors.[2]
Early life
Donald was born in Aberdeen, the fourth son of a Scottish Presbyterian minister. His mother died when he was 18 months old and his father remarried.
After The Way Ahead in 1944, the British Army reversed its earlier decision and called up Donald. He joined the RASC before being assigned to British Army Intelligence, where he typed up decoded enemy messages.[3]
He had the lead in The Net (1953) and was cast in his first Hollywood film in MGM's Beau Brummell (1954). The same studio hired him to play Theo Van Gogh in Lust for Life (1956). It was Donald's voice that read aloud the famous letters from the artist, played by Kirk Douglas, to his brother, which formed the narrative backbone of the film.
International work
He portrayed Major Clipton, the doctor who expresses grave doubts about the sanity of Colonel Nicholson's (Alec Guinness) efforts to build the bridge in order to show up his Japanese captors, in the war film The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). He spoke the film's final words: "Madness! Madness!"
Donald retired from acting in part because of a lifelong asthmatic condition. He grew grapes and made wine on his farm in Hampshire. He died of stomach cancer on 3 August 1993 in West Tytherley, Hampshire.[5] He was survived by his wife Ann, and a stepson.[5][6]
