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.
Based on the positive reaction to his two turns as the Apostle Peter, Fox assigned him another third-billed, top-tier role as a stalwart man of God, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra, who, between 1749 and his death in 1784, founded missions in Alta California. The film was Seven Cities of Gold (1955), with Richard Egan and Anthony Quinn.
Eric Alexander 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. Rennie's family owned a wool Business which had operated for over 150 years and were relatively well off. He was educated at the Leys School, Cambridge and Caius College at Cambridge. He graduated from Cambridge in 1931 with a BA.
He went to work at the family wool 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 had been born near the place where Ronald Colman was born (Colman was born in Richmond, Surrey)??? and later said Colman was his role model.
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.
The 1937 screen test, which exists in the British Film Institute archives under the title "Marguerite Allan and Michael Rennie Screen Test", did not lead to a film career for either performer.
Rennie was married twice: first to Joan England (1938–1945), then to Actress Margaret (Maggie) McGrath (1947–1960); their son, David Rennie, is an English circuit judge in Lewes, Sussex, England. Both marriages ended in divorce. When divorcing his second wife, she fainted on the stand during cross-examination. Rennie revealed he had been separated from her since November 1953. (Her mother had been murdered in 1954.)
Shortly after the outbreak of war in Europe on 3 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.
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).
He had a son, John Marshall (born 1944), with his longtime friend and mistress, Renée (née Gilbert), whose later married name was Taylor. Renée was the sister of the British film Director Lewis Gilbert. During the war years, they lived coincidentally in flats in the White House in Albany Street near Regent's Park in London (now a hotel). The White House was a favourite location to live during the war years. It was built in the shape of a white cross and was such a good navigation mark for the Luftwaffe, that it was rumoured that there were standing orders to avoid bombing it – hence its popularity with celebrities and the wealthy.
Rennie was now established as a leading actor. One report called him "the bobbysoxers' dark idol... Gainsborough's 1945 discovery." He was mobbed by female fans on a personal appearance tour.
Gainsborough teamed him with one of their biggest female stars Phyllis Calvert in the melodrama The Root of All Evil (1947). In July 1946 it was announced Rennie had signed a five-year contract with Maurice Ostrer's new company, Premiere Productions, worth £300,000 – making him the highest paid film star in Britain.
Rennie's first film under the new contract was White Cradle Inn (1948), shot in Switzerland with Madeleine Carroll. Rennie had been "loaned out" to another company to make it but then he made his first for Ostrer at Premiere, The Idol of Paris (1948). The film did so badly that Ostrer left the film industry.
Rennie made films for independent producers and his career momentum began to fade: Uneasy Terms (1949); Golden Madonna (1949) (again with Calvert); and two comedies for Val Guest: Miss Pilgrim's Progress (1949) and The Body Said No! (1950). He had what may be considered Rennie's only role as one of two central characters in a fully-fledged love story in the 47-minute episode "Sanatorium", the longest of the Somerset Maugham tales constituting the omnibus film Trio (1950); the 40-year-old Rennie and the 20-year-old Jean Simmons play patients and doomed lovers in the title institution, which caters to victims of tuberculosis.
Fox were so pleased with Rennie's work that they offered him a seven-year contract in November 1950.
Rennie went on to support Power in I'll Never Forget You (1951) then had good roles in the ensemble crime drama Phone Call from a Stranger (1952) (where he played an American) and in the wartime spy thriller, 5 Fingers (1952), as the agent who tracks down James Mason's spy. He did some narration for The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951) and would provide voice overs for several Fox films, such as Pony Soldier (1952), Titanic (1953), The Desert Rats (1953), Prince Valiant (1954).
Buoyed by the strong critical reception and profitability of The Day the Earth Stood Still, Fox assigned much of the credit to the central performance of Rennie. Convinced that it had a potential leading man under contract, the studio decided to produce a new version of Les Misérables (1952) as a vehicle for him. The film was directed by Lewis Milestone, known for his early sound version of All Quiet on the Western Front. Rennie's performance was respectfully, but not enthusiastically, received by the critics. Ultimately, Les Misérables turned in an extremely modest profit and put an end to any further attempts to promote the 43-year-old Rennie as a potential star. (A project he was attached to in 1952 – Arms of Venus – was never made.)
Rennie was second-billed in Sailor of the King (also known as Single-Handed, 1953), as an admiral, but it was very much in support of Jeffrey Hunter. He was leading man to Jeanne Crain in a thriller, Dangerous Crossing (1953), which re-used sets and props from Titanic (also 1953) for which Rennie spoke the closing narration. He had a showy role as Saint Peter in The Robe (1953), the first movie in CinemaScope and the biggest hit of the year. The star was Richard Burton, who had essentially taken Rennie's place on the Fox lot as their "resident British star".
In Désirée (1954), Rennie played the Future Charles XIV John of Sweden opposite Marlon Brando as Napoleon Bonaparte. The film was popular though is not as highly regarded as other Brando films from this time. Soldier of Fortune (1955), was another hit, with Rennie as the head of British police in Hong Kong supporting Clark Gable and Susan Hayward.
His next film was The Rains of Ranchipur (1955), assigned him fifth billing after the lead romantic teaming of Lana Turner and Richard Burton. As Turner's character's cuckolded husband, Lord Esketh, Rennie maintained his typical dignity and stiff upper lip. He supported Ginger Rogers in Teenage Rebel (1956) and had a good role as the man murdered by James Mason in Island in the Sun (1957), Darryl Zanuck's popular melodrama. His contract with Fox then wound up.
Rennie began his freelancing career supporting Cornel Wilde in Omar Khayyam (1957) at Paramount. He returned to Britain to play the lead in a war film Battle of the V-1 (1958). He was going to co-produce and star in a war film for Eros Films about bomb disposal experts. Getaway, but it was not made.
In 1958, Rennie said he earned $117,000 a year which provided him with $36,000 net.
Michael Rennie was also briefly engaged to Mary Gardner, the ex-wife of Hollywood Director Otto Preminger. In 1959 Preminger was divorcing Mary and claimed Rennie was having an affair with her.
During the 1960s, Rennie made guest appearances on such series as The Barbara Stanwyck Show, The Americans, Route 66 (a portrayal of a doomed pilot in the two-part episode "Fly Away Home"); Alfred Hitchcock Presents; Perry Mason (one of four actors in four consecutive episodes substituting for series star Raymond Burr, who was recovering from surgery); Wagon Train (a 90-minute colour episode as an English big game hunter); The Great Adventure (in an instalment of this anthology series about remarkable events in American history, he portrayed Confederate President Jefferson Davis); Daniel Boone, (in the episodes "The Sound of Wings" and "First in War, First in Peace"); Lost in Space (another two-part episode—as an all-powerful alien zookeeper, "The Keeper", he worked one last time with his Third Man co-star Jonathan Harris); The Time Tunnel (as Captain Smith of the Titanic, in the series' premiere episode); Batman (as the villainous Sandman, in league with Julie Newmar's Catwoman); three episodes of The Invaders (as a benign variation of the Klaatu persona, culminating in a parallel plot also involving an assembly of world leaders); an episode of I Spy ("Lana"); and two episodes of The F.B.I.; and was a THRUSH agent in an episode of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1967 TV series) ("The Thrush Roulette Affair"/Barnaby Partridge). Also Branded.
At the start of the 1960s, Michael Rennie made his only Broadway appearance in Mary, Mary playing Dirk Winsten, a jaded film star. After two previews, the sophisticated five-character marital comedy written by Jean Kerr and directed by Joseph Anthony opened at the Helen Hayes Theatre on 8 March 1961. It ran for a very successful 1,572 performances, closing at the Morosco Theatre on 12 December 1964. Rennie stayed with the production less than five months, to be replaced by Michael Wilding in July 1961.
Less than three years after leaving Hollywood, he journeyed to his mother's home in Harrogate, Yorkshire, following the death of his brother. It was there that he died suddenly of an aortic aneurysm almost two months before his 62nd birthday. After his cremation, his ashes were interred in Harlow Hill Cemetery, Harrogate.
When Warner Bros. cast the film version in early 1963, Rennie, along with leading man Barry Nelson and supporting actor Hiram Sherman (who joined the play two years after the opening in the part first played by John Cromwell) were the only Broadway cast members to carry over. Debbie Reynolds was given the title role created by Barbara Bel Geddes, and Warner's contract player Diane McBain, whom the studio saw as a potential star of the Future, took over "the socialite part" essayed by Betsy von Furstenberg. Mervyn LeRoy produced and directed the film, which opened at Radio City Music Hall on 25 October 1963.
Rennie's later films included Ride Beyond Vengeance (1966), Cyborg 2087 (1967), the all-star Hotel (1967), Death on the Run (1968), and The Young, the Evil and the Savage (1968).
He completed what amounted to guest roles in two films, The Power and The Devil's Brigade (both 1968), before moving to Switzerland in the latter part of that year. His final seven feature films were filmed in Britain, Italy, Spain and, in the case of Surabaya Conspiracy, the Philippines.
Although Michael offered to accept paternity on discovering the news of her pregnancy, Renée refused, as she was unwilling to jeopardise his growing success as a romantic lead in major feature films. However, Rennie kept a watchful eye on John Marshall over the years, even after his marriage to Maggie McGrath, and both families remained in constant touch until Rennie's death. In fact Renée and Maggie lived for many years in the 1970s and 1980s within 200 yards of each other in Barnes and were close friends. Both Michael Rennie and his sister Bunny were very fond of Renée's family. Coincidentally the British Film Institute's database lists Rennie as also having a son, John M. Taylor, who is described as "a Producer." John Marshall Rennie used the pseudonym "Taylor" during his long career in the industry to avoid accusations of nepotism.
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."
