- Born
- Died
- Birth nameEric Alexander Rennie
- Nickname
- Mike
- Height6′ 4″ (1.93 m)
- The British actor Michael Rennie worked as a car salesman and factory manager before he turned to acting. A meeting with a Gaumont-British Studios casting director led to Rennie's first acting job - that of stand-in for Robert Young in Secret Agent (1936) directed by Alfred Hitchcock. He put his film career on hold for a few years to get some acting experience on the stage, working in repertory in York and Windsor. Afterwards, he returned to films and achieved star status in I'll Be Your Sweetheart (1945). Brought to Hollywood in 1950 and signed to a contract by studio head Darryl F. Zanuck, Rennie was cast in arguably his most popular role as Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), when director Robert Wise's first choice, Claude Rains, was unavailable. After that he worked as a supporting actor for eight years until his return to England in 1959. At that time, he took the lead role of Harry Lime in the television series The Third Man (1959). Throughout his career, he made numerous guest appearances on television, particularly on American programs.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Lyn Hammond
- Born in Bradford, he was taken to Harrogate at an early age where he became an actor, appearing in repertory productions at Wakefield before joining the RAF at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. When he left the forces at the end of the war, he was seen doing stand-in work at the Gainsborough Studios by Maurice Ostrer. Ostrer liked what he saw and straight away cast him opposite Margaret Lockwood in I'll Be Your Sweetheart (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1946). After he made The Black Rose (1950), Hollywood beckoned, but he will possibly be remembered for his portrait of Field Marshall Montgomery in The Battle of El Alamein (1969).- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tonyman 5
- SpousesMaggie Rennie(October 1, 1946 - May 18, 1960) (divorced, 1 child)Joan Phyllis England(1938 - 1944) (divorced)
- Rennie joined the Royal Air Force in 1941, training as a fighter pilot in the US under the Arnold Plan. While at Napier Field in Dothan, AL, for his advanced flight training he was asked by a fellow trainee, Scotsman Jack Morton, what he did in civilian life. Rennie told Morton and the other pilots gathered around that he was a movie actor. They stared at him in disbelief, then broke out in a chorus of laughter. A couple of nights later Rennie and his classmates went into town to watch a movie, Ships with Wings (1941). Not long into the movie, and much to the surprise of those seated with him, Rennie appeared on the screen as Royal Navy pilot Lt. Maxwell.
- Lived his final years in Geneva, Switzerland, and died at his mother's home in England while visiting because of his brother's death.
- His son with Maggie Rennie, David Rennie (born 1953), is until May 2020 United Kingdom High Court judge on the Lewes, Sussex circuit.
- He was connected with the Titanic twice on screen. In 1953 he was the uncredited, off-screen narrator for Jean Negulesco's film Titanic (1953). Thirteen years later he played the role of Capt. Edward J. Smith (misidentified in the credits as Malcolm Smith) in the pilot episode of the television series The Time Tunnel (1966). Interestingly, this episode used tinted stock footage from the earlier film to tell the story of two time travelers who found themselves aboard the doomed ship.
- Had appeared in The 13th Letter (1951) for director Otto Preminger, who later named Rennie as a third party to his counter-suit of adultery against his wife during divorce proceedings in 1958.
- I suppose women find me attractive because I am polite, charming, courteous . . . a gentleman. My romantic reputation is an exaggeration. The realities are a bit different.
- Some people making pictures in Hollywood are not outstanding for brains. How their minds work, I can't understand.
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