When he was 9, his father told him his mother was on vacation at the seashore, but she had actually been committed to a mental asylum. He did not see her again for more than 20 years.
Came to the U.S. in 1920 as a stilt-walker with a British acrobatic troupe.
When his contract with Paramount Studio was up in 1935, he made the unusual move to eschew the studio-contract system and worked as a freelance actor.
Gave his salary for 1940's The Philadelphia Story to the British War effort and his fee for 1944's Arsenic and Old Lace to the U.S. War Relief Fund.