Nothing known
Born William Reginald Gardiner in Wimbledon, Surrey,
England on February 27, 1903, he studied drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic
Art and made his acting debut on stage in a walk-on part in "The Prisoner of
Zenda." His film debut was in Hitchcock's "The Lodger" (1926) in England. His
career followed that of so many fellow Britons...a Broadway debut and then on to
Hollywood and films. Although his roles were similar in type to Denny...natty,
urbane Englishmen...there were differences. Both had a clipped British accent
and mustache but Gardiner was fuller in the face, a bit older when his film
career blossomed and he did more light comedy roles. Among his film credits
were: "The Lovelorn Lady" (1931) as Lord Tony Carderay; "Marie Antoinette"
(1938) with Norma Shearer, as Comte de Artois; "Flying Deuces" (1939) with
Laurel & Hardy, as Francois; "The Great Dictator" (1940) as Schultz, with
Chaplin; "A Yank in the R.A.F." (1941) as Roger Philby; "The Immortal Sergeant"
(1943) as Benedict; "The Horn Blows at Midnight" (1945) with Jack Benny, as
Composer Archie Dexter; "Christmas in Connecticut" (1945) as John Sloan; "Cluny
Brown" (1946) as Hilary Ames; "Halls of Montezuma" (1950) with Richard Widmark,
as Sgt. Johnson; "Androcles and the Lion" (1953) as Lentulus; "Back Street"
(1961) as Dalian; "What A Way to Go!" (1964) as a Painter and "Do Not Disturb"
(1965) as Simmons, his last film. On TV he appeared as a regular on "The Pruitts
of Southampton" (1966-67) as Uncle Ned Pruitt. He also guested on the TV series:
"Alfred Hitchcock Presents"; "Perry Mason"; "Petticoat Junction"; "The Man From
U.N.C.L.E."; "Green Acres"; "Bewitched" and "The Monkees." He died on July 7,
1980 in Westwood, California of pneumonia and a heart attack.
From www.answers.com
The son of an insurance man who'd aspired to appear onstage but never had the
chance, British-born actor Reginald Gardiner more than made up for his dad's
unrealized dreams with a career lasting 50 years. Graduating from the Royal
Academy of Dramatic Art, Gardiner started as a straight actor but drifted into
musical revues, frequently working in the company of such favorite British
entertainers as Bea Lillie. His Broadway bow occurred in the 1935 play At Home
Abroad, and though he'd made his film debut nearly ten years earlier in
Hitchcock's silent The Lodger (1926), he suddenly became a "new" Hollywood find.
Handsome enough to play romantic leads had he so chosen (he gets away with it in
the 1939 Laurel and Hardy comedy Flying Deuces), Gardiner preferred the sort of
kidding-on-the-square comedy he'd done in his revue days. His turn as a traffic
cop who imagines himself a symphony conductor in his first American film Born to
Dance (1936) was so well received that he virtually repeated the bit--this time
as a butler who harbors operatic aspirations--in Damsel in Distress (1937). For
most of his film career, Gardiner played suave but slightly untrustworthy
British gentlemen; a break from this pattern occurred in Charlie Chaplin's The
Great Dictator (1940), in which Gardiner played a fascist military man who turns
his back on dictator "Adenoid Hinkel" to cast his lot with a community of Jews.
Devoting his private life to the enjoyment of classical music, rare books,
painting, and monitoring the ghost that supposedly haunted his Beverly Hills
home, Reginald Gardiner flourished as a stage, film and television actor into
the 1960s; one of his latter-day assignments was his weekly dual role in the
1966 Phyllis Diller sitcom, Pruitts of Southampton. Hal Erickson - All Movie Guide
