Reginald Denny (actor)

Reginald Denny (actor)
Reginald Leigh Dugmore (20 November 189116 June 1967), known professionally as Reginald Denny, was an English actor, aviator, and UAV pioneer.
Acting career
Born Reginald Leigh Dugmore on 20 November 1891 in Richmond, Surrey, England (part of Greater London since 1965), he came from a theatrical family; his father was actor and opera singer W.H. Denny.
In 1899, he began his stage career in A Royal Family and starred in several London productions from age seven to twelve. He attended St. Francis Xavier College in Mayfield, Sussex, later known as Mayfield College, but, at 16, he ran away from school to train as a pugilist with Sir Harry Preston at the National Sporting Club. He also appeared in several British stage productions touring the music halls of England of The Merry Widow.
In 1911, he went to the United States to appear in Henry B. Harris's stage production of The Quaker Girl, then joined the Bandmann Opera Company as a baritone touring India and the Far East India where he performed for Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV.
Although he worked in "flickers" during 1911 and 1912, Reginald officially began his film career in 1915 with the World Film Company and made films both in the United States and Britain until the 1960s. Among the numerous stage productions in which he starred, Reginald appeared in John Barrymore's 1920 Broadway production of Richard III; the two actors became friends and starred in several films together including Sherlock Holmes (1922), Hamlet (1933), Romeo and Juliet (1936), and Paramount's Bulldog Drummond series (1937–1938).
Denny was a well-known actor in silent films, and with the advent of talkies he became a character actor. He played the lead role in a number of his earlier films, generally as a comedic Englishman in such works as Private Lives (1931) and later had reasonably steady work as a supporting actor in dozens of films, including The Little Minister (1934) with Katharine Hepburn, Anna Karenina (1935) with Greta Garbo, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) and the Frank Sinatra crime caper film Assault on a Queen (1966). He made frequent appearances in television during the 1950s and 1960s. His last role was in Batman (1966) as Commodore Schmidlapp. In 2020, Kino Lorber released 4K restorations on DVD and Blu-ray of three of Denny's silent comedies: The Reckless Age, Skinner's Dress Suit, and What Happened to Jones? in The Reginald Denny Collection.
Aviation career
Denny served as an observer/gunner during the First World War in the new wartime Royal Air Force.
In the 1920s he performed as a stunt pilot with the 13 Black Cats aerial stunt team and loaned his World War I Sopwith Snipe biplane to Howard Hughes for use in Hell's Angels (1927). In the early 1930s, Denny became interested in free-flight model airplanes. In 1934, he and oil tycoon Max Whittier's son, Paul Whittier, formed Reginald Denny Industries and opened a model plane shop, which became a chain known as the Reginald Denny Hobby Shop, now California Hobby Distributors.
He designed his "Dennyplane" with its signature model engine "Dennymite" developed by engineer Walter Righter, in addition to the "Denny Jr." which child actors would enter in model plane competitions at Mines Field, which later became Los Angeles International Airport.
Denny had a great deal in common with Robert Loraine, an older actor/airman. They had been in a West End production together in 1902 in London, they were both veterans of the RFC (and its successor, the Royal Air Force) and were both flying and making films in Hollywood in the 1930s. Each of them visited their close relatives in the same area of London. At Loraine's wedding in 1921, his best man was an Air-Commodore who had been in charge of the RFC radio control weapons and developed the first powered drone aircraft. Denny became interested in radio controlled aircraft and started the first US military drone work at the start of WWII.
In 1935, Denny began developing his remote controlled "radioplane" for military use. In 1939, he and his partners won the first military United States Army Air Corps contract for their radio-controlled target drone, the Radioplane OQ-2. In July 1940, they formed the Radioplane Company and manufactured nearly fifteen thousand drones for the U.S. Army during the Second World War. It was here that he employed a teenage girl by the name of Norma Jeane Mortensen (later known as Marilyn Monroe) who is recorded as having said it was "the hardest work I ever had to do". The company was purchased by Northrop in 1952.
Reginald Denny's Hobby Shop, began selling his models, in 1935, on Hollywood Boulevard.
Personal life
Denny married actress Irene Hilda Haismann on 28 January 1913 in Calcutta; both were with the Bandmann Opera Company. They had one daughter but were divorced in 1928. Denny married actress Isabelle "Betsy Lee" Stiefel in 1928 and they had three children.
Death
Denny died on 16 June 1967, aged 75, after suffering a stroke whilst visiting his sister in his home town of Richmond, England. He was interred at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. His four children and wife Isabelle (died 1996, aged 89) survived him.
Partial filmography
Silent
Niobe (1915) as Cornelius Griffin
The Melting Pot (1915) in an undetermined role (uncredited)
The Red Lantern (1919)
Bringing Up Betty (1919) as Tom Waring
The Oakdale Affair (1919) as Arthur Stockbridge
A Dark Lantern (1920) as Prince Anton
39 East (1920) as Napoleon Gibbs Jr.
Paying the Piper (1921) as Keith Larne
The Price of Possession (1921) as Robert Dawnay
Experience (1921)
Disraeli (1921) as Charles, Viscount Deeford
Footlights (1921) as Brett Page
The Beggar Maid (1921 short) as the Earl of Winston / King Cophetua
Tropical Love (1921) as the Drifter
The Iron Trail (1921) as Dan Appleton
Let's Go (1922 short) as Kane Halliday / 'Kid' Roberts
Round Two (1922 short) as Kane 'Kid Roberts' Halliday
Sherlock Holmes (1922) as Prince Alexis
Payment Through the Nose (1922 short) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
The Leather Pushers (1922) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
A Fool and His Money (1922 short) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
The Taming of the Shrewd (1922 short) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
Whipsawed (1922 short) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
Never Let Go (1922 short) as Campbell - the Mountie
The Jaws of Steel (1922 short) as Cpl. Haldene, N.W.M.P.
Plain Grit (1922 short)
The Kentucky Derby (1922) as Donald Gordon
Young King Cole (1922 short) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
He Raised Kane (1922) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
The Chickasha Bone Crusher (1923 short) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
When Kane Met Abel (1923 short) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
Strike Father, Strike Son (1923 short) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
Joan of Newark (1923 short) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
The Abysmal Brute (1923) as Pat Glendon, Jr
The Wandering Two (1923 short) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
The Widower's Mite (1923 short) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
Don Coyote (1923 short) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
Something for Nothing (1923 short) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
Columbia, the Gem, and the Ocean (1923 short) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
Barnaby's Grudge (1923 short) as Kane Halliday / Kid Roberts
The Thrill Chaser (1924) in a cameo appearance
Sporting Youth (1924) as Jimmy Wood
The Reckless Age (1924) as Dick Minot
The Fast Worker (1924) as Terry Brock
Oh Doctor! (1925) as Rufus Billings Jr.
I'll Show You the Town (1925) as Alec Dupree
Where Was I? (1925) as Thomas S. Berford
California Straight Ahead (1925) as Tom Hayden
What Happened to Jones (1926) as Tom Jones
Skinner's Dress Suit (1926) as Skinner
Rolling Home (1926) as Nat Alden
Take It from Me (1926) as Tom Eggett
The Cheerful Fraud (1926) as Sir Michael Fairlie
Fast and Furious (1927) as Tom Brown
Out All Night (1927) as John Graham
On Your Toes (1927) as Elliott Beresford
That's My Daddy (1927) as James 'Jimmy' Norton
Good Morning, Judge (1928) as Freddie Grey
The Night Bird (1928) as Kid Davis (his last silent film)
Sound
Red Hot Speed (1929) as Darrow
Clear the Decks (1929) as Jack Armitage
His Lucky Day (1929) as Charles Blaydon
One Hysterical Night (1929) as William 'Napoleon' Judd
Embarrassing Moments (1930) as Thaddeus Cruikshank
What a Man! (1930) as Wade Rawlins
Madam Satan (1930) as Bob Brooks
Those Three French Girls (1930) as Larry
A Lady's Morals (1930) as Paul Brandt
Oh, for a Man! (1930) as Barney McGann
Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931) as Jeffrey Haywood
Kiki (1931) as Victor Randall
Stepping Out (1931) as Tom Martin
Private Lives (1931) as Victor
Strange Justice (1932) as Judson
The Iron Master (1933) as Steve Mason
The Barbarian (1933) as Gerald Hume - Diana's Fiancée
The Big Bluff (1933)
Only Yesterday (1933) as Bob
Fog (1933) as Dr. Winstay
The Lost Patrol (1934) as Brown
Dancing Man (1934) as Paul Drexel
The World Moves On (1934) as Erik von Gerhardt
Of Human Bondage (1934) as Griffiths
We're Rich Again (1934) as Bookington 'Bookie' Wells
One More River (1934) as David Dornford
The Richest Girl in the World (1934) as Phillip Lockwood
The Little Minister (1934) as Captain Halliwell
Lottery Lover (1935) as Capt. Payne
Without Children (1935) as Phil Graham
Vagabond Lady (1935) as John 'Johnny' Spear
No More Ladies (1935) as Oliver
Here's to Romance (1935) as Emery Gerard
Anna Karenina (1935) as Yashvin
The Lady in Scarlet (1935) as Oliver Keith
Remember Last Night? (1935) as Jake Whitridge
Midnight Phantom (1935) as Prof. David Graham
The Preview Murder Mystery (1936) as Johnny Morgan
It Couldn't Have Happened - But It Did (1936) as Greg Stone
Romeo and Juliet (1936) as Benvolio - Nephew to Montgue and Friend to Romeo
Two in a Crowd (1936) as James Stewart Anthony
More Than a Secretary (1936) as Bill Houston
We're in the Legion Now! (1936) as Dan Linton
Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937) as Algy Longworth
Join the Marines (1937) as Steve Lodge
Women of Glamour (1937) as Fritz 'Frederick' Eagan
Let's Get Married (1937) as George Willoughby
The Great Gambini (1937) as William Randall
Jungle Menace (1937, Serial) as Ralph Marshall [Chs.1-3]
Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937) as Algy Longworth
Beg, Borrow or Steal (1937) as Clifton Summitt
Bulldog Drummond's Revenge (1937) as Algy Longworth
Bulldog Drummond's Peril (1938) as Algy Longworth
Four Men and a Prayer (1938) as Capt. Douglas Loveland
Blockade (1938) as Edward Grant
Bulldog Drummond in Africa (1938) as Algy Longworth
Arrest Bulldog Drummond (1938) as Algy Longworth
Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police (1939) as Algy Longworth
Everybody's Baby (1939) as Dr. Pilcoff
Bulldog Drummond's Bride (1939) as Algy Longworth
Rebecca (1940) as Frank Crawley
Spring Parade (1940) as the Major
Seven Sinners (1940) as Captain Church
One Night in Lisbon (1941) as Erich Strasser
International Squadron (1941) as Wing Commander Severn
Appointment for Love (1941) as Michael Dailey
Captains of the Clouds (1942) as Commanding Officer
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942) as Sir Evan Barham
Eyes in the Night (1942) as Stephen Lawry
Thunder Birds (1942) as Barrett
Over My Dead Body (1942) as Richard 'Dick' Brenner
The Crime Doctor's Strangest Case (1943) as Paul Ashley
Song of the Open Road (1944) as Director Curtis
Love Letters (1945) as Defense Counsel Phillips
Tangier (1946) as Fernandez
The Locket (1946) as Mr. Wendell
My Favorite Brunette (1947) as James Collins
The Macomber Affair (1947) as Police Inspector
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) as Colonel
Christmas Eve (1947) as Phillip Hastings
Escape Me Never (1947) as Mr. MacLean
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) as Simms
The Iroquois Trail (1950) as Capt. Edward Brownell
Fort Vengeance (1953) as Inspector Trevett
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953) as Inspector
World for Ransom (1954) as Maj. Ian Bone
Sabaka (1954) as Sir Cedric
Escape to Burma (1955) as Commissioner
The Donald O'Connor Show (NBC) (1955) as Himself
Around the World in 80 Days (1956) as Bombay Police Inspector
Cat Ballou (1965) as Sir Harry Percival
Batman Series TV (1966, episodes 11 and 12) as King Boris
Assault on a Queen (1966) as Master-at-Arms
Batman (1966) as Commodore Schmidlapp (final acting role)
References
Works cited
External links
Prince of Drones: The Reginald Denny Story by Kimberly Pucci (Bearmanor Media, 2019)
Photographs and literature
Archive.org cache of UAV history site showing the Radioplane
1891 births
1967 deaths
Military personnel from Surrey
Burials in California
Male actors from London
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
British Army personnel of World War I
English aviators
English male film actors
English male silent film actors
English male stage actors
English male television actors
English expatriates in the United States
Male actors from Surrey
Royal Air Force officers
20th-century English male actors
Royal Flying Corps officers
Royal Air Force personnel of World War I
Silent film comedians
Aircraft designers
British expatriate male actors in the United States
20th-century English businesspeople