Son of Robert Laughton and Elizabeth Conlon. Educated at Stonyhurst, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (received gold medal). First appearance on stage, 1926. Formed own film company, Mayflower Pictures Corp., with Erich Pommer in 1937. Became American citizen 1950. A consummate artist, Laughton achieved great success on stage and film, with many staged readings (particularly of George Bernard Shaw) to his credit.


Interred at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA, in the Court of Remembrance. Robert Mitchum once stated that Laughton was the best director he had ever worked for, ironic in that Laughton never directed another movie after The Night of the Hunter (1955) with Mitchum. Became an American citizen in 1950. Gave highly successful one-man reading tours for many years, his material ranging from the Bible to Jack Kerouac's "The Dharma Bums". Was an acquaintance of Rev. Felton H. Griffin, a pioneering Alaska minister who founded the Alaska Baptist Convention in the 1940s. Griffin was an avid hunter and fisherman, and on occasion, he flew Laughton to his cabin at Coal Lake, Alaska for weekend retreats. In the opening scene of It Started with Eve (1941), an assistant newspaper editor comments that if Jonathan Reynolds Sr. had lived two centuries earlier, he would have made a great pirate - "Captain Kidd himself." Three years later, Laughton, who played Jonathan Reynolds Sr., played the title role in Captain Kidd (1945) and again in Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952). Discovered actress Maureen O'Hara at the age of 18 and immediately signed her under contract as his protege. Served in First World War. In spite of having Public School education and Officer Training (in Stonyhurst College's OTC), he chose to join the Army as a private in 1917. He served with the Huntingdonshire Cyclist Regiment, and later with 7th Bn. Northamptonshire Regiment in the Western Front. Shortly before the armistice he became a casualty due to mustard gas. He was very disappointed by the commercial failure of The Night of the Hunter (1955). He was shooting a Hollywood version of the H.G. Wells novel "The History of Mr Polly", playing the title role, when war broke out in 1939 and production was abandoned. Twice was the Mystery Guest on the popular television quiz show "What's My Line" (1951). Laughton was originally cast as Micawber in The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, & Observation of David Copperfield the Younger (1935), but resigned after two days of shooting. It was said at the time that "he looked as though he were about to molest the child" (played by Freddie Bartholomew). Was the first actor to play Roman Emperor Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, in the aborted film version of Robert Graves' I, Claudius (1937). Production was suspended after Laughton's co-star Merle Oberon, playing his wife Messalina, was involved in an automobile accident in which she crashed through the car's windshield and sustained cuts to her face. The decision was made to shut down the production and the costs were reimbursed to producer Alexander Korda's London Films by Lloyds of London. Was the original choice to play the role of Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). He turned down the part, saying he did not know how to play it convincingly as he did not understand the motivations of the character. He said he only understood the character after seeing the completed film and Alec Guinness' performance. He was a close friend of Burgess Meredith. He and his wife were both active in liberal politics. He played a Navy Captain whose crew mutinies against him in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). Appropriately, he went on to direct another story about a Captain with a mutinous crew, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.