Trivia of Brian Aherne

 Trivia of Brian Aherne (2 May 1902 - 10 February 1986)

*Aherne received stage training at Italia Conti Academy in London as a child actor.He first appeared on the stage in Birmingham with the Pilgrim Players (which developed into the Birmingham Repertory Theatre) on 5 April 1910 in Fifinella, and he made his first appearance on the London stage at the Garrick Theatre, 26 December 1913 in Where the Rainbow Ends.

*He made his Hollywood film debut in The Song of Songs (1933) with Marlene Dietrich.Aherne replaced Randolph Scott in the leading male role of Richard Waldow.

*In 1939, he met actress Joan Fontaine and the pair fell in love. He proposed and they set a date to get married—but the night before wedding, Fontaine received a devastating phone call.Aherne let Fontaine know he was backing out of the wedding.He didn’t even have the courage to do it himself, so he had a friend call Fontaine to give her the bad news. Utterly furious, Fontaine told the friend to tell Aherne that his timing was terrible and that there was no way he was going to leave her at the altar, so he’d better be there the next day. She finished by saying that they were getting married no matter what, and if it was absolutely necessary, they’d get divorced after. It worked, and the pair were married the next day.Fontaine was once quoted as saying, “Too many Hollywood marriages have smashed up because husbands were Mr. Joan Fontaine. That will never happen in our marriage because I am 100% Mrs. Brian Aherne.” Regardless of her dedication to their union, it was doomed to a heartbreaking ending. They separated in 1944, just five years after their wedding. They divorce was finalized the next year.

*Aherne was billed over Rita Hayworth in The Lady in Question (1940).He reportedly relished the role of the middle-aged Andre, "After I got into the swing of creating that bourgeois father, living his nature and working it out through the torturous path of the story, it proved more stimulating than any other role that came my way".

*In 1940, he was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for playing the Emperor Maximillian in film Juarez (1939), starred Paul Muni and Bette Davis.It's Brian Aherne's only Oscar-nominated performance.

*He had appeared with Rosalind Russell in four films: Hired Wife (1940), My Sister Eileen (1942), What a Woman! (1943) and Rosie! (1967).

*Brian Aherne published his autobiography 'A Proper Job' in 1969, and 10 years later, he published a biography of his actor friend George Sanders, entitled "A Dreadful Man".