Trivia of James Mason

 Trivia of James Mason (15 May 1909 - 27 July 1984)

*He completed his academic studies from Marlborough College and then pursued a course in architecture from Peterhouse, Cambridge. At the same time, he involved himself in stock theatre companies.After completing his studies Mason gave acting a shot. It was primarily for fun and he did not intend to take it up professionally. He made his stage debut in Aldershot for ‘The Rascal’ in 1931.

*Mason was set to make his movie debut in The Private Life of Don Juan (1934), Douglas Fairbanks' final film, but was replaced after four days supposedly because of unsuitable casting.

*Warner Bros., hired him to play Judy Garland's leading man in the George Cukor directed musical drama film A Star Is Born (1954). He took the role after Cary Grant turned the role down. Judy Garland was nominated for an Oscar as best actress and James Mason was nominated for best actor.These two nominations are the first time in Academy Awards history for two people in the same film playing roles for which different people were earlier nominated for Oscars: Janet Gaynor and Fredric March in the 1937 version.

*Was scheduled to play James Bond 007 in a 1958 television adaptation of "From Russia with Love", which was ultimately never produced. Later, despite being in his 50s, Mason was a contender to play Bond in Dr. No (1962) before Sean Connery was cast.

*James Mason was the first choice of Stanley Kubrick and producer Harris for the role of pedophile Humbert Humbert in Lolita (1962), but he initially declined due to a Broadway engagement.Other actors considered the role: Laurence Olivier, Errol Flynn, Peter Ustinov, Rex Harrison, and David Niven.He becomes good friend with Stanley Kubrick during filming.In decades later, Mason visited Kubrick on the set The Shing (1980).Stanley Kubrick did not usually allow visitors to his set, but made an exception for Mason, who had memorably played Humbert Humbert for him in Lolita (1962).

*Was offered the role of Viktor Komarovsky in Doctor Zhivago (1965) by double-Oscar winning director David Lean after Marlon Brando failed to respond to director Lean's written inquiry into whether he wanted to play the role. Mason initially accepted the role. Lean decided on Mason, who was a generation older than Brando, as he did not want an actor who would overpower the character of Yuri Zhivago (specifically, to show Zhivago up as a lover of Lara, who would be played by the young Julie Christie, which the charismatic Brando might have done, shifting the sympathy of the audience). Mason eventually dropped out and Rod Steiger, who had just won the Silver Bear as Best Actor for his role as the eponymous The Pawnbroker (1964), accepted the role.

*At Liza Minnelli's request, Mason read the eulogy at Judy Garland's funeral : "I traveled in her orbit only for a little while but it was an exciting while, and one during which it seemed that the joys in her life outbalanced the miseries. The little girl whom I knew, who had a little curl in the middle of her forehead, when she was good she was not only very, very good, she was the most sympathetic, the funniest, the sharpest and the most stimulating woman I ever knew. She was a lady who gave so much and richly, both to her vast audience who she entertained and to the friends around her whom she loved, that there was no currency in which to repay her. And she needed to be repaid, she needed devotion and love beyond the resources of any of us."