Marius Goring

Acting

Marius Goring

Born 1912-05-23 · Newport, Isle of Wight, England, UK

Marius Re Goring CBE FRSL (May 23, 1912 – September 30, 1998) was an English stage and screen actor. He is the son of Dr Charles Buckman Goring, a renowned physician and criminologist, and Kate Winifred (née MacDonald), a former suffragette and talented pianist. Marius Goring was educated at The Perse School, Cambridge, England and at universities in Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Paris (The Sorbonne) where he perfected his French and German - he became fluent in both languages. He studied for the stage under Harcourt Williams at the Old Vic dramatic school, London. His first stage appearance was a fairy at the ADC Theatre, Cambridge in 1925 at the age of twelve in "Crossings: A Fairy Play" the only play written by Walter De La Mare. His first London appearance was at the Rudolph Steiner Hall in December 1927 as Harlequin in one of Jean Sterling McKinlay’s Children’s Matinees. He performed regularly at the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells in the 1930s and later toured France and Germany. He played Macbeth, Romeo, Trip in School for Scandal and the Chorus in Henry V with Laurence Olivier amongst others. His first West End appearance was at the Shaftesbury Theatre in May 1934 in The Voysey Inheritance. He joined the army in July 1940 but was seconded the following year to the BBC where he became supervisor of productions for its German Service. He made regular propaganda broadcasts to Germany. Most of his radio propaganda work was done under the alias Charles Richardson (using his father’s first name and his grandmother’s maiden name) as the name Goring wasn't too popular during the war (Hermann Göring was the commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe). In 1941 he was married for the second time to the renowned German Jewish actress Lucie Mannheim who had to flee Germany in 1934 after the Nazis came to power. They worked together on stage and in films and television many times over the following years. He was a founder member of British Equity in 1929, being on its council for decades from 1949 and was elected its vice president three times. He had a contentious relationship with the union from the 1970s, taking them to court on a number of issues, the last of which he lost in the High Court and was nearly bankrupted by the court costs. Marius was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1979 and appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1991. He died from stomach cancer in 1998 aged 86 at his home in Rushlake Green, East Sussex, survived by his third wife, Prudence FitzGerald, a television producer/director who had directed him in 18 episodes of The Expert and his only child, a daughter from his first marriage, Phyllida.

Acting credits

The Red Shoes poster
8.0

A fledgling ballerina falls in love with a brilliant composer, but the jealous head of the ballet company plots to drive them apart.

The Red Shoes

1948

A Matter of Life and Death poster
7.8

A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.

A Matter of Life and Death

1946

Exodus poster
6.6

Ari Ben Canaan, a passionate member of the Jewish paramilitary group Haganah, attempts to transport 600 Jewish refugees on a dangerous voyage from Cyprus to Palestine on a ship named the Exodus. He faces obstruction from British forces, who will not grant the ship passage to its destination.

Exodus

1960

The Barefoot Contessa poster
6.7

A washed-up filmmaker gets a second chance at stardom when he discovers stunning peasant Maria Vargas dancing in a Madrid nightclub. Goaded by his producer, the director convinces Maria to screen test for, and then star in, his next big picture. But as the producer's possessive nature and the realities of stardom weigh on Maria, she seeks a genuine lover with whom she can escape.

The Barefoot Contessa

1954

Nights on the Road poster
7.9

An aging truck driver finds smuggled money and becomes involved with a hijacking crowd.

Nights on the Road

1952

Der Monat der fallenden Blätter poster
NR

When British philosopher Harold Hilliard took off for Warsaw to lecture on the Dysteleological Surd, he had no idea that he would soon become embroiled in international espionage. During the trip he tried to open a suitcase he mistook for his own. When a fellow passenger, a Pole with stainless steel teeth, took umbrage, Hilliard put it down to bad manners, but when the same man saw him pick up the wrong coat in the plane, Hilliard realized that he was suspected of spying. The party at the airport to welcome Hilliard only convinced the Polish agent that the British Secret Service was now picking its men with extraordinary cleverness. Hilliard, whose works were little known in England, was warmed by unaccustomed praise but chilled by the apparent certainty of the counter espionage people that he was a British agent whose code name was Whale.

Der Monat der fallenden Blätter

1968

Sleeping Dog poster
NR

A black barman upsets a colonial Governor who has just retired and returned to England. He locks the barman in the cellar and treats him like an animal.

Sleeping Dog

1967

The 25th Hour poster
7.6

A Romanian peasant fights to get back to his family after he's imprisoned by the Nazis.The picture is based on real events. It includes Hungary's government in collaboration with the Nazis, the encroachment of Romania by Stalin's troopers, and other happenings.

The 25th Hour

1967

First Love poster
5.5

The story of two young lovers takes a tragic turn as the girl falls in love with the boy's father.

First Love

1970

Quentin Durward poster
5.8

During the 15th century reign of France's King Louis XI, a young Scottish man is sent by his English Lord to woo a French lady on his behalf. The plan goes awry when the young man falls in love with her. Based on the classic novel by Sir Walter Scott.

Quentin Durward

1955

The Son of Robin Hood poster
5.3

Ten years after the death of Robin Hood, the bandit of Sherwood Forest and defender of the Crown, the power-mad Duke Simon Des Roches plots to seize the British kingdom from its rightful heir, the boy prince, and only Robin's men stand in his way.

The Son of Robin Hood

1958

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman poster
6.8

Pandora Reynolds is a woman who has never fallen in love – but one who men kill and die for. When she meets dashing and mysterious ship's captain Hendrik van der Zee, he pushes her to commit the ultimate act of love.

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman

1951

Cymbeline poster
6.3

Cymbeline, the King of Britain, is angry that his daughter Imogen has chosen a poor (but worthy) man for her husband. So he banishes Posthumus, who goes to fight for Rome. Imogen (dressed as a boy) goes in search of her husband, who meanwhile has boasted to his pal Iachimo that Imogen would never betray him. And Iachimo's determined to prove him wrong.

Cymbeline

1983

The Girl on a Motorcycle poster
5.7

Newly-married Rebecca leaves her husband's Alsatian bed on her prized motorbike - symbol of freedom and escape - to visit her lover in Heidelberg. En route she indulges in psychedelic reveries as she relives her changing relationship with the two men.

The Girl on a Motorcycle

1968

No artwork available
NR

The 30 minute play, specially written for television by Scottish writer, Duncan Ross, takes place in a pub in Yorkshire. Marius plays Lester Hockley, a man blind from birth. Lester has been secretary to a deceased artist, Paul Stanton, whose character and work are being discussed by the regulars in the pub that night.

Many Mansions

1957

Ill Met by Moonlight poster
6.2

Led by British officers, partisans on Crete plan to kidnap the island's German commander and smuggle him to Cairo to embarrass the occupiers.

Ill Met by Moonlight

1957

The Man Who Watched Trains Go By poster
5.9

A Dutch company's owner bankrupts his own company, burns the incriminating ledgers and plans to run to Paris with the company funds but he is caught in the act by his accountant who challenges his actions, leading to a reversal of roles.

The Man Who Watched Trains Go By

1952

No artwork available
NR

Why does the gaslight flicker so ominously in Mrs. Manningham's house? And is she really losing her mind?

Gaslicht

1956

I Was Monty's Double poster
6.9

The incredible but true story of how an impersonator was recruited to impersonate General Montgomery to mislead the Germans about his intentions before the North Africa campaign.

I Was Monty's Double

1958

The Moonraker poster
6.9

After the battle of Worcester at the end of the Civil War, the main aim of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth is to capture Charles Stuart. The future king's escape depends on the intrepid Earl of Dawlish, who as the Moonraker has already spirited away many Royalists. Dawlish travels to the Windwhistle Inn on the south coast to prepare the escape, where he meets Anne Wyndham, the fiancée of a top Roundhead colonel.

The Moonraker

1958

Little Girl in Blue Velvet poster
5.7

An ageing surgeon falls in love with a thirteen-year-old girl.

Little Girl in Blue Velvet

1978

Zeppelin poster
6.2

The outbreak of World War I places Scots officer Geoffrey Richter-Douglas in an uncomfortable position. Although his allegiance is to Britain, his mother was from an aristocratic Bavarian family, and he spent his summers in Germany as a child. When Geoffrey is approached by a German spy who offers him a chance to defect, he reports the incident to his superiors, but instead of arresting the spy they suggest that he accept her offer--and become an Allied agent. In Germany, among old friends, Geoffrey discovers that loyalty is more complicated than he expected, especially when he finds himself aboard the maiden voyage of a powerful new prototype Zeppelin, headed for Scotland on a secret mission that could decide the outcome of the war.

Zeppelin

1971

Circle of Danger poster
6.5

An American comes to Britain to investigate the murky circumstances of his brother's death that occurred during a WW2 commando raid.

Circle of Danger

1951

Flying Fifty-Five poster
7.5

Bill Urquhart, a young wastrel disinherited by his father, tries to get a job as a jockey – just about the only thing he’s really good at. His name and position work against him, however, so he adopts an alias and prevails upon the charity of a drunken friend Charles Barrington, through whom he meets Stella Barrington - who has not only inherited her father’s racing stables but also his debts. Still incognito, he takes on the job of stable lad for Stella but little does she realise that he could be the man to finally put an end to her money worries forever.

Flying Fifty-Five

1939