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Norman Wooland, a classical stage actor who achieved modest film fame in the late 1940s and 1950s, was a good-looking and somewhat understated British performer who also had an extensive career in radio and television spanning six decades. Born to British parents in Düsseldorf, Germany, on March 16, 1910, he was educated in England and began acting in local theatre during his teenage years. He gained significant recognition in repertory theatre as a regular in Stratford-on-Avon Shakespearean productions. By age 16, he appeared in "The Merchant of Venice" and later performed in several pre-WWII plays such as "When We Are Married" (1937), "Time and the Conways" (1938), and "What They Say" (1939). Wooland joined the BBC in 1939 and worked as a radio commentator for six years.
Though he debuted in film in 1937, Wooland did not gain much prominence until after the war. The dark-haired, slightly gaunt actor made a strong impression as a leading man in films like Escape (1948), Look Before You Love (1948), All Over the Town (1949), and Madeleine (1950), while also excelling in Shakespearean roles on screen, often supporting Laurence Olivier. He played Horatio opposite Olivier’s Oscar-winning Hamlet (1948) and later portrayed Catesby in Olivier’s Richard III (1955). Wooland also took on the role of Paris in a lesser-known adaptation of Romeo and Juliet (1954), starring Laurence Harvey and Susan Shentall. He reunited with his Hamlet co-stars Eileen Herlie (Gertrude) and Basil Sydney (Claudius) in the historical drama The Angel with the Trumpet (1950), playing Prince Rudolf. Additionally, he appeared with Herlie in a stage production of "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray" the following year.
The 1950s marked Wooland’s most consistent film period, including appearances in period dramas such as Quo Vadis (1951) and Ivanhoe (1952), where he portrayed Richard the Lionheart, as well as a lead role in the crime drama The Master Plan (1954). In later years, his roles became less prominent, featuring in The Flesh Is Weak (1957), The Bandit of Zhobe (1959), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Barabbas (1961), and The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964). However, he secured a leading part as King Saul in the Spanish-Italian production Saul e David (1964). During the 1960s and 1970s, Wooland found more diverse work on television, including sitcoms, while continuing to perform strongly on stage in productions such as "An Enemy of the People" (1968), "A Man for All Seasons" (1972), "Six Characters in Search of an Author" (1972), "Pride and Prejudice" (1975), "Equus" (1976), and "The Wild Duck" (1979). Wooland passed away in England in 1989 after suffering multiple strokes.
