Biografi
After an initial venture into journalism and a determination to gain international experience, Haggard moved to Munich to study acting at the Munich State Theatres under Frau Magda Lena. He made his stage debut at the Schauspielhaus in October 1930 in the play Das kluge Kind, directed by Max Reinhardt, and later performed as Hamlet at the same venue.
Returning to the United Kingdom in 1931, Haggard faced a challenging start to his career, securing only minor roles in various London productions and working in repertory theatre in Worthing. He furthered his studies at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and earned positive reviews for his portrayal of Silvius in Shakespeare's As You Like It in London in 1933. Playwright Clemence Dane took notice of him, leading to his New York debut in 1934 as the poet Thomas Chatterton in her play Come of Age. Back in Britain, he enjoyed success in several plays, including Flowers of the Forest, a production of Mazo de la Roche's Whiteoaks, and as Konstantin in Chekhov's The Seagull, earning acclaim as one of the most promising and attractive classical actors of his time.
Haggard married Morna Gillespie in September 1935, and they had three children. In 1938, he returned to New York to reprise and direct his role as Finch in Whiteoaks. That same year, his novel Nya was published. He portrayed Mozart in the 1936 film Whom the Gods Love, which was not successful, partly due to his relative inexperience and lack of recognition. He also appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn (1939) and played Lord Nelson in Carol Reed's The Young Mr. Pitt (1942).
At the outbreak of World War II, Haggard joined the British Army, serving as a captain in the Intelligence Corps. In 1940, his wife and two sons moved to the United States, where his father was consul-general in New York. Shortly after their departure, Haggard wrote a letter to his sons, published that year in the Atlantic Monthly as "I'll Go to Bed at Noon: A Soldier's Letter to His Sons." He was stationed in the Middle East, working for the Department of Political Warfare, where he met author Olivia Manning and her husband, broadcaster R. D. Smith. Smith cast Haggard in leading roles in radio productions of Henry V and Hamlet broadcast locally in Jerusalem. Manning based the character Aidan Sheridan in her Fortunes of War novels on him.
Stephen Haggard tragically died on a train between Cairo and Palestine. Overworked and feeling that the war had ruined his acting career, he was on the brink of a nervous breakdown when a married Egyptian woman, with whom he had a romantic relationship, ended it after several months.
