David Manners: Unsung Hero of the Universal Monster Movies
We’re talking about one of the unsung heroes of the Universal monster classics: the charming and talented David Manners. I’m also really eager to discuss a very important rumor - why his star was removed from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. However, you’re going to have to wait until the end to find that out because today we’re starting at the beginning.
David Joseph Manners was born Rauff de Ryther Duan Acklom, I wasn’t expecting that one. He was born April 30, 1900 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was the younger child and only son of Lilian Manners and George Moresby Acklom, and he’s a distant relative of Princess Diana. Rauff and his family immigrated to Mount Vernon in New York when he was 8 years old. For a time, it seemed he was going to follow in his father’s footsteps as an editor and publisher. However, his life took a turn when he moved back to Canada to study forestry at the University of Toronto. Forestry - it turned out - bored him, but it did lead to his introduction to the stage. He’d been in one play before, a high school production of The Tempest when he was 16. However, at the University of Toronto, he got more involved, and he made his acting debut at the Hart House Theater in 1924 in Hippolytus.
At the University of Toronto, David Manners got more involved, and he made his acting debut at the Hart House Theater in 1924 in Hippolytus.
His father was not on board with the whole acting thing. I assume he thought it was an unreliable way to make a living - but that didn’t stop him. He dropped out of college just a few months shy of graduation, and moved back to the United States where he quickly picked up work in New York and Chicago, and performing in touring companies. In 1927, he moved to California to pursue a career in film. Now this is where James Whale comes in and changes his life. Actually, I’m not exactly sure when Rauff Acklom started going by David Manners. I know he didn’t officially change his name until 1940, but for the purposes of his video, I’m going to call him David Manners, starting now.
In 1930, David Manners goes to a party in Hollywood and he meets James Whale. I’m jumping the gun here a little bit, but though David Manners had just married Suzanne Bushnell the year before, he was gay. He and Suzanne would divorce in 1932. The reason I bring this up is because I can’t help but wonder if David Manners was in any way out when he met James Whale. James Whale was openly gay, which was a rarity in old Hollywood. Though David Manners was never openly gay to the public, James Whale was known for working with other gay artists. I can’t help but wonder if that was something they quietly bonded over when James Whale took a shine to him and cast him in his film, Journey’s End.
David Manners in Dracula (1931).
Either way, Journey’s End was David Manner’s first credited role in Hollywood, and it launched his career. The role that he’s most strongly associated with now, and definitely the one that I most identify him with (and I think most of you too, given our subject matter expertise) is that of Jonathan Harker in 1931’s Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. Unfortunately, I’ve never found this performance too captivating. He’s perfectly good in it, but maybe at times a little boring or stiff. Funny enough, he claimed to have never seen Dracula his entire life, even though would receive fan mail for it for the rest of his life.
In 1932, he played a very similar role in The Mummy, with Boris Karloff. Then in 1934, he played another similar role in The Black Cat opposite both Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. These roles are a big reason why so many of us know David Manners today. Though he never played a horror role, per se, he’ll forever be associated with these horror movies. I think back to videos that I’ve made on Dracula, The Mummy, or the Black Cat, and I probably hardly mention David Manners. It’s not because he’s bad, but how could he hold a flame to Boris and Bela.
David Manners became a popular romantic lead for a few years, acting opposite some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Despite his popularity at the time, perhaps because he was acting opposite such big names, his name sort of fades into the background of history. He was in Miracle Woman opposite Barbara Stanwyck, A Bill of Divorcement with Katharine Hepburn and John Barrymore, and Man Wanted opposite Kay Francis. He was in almost 40 films between 1930 and 1936.
David Manners and Katharine Hepburn in A Bill of Divorcement (1932).
Despite his success, David Manners was growing frustrated in Hollywood. He wasn’t feeling fulfilled by his roles, and he just couldn’t connect to Hollywood, which he considered inauthentic. He decided to leave Hollywood behind, and turned his aspirations to writing instead. He fled to Yucca Loma Ranch, in Apple Valley, and began writing a newspaper column called Under the Old Yucca Tree, which ran weekly from 1938-1942. He published his first novel, Convenient Season in 1941, and his follow up Under Running Laughter in 1943.
I really want to highlight this time at the newspaper because it’s hard to find much on David Manners. He wasn’t much for giving interviews, and after he left Hollywood, he distanced himself from the people and the culture. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing to learn about him. Through his column, you can learn so much about his outlook on life and his political stances. For someone described as so private, he was surprisingly open in the paper. I learned he was staunchly anti-fascist and anti-nazi, and he waxed poetic about the state of America and the American people. He valued honesty, integrity, intelligence and thinking for oneself.
He loved his town and spoke at length about the ways he thought it should grow and thrive. His thoughts on preservation are much like my own - not resisting change, but looking for ways to honor the past, and carrying forth what made his town special and unique. I think his time at the newspaper was really meaningful to him. In his farewell address, he said, “Time and change overcome all things, and time and change and circumstance have caught up with the leisurely gait of an amateur columnist in your town paper.”
“Time and change overcome all things, and time and change and circumstance have caught up with the leisurely gait of an amateur columnist in your town paper.”
David Manners preferred stage to film, since it gave him the opportunity to act out a whole narrative, instead of film where he would tell snippets of a story out of order. In the 1940s he performed in a few Broadway shows, and in 1948 he began a relationship with playwright Frederic William Mercer. After David Manners retired from acting in 1953, the two moved to the Pacific Palisades until Mercer’s death in 1978. David Manners spent his later years painting, writing, and studying philosophy. In 1971 he published a book Look Through: An Evidence of Self Discovery.
On December 23, 1998, David Manners passed away at 98 years old. Ninety eight is a significant life, and David Manners considered every day a blessing. It’s amazing to think that in just a few years, David Manners was in some of the biggest movies of the 1930s, and his exit from Hollywood was just as abrupt as his entry. I imagine that it was tough to be gay in Hollywood in those days, especially as the Hays Code was starting to be enforced and his very identity was under attack. I respect that he did everything he could to protect his inner and outer peace.
That brings me to the rumors of why his star was removed from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Some people say it had to do with his self imposed exile from Hollywood, others say it’s because he was gay. The simple answer is that he never had a star on the Walk of Fame. The Walk of Fame was implemented a few years after he retired. It wouldn’t have been such a barrier if he were gay, but by that time and he wasn’t on people’s shortlist anymore. If I’m being honest, I’m probably happy that he simply didn’t have a star versus it being removed for one of those other reasons. In all honesty, I’m not even sure he would have wanted a star on the Walk of Fame. Tell me your favorite David Manners roles!