He made his theatrical debut in his father's Compton Comedy Company at the age of 18 in the role of Trip, the foppish footman, in Sheridan's The School for Scandal at the Theatre Royal in Leamington in 1904.
[3][4] During the First World War he saw active service with the 18th London Regiment, being awarded the Military Cross in 1918.
[5] His first performance after the War was as the Doctor in Lennox Robinson's The Lost Leader at Greenwich Village Theatre in New York City in 1919.
[12] He is now best-known for his final film role, as Mr Justice Wainwright, in Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution (1957).
His first marriage was to an Australian, Peggy Dundas, with whom he had one daughter, the actress Jean Compton Mackenzie.