Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (17 September 1928 – 3 October 1998) was a British-American actor, whose career spanned over 270 screen and stage roles across over 60 years.

[1] Born in London, he began his acting career as a child in his native England, before moving to the United States at the outbreak of World War II.

His other notable films included Orson Welles' Macbeth (1948), The Longest Day (1962),Cleopatra (1963),The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), That Darn Cat!

He attended St Joseph's College, Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood, a Roman Catholic secondary school in London.

After winning an acting prize in a school play at age nine, he started appearing in films: Murder in the Family (1938), I See Ice (1938) with George Formby, John Halifax (1938), and Scruffy (1938).

USA (1938) with Will Hay, Yellow Sands (1938), The Outsider (1939), Murder Will Out (1939), Dead Man's Shoes (1940), Just William (1940), Saloon Bar (1940), You Will Remember (1941), and This England (1941).

[7] McDowall's American film career began with a part in the 1941 thriller Man Hunt, directed by Fritz Lang.

It was made by 20th Century Fox, which also produced McDowall's next film How Green Was My Valley (1941), where he met and became lifelong friends with actress Maureen O'Hara.

The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and McDowall's role as Huw Morgan made him a household name.

[6] Fox put him in another war film, Confirm or Deny (1941), then he played Tyrone Power's character as a boy in Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942).

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer borrowed McDowall for the star role in Lassie Come Home (1943), a film that introduced Elizabeth Taylor, an actress who became another lifelong friend.

McDowall turned to the theatre, taking the title role of Young Woodley in a summer stock production in Westport, Connecticut, in July 1946.

[6] McDowall then signed a three-year contract with Monogram Pictures, a low-budget studio that welcomed established stars, to make two films a year.

[12] He followed it with Escapade (1953) with Carroll Baker and Brian Aherne; Ira Levin's No Time for Sergeants (1955–57), which was a huge hit;[13] Diary of a Scoundrel (1956); and Good as Gold (1957).

McDowall was in another big Broadway hit when he played Mordred in the musical Camelot (1960–63) with Julie Andrews and Richard Burton.

[14] He played Ariel in a TV production of The Tempest (1960) with Richard Burton and Maurice Evans,[15] then appeared in his first film in almost a decade, The Subterraneans (1960).

He guest-starred on Ironside, The Carol Burnett Show, Columbo (1972, "Short Fuse"), The Delphi Bureau, The Rookies, Mission: Impossible, Barnaby Jones, and McCloud.

He had supporting roles in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972), and starred in a pilot that did not go to series, Topper Returns (1973) and The Legend of Hell House (1973).

His features included Funny Lady (1975), Mean Johnny Barrows (1976), Embryo (1976), Sixth and Main (1977), Laserblast (1978), Rabbit Test (1978), The Cat from Outer Space (1978) for Disney, Circle of Iron (1978), Scavenger Hunt (1979), Nutcracker Fantasy (1979) (doing voice-over for the English-language edition), and Disney's The Black Hole (1979) in which he voiced one of the robot roles.

McDowall's TV film /miniseries work in the 1980s included The Martian Chronicles (1980), The Memory of Eva Ryker (1980), The Return of the King (1980) (on which he did voice over work), Tales of the Gold Monkey (1980),The Million Dollar Face (1981), Judgement Day (1981), Twilight Theatre (1982), Mae West (1982), This Girl for Hire (1983), The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood (1984), London and Davis in New York (1984), Hollywood Wives (1985), and Alice in Wonderland (1985).

McDowall's features included Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981), Evil Under the Sun (1982), Class of 1984 (1984), and the cult-classic horror Fright Night (1985).

McDowall had voice-over roles in Zoo Ship (1985), GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords (1986), and The Wind in the Willows (1987), and TV series including Bridges to Cross (1986) (in which McDowall was a regular), The Wizard, Murder, She Wrote, Matlock, and Nightmare Classics; his TV films included Remo Williams: The Prophecy and Around the World in 80 Days (1989).

His other features included Doin' Time on Planet Earth (1988), Fright Night Part 2 (1989), The Big Picture (1989), Cutting Class (1989), and Heroes Stand Alone (1989).

"[21] McDowall's 1990s work included The Color of Evening (1990), Shakma (1990), Going Under (1990), An Inconvenient Woman (1991), Earth Angel (1991), Deadly Game (1991), The Naked Target (1992), Double Trouble (1992), The New Lassie (1992), Quantum Leap (A Leap for Lisa) (1992), The Evil Inside Me (1993), I Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampaire (1993 audio book), Dream On, Heads (1994), Hart to Hart: Home Is Where the Hart Is (1994), Mirror, Mirror 2: Raven Dance (1994), Burke's Law, Angel 4: Undercover (1994), The Alien Within (1995), The Grass Harp (1995), Last Summer in the Hamptons (1995), Bullet Hearts (1996), Star Hunter (1996), It's My Party (1996), Tracey Takes On..., Dead Man's Island, Remember WENN, Unlikely Angel (1996), The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli & Baloo (1997), Something to Believe In (1998), and Loss of Faith (1998).

He also did voice work for The Pirates of Dark Water (1991–92), Timmy's Gift: A Precious Moments Christmas (1992), Camp Candy, The Legend of Prince Valiant (1992), Darkwing Duck (1992), 2 Stupid Dogs, Swat Kats: The Radical Squadron, Red Planet, The Tick, Galaxy Beat, Gargoyles, Duckman, Pinky and the Brain, A Bug's Life (1998), and Godzilla: The Series.

He worked to support the Motion Pictures Retirement Home, where a rose garden named in his honour was officially dedicated on 9 October 2001; it remains a part of the campus.

His collection consisted of 160 16 mm prints and more than 1,000 video cassettes, at a time before the era of commercial videotapes, when no legal aftermarket existed for films.

McDowall had purchased Errol Flynn's home cinema films and transferred them all to tape for longer-lasting archival storage.