Colman starred in several classic films, including A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Lost Horizon (1937) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1937).

Having sufficiently recovered, he was transferred to the 3/14 battalion of the London Scottish and was sent to Perth, where he did light clerical duty and lived at Strathview (No.

[22] His fellow Hollywood actors Claude Rains, Herbert Marshall, Cedric Hardwicke, and Basil Rathbone all saw service with the London Scottish in the war.

About the same time when he joined the London Scottish, Colman took to the stage and soon established himself as a member of the performing community in Ealing.

He began with banjo solos at benefit concerts[23] and two years later joined the short-lived Pierrot troupes The Tangerines[24] and The Summer ‘Uns, who only had one performance.

[29] Besides banjo solos and duets, Colman’s repertoire included songs and duets like „Two Little Sausages“ (Lionel Monckton) and musical monologues, recitals of poems like The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God, funny stories and above all character sketches from Dickens such as Uriah Heep, John Brodie and Martin Chuzzlewit.

[33] When Colman rejoined the Popinjays in July 1916 for performances at the Pavilion in Derby, between theatre engagements, there is a marked change in his repertoire: The character sketch is now of a Chelsea Pensioner, and he recites Spotty, a Tale of the Trenches.

He made his debut as Freddy Fitzfoodle in Rich Miss Rustle at Victoria Hall, Ealing, on 11 November 1909.

[47] He also performed in Mr. Steinman’s Corner[48] and as Douglas Cattermole in The Private Secretary with Vivian Parrott’s Amateur Dramatic Society.

[49] Colman had sufficiently recovered from his wartime injuries to appear at the London Coliseum on 19 June 1916 as Rahmat Sheikh[50] in The Maharani of Arakan, with Lena Ashwell, at the Playhouse in December that year as Stephen Weatherbee in the Charles Goddard/Paul Dickey play The Misleading Lady, and at the Court Theatre in March 1917 as Webber in Partnership.

[53] In September 1922, he had great success as Alain Sergyll at the Empire Theatre in New York City in La Tendresse,[54] which was to be his final stage work.

While he was on stage in New York City in La Tendresse, director Henry King saw him and engaged him as the leading man in the 1923 film The White Sister, opposite Lillian Gish.

His dark hair and eyes and his athletic and riding ability (he did most of his own stunts until late in his career[citation needed]) led reviewers to describe him as a "Valentino type".

He thereafter appeared in a number of notable films: Raffles in 1930, Clive of India and A Tale of Two Cities in 1935, Under Two Flags in 1936, The Prisoner of Zenda and Lost Horizon in 1937, If I Were King in 1938, and Random Harvest and The Talk of the Town in 1942.

[62] Along with his charming voice, Colman had a very confident performing manner that helped make him a major star of sound films.

[63] As early as 1942, Colman joined forces with several other Hollywood luminaries to inaugurate international broadcasts by the CBS radio network over La Cadena de las Americas (The Network of the Americas) under the supervision of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs chaired by Nelson Rockefeller.

[64] In the process, he contributed substantially to the implementation of President Franklin Roosevelt's cultural diplomacy initiatives throughout South America during World War II.

On that day, Colman read "Poem and Prayer for an Invading Army" written by Edna St. Vincent Millay for exclusive radio use by NBC.

[68][69] Beginning in 1945, Colman made many guest appearances on The Jack Benny Program on radio, alongside his second wife, stage and screen actress Benita Hume, whom he married in 1938.

Their comedy work as Benny's perpetually exasperated next-door neighbors led to their own radio comedy The Halls of Ivy from 1950 to 1952, created by Fibber McGee & Molly mastermind Don Quinn, on which the Colmans played the literate, charming president of a middle American college and his former-actress wife.

Listeners were surprised to discover that the episode of 24 January 1951, "The Goya Bequest" – a story examining the bequest of a Goya painting that was suspected of being a fraud hyped by its late owner to avoid paying customs duties when bringing it to the United States – was written by Colman himself, who poked fun at his accomplishment while taking a rare turn giving the evening's credits at the show's conclusion.

At the 3rd Academy Awards ceremony he received a single nomination for his work in two films; Bulldog Drummond (1929) and Condemned (1929).

[86] After his arrival in Hollywood, Samuel Goldwyn asked him to contribute a number of autobiographical pieces for the publicity department.

[89] In the next year, he adapted „The Lost Silk Hat“ with Milton Merlin from a story by Lord Dunsany for the television show „Four Star Playhouse“.