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Kenneth More

Actor

Kenneth Gilbert More was born on 20 September 1914 at Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire, the son of Charles Gilbert More, a former Royal Naval Air Service pilot, and Edith Winifred Watkins, whose father was a solicitor in Cardiff. Although More himself was raised in England and the Channel Islands, his mother's Welsh family background has long been recognised as his personal connection to Wales.

More trained as a civil engineer before turning to acting, working his way up through provincial repertory theatre and revue during the 1930s. He served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, seeing action in the Pacific, before resuming his stage and film career after 1945.

He became a major British film star in the 1950s, achieving popular success in the comedy Genevieve (1953) and Doctor in the House (1954), before taking his best-remembered role as the legless RAF pilot Douglas Bader in Reach for the Sky (1956), for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best British Actor. He also appeared as Second Officer Charles Lightoller in the Titanic drama A Night to Remember (1958).

More's career was crowned by his performance as Young Jolyon Forsyte in the BBC's television adaptation of The Forsyte Saga (1967), one of the most-watched television dramas of its era both in Britain and abroad. He continued acting until shortly before his death in London on 12 July 1982.

English film and television actor of the 1950s and 60s, star of Genevieve and Reach for the Sky, whose mother came from a Welsh family in Cardiff.

More won the BAFTA Award for Best British Actor twice - for Reach for the Sky in 1957, and again for The Admirable Crichton and Northwest Frontier in 1960 - and was appointed CBE in 1970 for services to acting. His autobiography, More or Less, was published in 1978 and gave a candid account of his life on stage and screen, including his struggles with alcoholism in later life.

Though the Welsh side of his family lay a generation back, through his mother's Cardiff solicitor father, More's connection to Wales has been documented by genealogists researching his family tree, placing him among the many British stars of his era with roots reaching into Wales.

Career Highlights

  • Starred as Douglas Bader in Reach for the Sky (1956), winning the BAFTA Award for Best British Actor
  • Played the comic lead in Genevieve (1953), one of the best-loved British comedies of its decade
  • Played Second Officer Charles Lightoller in the Titanic film A Night to Remember (1958)
  • Starred as Young Jolyon Forsyte in the BBC's The Forsyte Saga (1967)
  • Won a second BAFTA Best British Actor award in 1960, for The Admirable Crichton and Northwest Frontier
  • Appointed CBE in 1970 for services to acting
ℹ️ Born Kenneth Gilbert More, 20 September 1914, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire; died 12 July 1982, London

His mother, Edith Winifred Watkins, was the daughter of a solicitor in Cardiff, giving More a documented Welsh family connection through the maternal line.

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