Naunton Wayne was born Henry Wayne Davies on 22 June 1901 in the Pontypridd area of Glamorgan; family and local tradition specifically place his birth in the parish of Llanwynno, a small rural community above Ynysybwl, just outside the town. He was educated at Clifton College and changed his name to Naunton Wayne by deed poll in 1933 as he built a career on the London stage.
Wayne became a familiar face in West End theatre through the 1930s and 1940s, including a four-year run playing Mortimer Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace at the Strand Theatre. His screen career, however, is what secured his lasting fame.
In 1938 Wayne teamed up with fellow character actor Basil Radford to play the cricket-obsessed English duo Charters and Caldicott in Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, a partnership so popular that the pair were reunited on screen many times over, including in Night Train to Munich (1940), Crook's Tour (1941), Millions Like Us (1943), Dead of Night (1945) and Passport to Pimlico (1949).
Wayne also had a strong solo career, starring as Blakeworth in the beloved Ealing comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953). He married concert pianist Gladys Dove in 1927, and the couple had two sons. Wayne died on 17 November 1970 in Tolworth, Surrey, at the age of 69.