Donald Gray

Donald Gray (born Donald Elred Owermann Tidbury, 3 March 1914 - died 7 April 1978) was a South African actor, probably best remembered for providing the voices to Colonel White, Captain Black and the Mysterons in the TV series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and for being the reason that Donald Marshall Gray changed his name to Charles Gray when he became an actor. Coincidentally, in some spin-off media, Colonel White's real name is stated as Charles Grey.

In 1933 Paramount Pictures of Hollywood were keen to infuse new blood into its contract players and advertised what was known as the Search For Beauty and heats took place throughout the English speaking world. Elred Tidbury entered in his native South Africa and beat off firce competition to be selected with Lucille Du Toit a Pretoria Dental Nurse as the South African winners. Heats took place in other parts of the Empire and in the USA and Colin Tapley his later co-star in Mark Saber was the New Zealand male winner and Texas female winner Ann Sheriden became a famous actress as a direct result of Search For Beauty. In all there were 30 finalists from throughout the world and over 6 weeks at the end of 1933 they were screen tested not only had they to be beautiful but they had to be able to act. Of the 30, bit player contracts were awarded to 10 of the 30 and Eldred Tidbury (Hollywood added a D) was selected as overall male winner with a $1000 bonus which he used to buy a car. The overall female winner was Scottish Gwenllien Gill who later followed Tidbury to England and became engaged to him but their romance ended with the second world war. All the winners took part in the 1933 film the Search For Beauty which landed up on the shelf as it broke the Hays code. It has recently been re-released as pre-code Hollywood but its pretty tame by todays standards and would probably only result in an A or AA certificate. Paramount held onto their option on Tidbury's contact throughout 1934 but he had to leave in 1935 when his passport expired and he didn't wish to be an American citizen. In late 1935 he had reappeared in England calling himself Don Tidbury but by 1936 he was calling himself Donald Gray. He became an engineering salesman selling a boiler preparation acted in repertory and Paramount still held an option onto his contract and he appeared in several films for their English subsidiary British and Dominion Films then run by Irishman Herbert Wilcox later to become Dame Anna Neagle's husband. Gray claimed later to have been involved in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. In 1936 he was rediscovered by Albert Parker, director for Fox's Wembley studios and was given the leading role in [[Strange Experiment] only after actor James Mason had a tantrum and stormed off the set.] In 1938 he was selected as juvenile lead in Sir Alexander Korda's film The Four Feathers and made several more films before acting in repertory in Aberdeen in 1939/1940. Initially turned down for the services due to Duodenal ulcer he was able to impress himself on the Gordon Highlanders who had their barracks in Aberdeen and he was successful beoming what he called an ordinary Jock having claimed some Scottish ancestry. In 1941 he was commissioned into the Kings Own Scottish Borderers becoming batallion Education Officer at LLanberis. He left the services temporarily to appear with Dame Vera Lynn in We'll Meet Again and 6 weeks after D Day in 1944 he lost his left arm to a German anti tank shell at Caen.

After the war he toured South Africa with his own repertory company, appeared in several more films and was put under conntract to BBC in their radio repertory company. He left BBC to star in 1951 film Saturday Island USA Island of Desire and returned to the BBC this tim as a continuity announcer and Newsreader on the television service at Alexandra Palace. Gray then starred as one-armed detective Mark Saber in the British series which ran for 156 episodes from 1955 to 1961. The series was originally called The Vise in the United States and Mark Saber in the UK, but was later called Detective's Diary and Saber of London. Gray had lost an arm during World War II. In 1957, The Vise was renamed, renovated, and switched from ABC to NBC as Saber of London.^[1]

After Mark Saber he appeared in some episodes of Dixon of Dock Green, and later in Emmerdale Farm and there is a rumour he was a continuity announcer on ATV in the 1960's but in his latter years his voice based on fellow South African Sir Basil Rathbone brought him work doing voice overs and television adverts and has been mentined before Colonel White in Captain Scarlet

A biography of Gray has been written by Trevor Jordan, titled Colonel White meets Mark Saber. This is being currently revised for release in 2012.

Selected filmography

• Wagon Wheels (1934) (as Elred Tidbury)
• Father Brown Detective (1934) (as Elred Tidbury)
• Well Done Henry (1936)
• The Belles Of St Clements (1936) (as Don Tidbury)
• Strange Experiment (1937)
• Murder In The Family (1938)
• 13 Men And A Gun (1938)
• The Four Feathers (1939)
• Sword of Honour (1939)
• We'll Meet Again (1943)
• Idol of Paris (1948)
• Saturday Island (1952)
• Burnt Evidence (1954)
• The Secret Tent (1956)
• Out of the Shadow (1961)
• Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967–1968)

References

1. ^ Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present. New York City: Random House Publishing Co., 2003. http://books.google.com/books?id=DyS3t8z6_ckC&pg=PA740&lpg=PA740&dq=Saber+of+London+(TV+series)+1957&source=bl&ots=RdvzVljvSa&sig=CEIVV5YtXF5BqcWcUr3vWCiQFLw&hl=en&ei=SwcJTZXVE4GC8gbf0rRe&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Saber%20of%20London%20(TV%20series)%201957&f=false. Retrieved January 5, 2011. 

External links

• Donald Gray at the Internet Movie Database

Mark Saber:

• http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/tv/adults/other/marksaber.htm
• http://www.78rpm.co.uk/tvs.htm
• http://www.thrillingdetective.com/eyes/saber.html
• http://www.tv.com/mark-saber/show/9423/summary.html

Persondata
Name	Gray, Donald
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	3 March 1914
Place of birth
Date of death	7 April 1978
Place of death