Leslie Banks
3 credits on HibingeTV
British actor and comedian (1890-1952) known for his menacing screen presence, most famously as Count Zaroff in The Most Dangerous Game (1932). Banks had a distinguished stage career before entering films, and his portrayal of the civilized but savage big game hunter became iconic. He appeared in numerous British films through the 1930s and 1940s, often playing villains or authority figures.
Acted In
Crime, Adventure
Alfred Hitchcock's last British film before leaving for Hollywood. Orphaned Mary Yelland (Maureen O'Hara, in her first major role) arrives at a lonely Cornish coaching inn run by her brutal uncle Joss (Leslie Banks) — headquarters of a gang that wrecks ships on the rocks and murders the survivors. Charles Laughton, who also produced, plays the local squire Sir Humphrey Pengallan with deliberate, scenery-chewing menace. Adapted from Daphne du Maurier's novel, the production was famously contentious — Laughton reshaped scenes around himself — but the wreckers' coast, the inn, and O'Hara's debut charisma carry it. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal of copyright.
Crime · Adventure · Drama
Jamaica Inn
1939 - as Joss Merlyn
Adventure, Horror
The original screen adaptation of Richard Connell's 1924 short story, directed by Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack for RKO. Famed big game hunter Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrea) is shipwrecked on a remote island ruled by the urbane Russian Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks), who has grown bored with stalking animals and now hunts the shipwrecked sailors who wash ashore. Zaroff offers Rainsford a deal: survive three days as prey in the jungle, and he goes free. Fay Wray, fresh off King Kong (shot on the same RKO jungle sets), plays a fellow captive. The film's influence on the survival-horror genre is immeasurable, and its central premise has been remade and riffed on endlessly. The film is in the public domain.
Adventure · Horror · Thriller
The Most Dangerous Game
1932 - as Count Zaroff
War, Documentary
The official Anglo-American film of the European campaign, co-directed by Garson Kanin and Carol Reed from footage shot by hundreds of combat cameramen on both sides of the Atlantic. Its unusual device is the narration: instead of one authoritative voice, the film is told in the voices of ordinary soldiers, nurses, and liberated civilians, written by playwrights including Paddy Chayefsky. Eisenhower introduces it. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. As a co-production of the U.S. Office of War Information and the British Ministry of Information, it is in the public domain.
War · Documentary
The True Glory
1945 - as Commentator