James Mason Enjoys One of His Best Roles in Disney’s “20,000 Leagues”

An international star of the stage and screen, James Mason enjoyed one of his finest and most challenging roles of his illustrious career in Walt Disney’s mammoth production, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” Mason portrays the complex and mysterious Captain Nemo, master of the self-contained Nautilus, Jules Verne’s famed, fictional submarine.
Disney felt that no other actor could portray the strange and moody emotions of the genius who invented the world’s first atomic sub, and signed Mason, along with Kirk Douglas, Paul Lukas and Peter Lorre, to star in his elaborate live-action feature.
Mason was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England in 1909. He attained his early education at Marlborough College and Peterhouse College, and then enrolled at Cambridge. After being awarded a B.A. in architecture by the university, he went on to take his Master’s but, simultaneously, he questioned his own wisdom in pursuing a career in architecture.
He had always been deeply interested in the theatre and on the spur of the moment he answered an advertisement in Stage Magazine which called for a young actor to join a touring company’s production of a melodrama called “The Rascal.” Although, totally inexperienced, he convinced the producer of his worth and captured the role.
Following a number of engagements in repertory which provided him with additional experience, Mason became a member of the Noel Coward Company, and later the Croydon Repertory. He made his London debut in 1933 in “Glorious Gallows,” at the Shaftesbury Theatre. A season at the Old Vic followed, and in 1935 he made his first screen appearance in “Late Extra,” a modestly budgeted film.
Finally, his stirring performance in “The Seventh Veil,” and “Odd Man Out” made screen history and put Mason into the front ranks of popularity and there he has stayed for scores of box office successes, including “The Desert Fox,” “Julius Caesar,” “A Star is Born,” “Island in the Sun,” “North by Northwest,” “A Touch of Larceny,” “Lolita” and “Marriage-Go-Round.”
His stage career has been equally exciting. He did “Bathsheba” on Broadway in 1947 and appeared in three plays during the Shakespearean Festival at Stratford, Ontario, Canada. He has always had a love for, and kept intermittently active in theatre.
Mason is fond of cats and many of his pets have been favorite subjects for the actor when he turns artist. Watercolors are his favorite medium in this hobby and James is extremely interested in modern art, a field in which he is well versed.
Filmed in CinemaScope and Techni-color, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” stars Kirk Douglas, Mason, Paul Lukas and Peter Lorre. Richard Fleischer directed from Earl Felton’s screenplay which was based on the famed Jules Verne classic. Buena Vista re-releases.