Anthony Dawson

The Trench Coat Strangler

Alfred Hitchcock picked him for his menacing scowl and that shady elegance only British actors of the mid-century knew how to project. In 1954, Anthony Dawson adjusted his gloves to attempt to murder Grace Kelly in Dial M for Murder. That phone booth and scissors scene pulled him out of theatrical obscurity and placed him squarely in the imagination of suspense. But Dawson was neither a method actor nor did he seek the approval of intellectual critics.

Anthony Dawson was not looking to be the hero.

He was born in Edinburgh in 1916 and honed his craft on the stage before the camera fell in love with his sharp profile. His look set his career path almost from the start. He had a deep voice and a gaze that conveyed an unsettling calm. So casting directors kept calling him whenever they needed a gentleman capable of committing an atrocity without a hair out of place.

In 1962 he played Professor Dent in Dr. No. He was the first Bond villain to face Sean Connery head-on. His character ends up riddled with bullets in a hotel room after trying to deceive the spy. That violent death opened the door to a franchise that would make use of him in a much more subtle way in the following years.

The Hands That Stroked the Cat

Terence Young brought him back for From Russia with Love in 1963. But this time, nobody saw his face on screen. Dawson lent his body and hands to bring Ernst Stavro Blofeld to life. He sat in a hidden office while stroking a white Angora cat. The voice the audience heard belonged to Eric Pohlmann. Dawson was paid for his physical presence and body language.

He pulled the same trick in 1965 with Thunderball. It's interesting that one of the most recognizable villains in film history was, in reality, a puzzle made of two different people. Dawson provided the elegant bearing and aristocratic presence from the shadows. His anonymity on those shoots allowed him to keep working on other projects without being typecast by the general public.

And the gamble paid off.

During the sixties and seventies he moved to Italy to take advantage of the boom in European genre cinema. He appeared in low-budget productions and action films that are now cult favorites among collectors. He was often confused with director Antonio Margheriti, because Margheriti used the pseudonym Anthony M. Dawson. But the actor never showed any interest in working behind the camera.

A Haven in European Cinema

In 1967 he shot Panic in the Trans-Siberian under the direction of Eugenio Martín. He shared the bill with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in a Spanish production that mixed horror with science fiction. Dawson played a police inspector on a cursed train. His pay on films like this was steady and allowed him to maintain a comfortable lifestyle, far from the pressures of Hollywood.

But commercial cinema began to change, and the gentleman villains fell out of fashion. Dawson accepted supporting roles in adventure films and historical dramas without much ambition. In 1982 he appeared in Inchon alongside Laurence Olivier, in a shoot that was an absolute financial disaster. That box office failure did not hurt his reputation, because Dawson always did his part of the job.

His appearances became more sporadic as the eighties went on. He settled in the south of England and chose his projects very calmly. In 1991, he appeared in The Playboys under the direction of Gillies MacKinnon. It was one of his last appearances on the big screen before his health began to deteriorate irreversibly.

He died of cancer in 1992 at a hospital in Sussex at the age of 75.