ON THE LIFE OF HUDDERSFIELD-BORN HOLLYWOOD GREAT JAMES MASON
THE rise of James Mason from an unknown Huddersfield lad to the top British male film star of the 1940s was astonishing. His enormous talent and ambition then took him to Hollywood. Here he went on to become an international film star. James Mason was known all over the world.
Mason was born in Marsh in 1909, when talking pictures didn’t even exist. His father, John Mason, was a wealthy textile merchant who lived in a fine Victorian villa of the Edgerton fashion, called Croft House, in Croft House Lane. It was a prestigious road – on it lived two great sporting legends, Wilfred Rhodes (cricket captain of Yorkshire and England) and Harry Wagstaff (captain of England’s rugby league team and Huddersfield’s all conquering ‘Team of All Talents’ ).
James was the youngest of three sons and lived in Marsh for 22 years. His father was often away on business matters so it was James’s mother, Mabel Mason, who proved to be the greatest influence on her youngest son. She passed on her love of the Arts and the need for her youngest boy to look beyond the world of business.
James enjoyed a privileged life – no working class northern film star was he! At Croft House he was used to servants and gardeners. The house was on the Edgerton side of Marsh and known for its apple orchards and large gardens, well away from the smoky mills.
James and his brother Colin were proud to have set up the Marsh Scout Group (1927) that attracted many boys from Edgerton. Later the Scout group made Holy Trinity Parish Hall their headquarters. It was said locally that James first ‘trod the boards’ at this church hall, where he appeared as the backend of a pantomime horse!
The education of James proved to be privileged. He was sent to a preparatory school in the Lake District and then onto Marlborough College in Wiltshire. It had been intended that James would return as an adult to Huddersfield to take a position in the family firm, but in the late 1920s his father was concerned that the business could not support all three of his sons. Therefore, James, the youngest, was sent to Cambridge University to prepare for a career in the Indian Civil Service.
At Peterhouse College, James dropped Classics and took up his degree in Architecture. He achieved a first class degree and his career seemed all mapped out. However, James had other ideas – he fell in love with acting and the stage, despite the concerns of his family.
His first stage performance was in 1931. He never had any formal acting training but by 1935 he had made his first film appearance in the thriller Late Extra.
From then on he became a regular presence on the big screen, taking advantage of the government’s ‘quota system’ which demanded British films and British film stars be seen on the big screen.
The 1940s saw the start of the Golden Age of British cinema and James Mason led the way. He signed for Gainsborough Pictures and quickly applied his dark looks and menacing voice to costume dramas such as The Man In Grey (1943) and The Wicked Lady (1945).
He was a very handsome leading man who displayed great depth as an actor. Everything about him, not just his voice, was new and unique. Audiences and critics loved his brooding good looks. Never had the screen seen such a star.
However, his brother, Rex, was not of the same mind. He said: “We still went to see his films, though at the time I