Anecdotes

Spoke 10 languages including Gaelic.

His son James died at the age of four in 1949 when he drowned in a mill stream near the family home in Whitchurch, Hampshire.

He was extremely proud of his Scottish family background, and appeared in many films about Scottish subjects.

He claimed he was born on the Isle of Skye or in Wigtown, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, in 1905. His birth certificate shows he was born in the London borough of Lewisham in 1907.

Fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War.

Suffered a stroke after filming Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and later had to give up acting.

Appeared in four films with Gregory Peck; Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951), David and Bathsheba (1951), Moby Dick (1956), The Guns of Navarone (1961).

His main interest was falconry .

Briefly worked as a journalist with the UK arm of Reuters in the late 1920s, where one of his peers was future 007 creator Ian Fleming.

He stood as a Labour candidate in the 1950 General Election for Angus and Kincardine just as his latest film The Magnet had been released so to avoid any publicity problems had himself billed as Seamus Mor Na Feasag.

Died three days after his second marriage.

A lifelong socialist, he stood unsuccessfully as a Labour Party candidate at the 1950 General Election.

Died in his sleep at home.

Often mistaken for actor Peter Ustinov.