I’ve been lucky enough to win an Oscar, write a bestseller… my other dream would be to have a painting in the Louvre. The only way that’s going to happen is if I paint a dirty one on the wall of the gentlemen’s lavatory.
– David Niven, actor, writer and soldier.
🙂
Niven’s autobiography “The Moon is a Balloon” is highly recommended. It is witty, touching and beautifully written.
Of every single human being, alive or dead, whom I would choose to have over for dinner, David Niven ranks Number 1.
Funny, courageous, irreverent, cultured, intelligent and a gentleman.
I should be so lucky.
So what’s stopping him?
David Niven was indeed a fine man.
I will just echo Kim Du Toit generally.
Niven was definately someone I would have loved to have known.
He also came home to Britain when the war broke out
to “Do his bit” when he was a huge Hollywood star.
As everyone knows, WW2 was won by John Wayne, who stayed resolutely in Hollywood. Not by the likes of Niven or Jimmie Stewart (pilot and wing commander) or Richard Todd, who if you have ever seen The Longest Day, played the “Hold until relieved” captain of Glider troops who took the Pegasus Bridge on D Day.
The weird thing is Todd was actually there in one of those gliders, but as one of the squadies, not in the leading role.
I’m sure every role was a leading one, in those first 20 minutes.
Ralf, maybe what was stopping him was a dislike of Modernism!!
Seriously though, Niven was a reminder, without being sentimental about it, of what a gentleman should be. He took certain things in life, like his family, his friends and his country’s freedom, very seriously, while not taking himself remotely seriously. I know the phrase is a bit corny, but they don’t make them like that any more.
Bring on the Empty Horses is also a cracking read.