Marius Goring CBE (May 23, 1912 - September 30, 1998) was an English stage and cinema actor. He is most often remembered for the four films he did with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in A Matter of Life and Death and as Julian Craster in The Red Shoes. He frequently played French and German roles.
Goring was born in Newport, Isle of Wight, England, the son of Doctor Charles Goring and Kate Macdonald. After attending The Perse School in Cambridge, he went on to study at several European universities. He first appeared on stage in 1925, in Cambridge, and by 1927 had performed in London. His early stage career included appearances at the Old Vic, Sadler's Wells, Stratford and several European tours. He first played the West End in a 1934 production of the Voysey Inheritance at the Shaftesbury Theatre. During the 1930s he played a variety of Shakespearean roles, including Feste in Twelfth Night (1937), Macbeth and Romeo, as well as Trip in School for Scandal. In 1929, he became a founding member of British Equity, the actor's union, and became its president from 1963-1965, and again from 1975-1982.
During the war he joined the army, becoming supervisor of BBC radio productions broadcasting to Germany, and continued acting. He often worked under the name Charles Richardson, because of the association of his name with Hermann Göring. In 1941, he married his second wife, the actress Lucie Mannheim. She died in 1976, and the next year Goring married television producer Prudence Fitzgerald, who survived him.
He died from cancer in 1998 aged 86.
His TV work included starring as Sir Percy Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel (ITV, 1955), a series which he also co-wrote/produced; Theodore Maxtible in the Doctor Who story The Evil of the Daleks (BBC, 1967); Title role in The Expert (BBC, 1968 - 1976), George V in Edward and Mrs Simpson (Thames, 1980); and The Old Men at the Zoo (BBC, 1983).
He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1979 and awarded a CBE in 1991.
The son of Dr. Charles Buckman Goring M.D. and Kate Winifred (nee MacDonald). Marius Goring was educated at Perse School, Cambridge, England and at the Universities of Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Paris. He studied for the stage under Harcourt Williams at the Old Vic dramatic school, London. His first stage appearance was at Cambridge in 1925 in "Crossings". His first London appearance was at the Rudolph Steiner Hall, December 1927 as Harlequin. He performed at the Old Vic, Sadler's Wells and toured France and Germany. he played Macbeth, Romeo, Trip in School for Scandal amongst others. His first west end appearance was at the Shaftesbury Theatre, May 1934 in the Voysey Inheritance. He joined the army in June 1940 and became the supervisor of productions of the BBC service broadcasts. Most of his army work was done under the alias Charles Richardson. For some reason the name GORING wasn't too popular at the time. He was a founder member of British Equity in 1929. He lists his recreations as walking, riding, skating and travelling.
