Herbert Mundin

Mundin was born in St Helens, then in Lancashire (now part of Merseyside). His father was a nomadic, Primitive Methodist home missionary. His family moved within a short time of his birth to St Albans in Hertfordshire (the 1901 census data reveal that the family lived at St Helens Villa, Paxton Road, St Albans; his parents William and Jane apparently naming their house after the town where they first met and where Herbert was born). Mundin was educated at St Albans School. During World War I he served with the Royal Navy.[2]

He began his acting career on the London stage during the 1920s. Mundin first travelled to America on 18 December 1923 for a series of theatrical engagements in New York. He sailed from Southampton on the RMS Aquitania and described himself in ship’s passenger manifest as 5'7" tall with a fair complexion, brown hair, blue eyes and a scar over his left eye. His big break as an actor was arguably with Gertrude Lawrence and Beatrice Lillie in Charlot's Revue when it appeared on Broadway in 1925.[3]

In 1931, after working in Australia and London, he permanently moved to the United States, where he received a contract with the Fox Film Corporation, where he had a successful career as a character actor in over fifty films. Perhaps his most celebrated role was as Much, the miller's son in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) alongside Errol Flynn. Other film appearances included Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) with Charles Laughton and Clark Gable, and MGM's David Copperfield (1935) as Barkis.

Mundin died at Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California in a car crash. He was killed instantly when the car in which he was a passenger collided with another car at a street intersection. The force of the impact threw open the door and threw him out of the vehicle onto the street, Mundin sustaining a fractured skull and crushed chest. He was 40 years old. The other occupants of the car were not injured. His body was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Los Angeles, his gravestone has the initials 'R.N.' upon it, referencing his war service with the British Royal Navy.[4]

According to his nephew in 2012, "he was the only man who could drink Errol Flynn under the table".

• Wearing, J. P. (2014). The London Stage 1920-1929: A Calendar of Productions, Performers and Personnel. Rowman and Littlefield
• Hischak, Thomas S. (2009). Broadway Plays and Musicals: Descriptions and Essential Facts of More Than 14,000 Shows through 2007. McFarland

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Herbert Mundin.

• Herbert Mundin at IMDb
• Herbert Mundin at the Internet Broadway Database
• Herbert Mundin the Hollywood Scene Stealer - Herbert Mundin Website
• Herbert Mundin at Find a Grave