Famous Man Sculpture

Sir Cedric Hardwicke was born in Lye in the West Midlands and went on to be an actor in films.  Another local man I had never heard of before I started taking photos of Black Country Sculptures.  A totally unexpected result!


Sir Cedric Hardwicke, one of the great character actors in the first decades of the talking picture, was born in Lye, England on February 19, 1893. Hardwicke attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his stage debut in 1912. His career was interrupted by military service in World War I, but he returned to the stage in 1922 with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, distinguishing himself as Caesar in George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, which was his ticket to the London stage. For his distinguished work on the stage and in films, he was knighted by King George V in 1934, a time when very few actors received such an honor.

Hardwicke first performed on the American stage in 1936 and emigrated to the United States permanently after spending the 1948 season with the Old Vic. Hardwicke's success on stage and in films and television was abetted by his resonant voice and aristocratic bearing. Among the major films he appeared in were Les Misérables (1935), Stanley and Livingstone (1939), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), Suspicion (1941), A Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), and The Ten Commandments(1956).

His last film was The Pumpkin Eater (1964) in 1964. Cedric Hardwicke died on August 6, 1964 in New York City, New York.


When we first drove past this statue I just thought it looked a bit strange, but then I realised, on closer examination that it represented a film reel with a series of frames.  I like it.  I need to go and see it at night as I think it might be lit up from the rear...