Ralph Forbes had other ideas than the family wish for him to seek a
career in law or the navy. He became interested in acting and began
stage work in England. By 1917, he had come to the US to get his feet
wet in the film medium with his first silent that year. But he returned
to the UK to work in the early British film industry from 1921 to 1926.
In the latter year, he joined fellow expatriate and A-list star Ronald Colman
to play younger brother John in the first Hollywood rendering of
Blutsbrüderschaft (1926). Through the 1920s, he would work with some familiar names:
Lon Chaney, Lillian Gish, Norma Shearer, and John Gilbert among many others in varied
roles. His handsome features and bright blues eyes gave him an intense
look that could well suit numerous young romantic gentleman characters.
A rich, full voice to boot made the sound transition a smooth one. The
unevenness and muffled nature of early sound movies was apparent in his
first effort Lilies of the Field (1929) which was an early American-based effort by
Alexander Korda. In that year of 1930 Forbes' six films prophesied a busy
decade to come. In 1931, he did a sequel to Beau Geste which took up
the continuing adventures of youngest Geste brother John, Beau Ideal (1930). By
1933, Forbes was much in demand with five or six movie roles a year
through most of the decade. He made the costume rounds: including, the
first sound The Three Musketeers (1935), Maria von Schottland (1936), and the classic George Cukor Romeo und Julia (1936) in which
he played Juliet's suitor Paris. With all that "gesting" under his
belt. it was perhaps not surprising to find Forbes in the sand dunes
again for The Legion of Missing Men (1937), where he played the lead in a "gestique"-sort of
script with a younger brother coming to join him in the Legion -- some
good finale action. It is, therefore, perhaps a bit of a surprise that
he did not play John in the more famous remake of Drei Fremdenlegionäre (1939) with Gary Cooper.
But Ray Milland got the nod that time. Interestingly, this William A. Wellman directed
version is almost a carbon copy of the 1926 effort. After 1940, his
work was sporadic to the end of the decade. But he did some early TV
playhouse productions in 1950 before his untimely passing the next
year.
