Kenneth More, who rose to fame with the 1953 comedy Genevieve, died 40 years ago this month aged 67. In remembrance of his life, More’s hit 1956 BAFTA award-winning film Reach for the Sky is being aired today on BBC2 at 2pm. More saw success on the screen and stage, but much like the movies, his private life was riddled with “drama”.
Despite writing in his autobiography that faithfulness in marriage “wears thin”, the actor believed monogamy was fundamental to a successful marriage.
The fondly remembered actor was married three times: first to actress Mary Johnstone which ended in divorce.
More then left his second wife Mabel Barkby in 1968 – whom he married in 1952 – after embarking on an affair with another Carry On actress, Angela Douglas, who was more than 26 years his junior, marrying Ms Douglas that same year.
The pair met six years before he left his wife on the set of the film Some People in 1962.
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In his second autobiography, More or Less, published in 1978, he wrote: “Faithfulness in marriage, for a man at least, is like a handmade silk shirt, it can wear thin.”
But his infidelity had further repercussions than just the breakdown of his second marriage.
The 39 Steps star was “ostracised” by some of his closest friends because of it.
More – who was in his Fifties at the time – believed it was his friends’ wives who were to blame.
He thought his friends’ partners believed their husbands would be badly influenced by his decisions and contemplate leaving them for younger women too, so, he said, his friends were forced to abandon their friendship with him.
In an Afternoon Plus interview with Mavis Nicholson in 1978, More said: “I was rather ostracised when I left my wife for Angela… The last 20 years of my life have been rather dramatic and I learned how to absorb those moments.
“I wasn’t so much hurt really, I was amazed. Old friends that I’d been literally so close to it wasn’t true just cutting me in the street. Well I worked it out in the end – in hindsight, it’s always easier isn’t it?
“I think it was the wives who were responsible because they were all middle-aged, all my friends, as I was, and the wives were worried their husbands would do what I did (run off with a younger woman). So I blame them.”
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In the same interview, Ms Nicholson questioned him on his stance on faithfulness in marriage detailed in his autobiography.
In response, More backtracked and said: “I think I was being a bit too clever there because I do believe that faithlessness in marriage doesn’t really work.
“I was just a bit carried away I suppose: a bold thing to say… Oh I’m a terrible flirt, always have been all my life. But I love women, I adore them. But marriage must really rely on faithfulness.”
By this time, More had been married to Ms Douglas for 10 years, and although they separated for some time, they reunited after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
More, remembered for his cheerful portrayals on screen, passed away just four years later on July 12, 1982.
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