Scott Sunderland

Scott Sunderland

Scott Sunderland spent most of his career on the English stage, taking time out late in his professional life to appear in two classic British films, Pygmalion (1937) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). Sunderland was born in 1883 and was educated in England and Germany. He made his first professional theatrical appearance at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1909 with the F.R. Benson company as Douglas in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Pt. 2. Sunderland made his London debut that same year, and spent the next 30 years playing in a vast range of roles, from Feste in Twelfth Night to Ulysses S. Grant in Abraham Lincoln. As late as the end of the 1920s, when he was in his late forties, Sunderland evidently still had a good Petruchio in a production of Taming of the Shrew. He was also known for his work in George Bernard Shaw's plays, including the playwright's final work, The Apple Cart. By the end of the 1930s, Sunderland had moved into avuncular, grand old man roles, which led to his casting in Leslie Howard and Anthony Asquith's film Pygmalion as Colonel Pickering, and as Sir John Colley in Sam Wood's Goodbye, Mr. Chips. He made his last major stage appearance in London in May of 1938, in Here's to Our Enterprise, a one-night all-star production based on the life of Henry Irving, as part of the festivities surrounding the Henry Irving Centenary. Sunderland was engaged by the Birmingham Repertory Company from 1942 to 1945, performing in both new works and revivals, and retired in the second half of the decade. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide