David Joseph Manners (born Rauff de Ryther Duan Acklom; April 30, 1900
â€" December 23, 1998) was a Canadian-American actor who plays John
Harker in Tod Browning's 1931 horror classic Dracula, which stars Bela
Lugosi in the title role. The following year, Manners portrayed the
archaeologist Frank Whemple in The Mummy, another pre-Code thriller by
Universal Pictures.David Manners (originally Rauff Acklom) was born in
Canada at 108 Tower Road in Halifax, Nova Scotia on April 30, 1900. He
was the son of British parents, Lilian Manners and writer George
Moreby Acklom, as well as being the nephew of Cecil Ryther Acklom, a
senior officer in the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. His father in
Halifax was then the headmaster of Harrow House School, a prestigious
private boarding school for boys. Eight years later, in 1907, Rauff,
his mother, and his older sister Cecily left Canada and emigrated to
the United States to join his father, who had emigrated in the
previous year and secured a job as a literary advisor for E.P. Dutton,
a publishing company in New York. By 1910 the entire Acklom family was
living at 108 Hillside Avenue in Mount Vernon, New York, a northern
suburb of New York City.The Ackloms by January 1920 had moved again,
then to West 123rd Street in Manhattan, where 19-year-old Manners
(still Rauff) continued to reside with his parents. He was employed as
an assistant publisher and seemed destined to repeat his father's own
career choice and live out his life as an editor and publisher. Soon,
perhaps in an effort to chart an entirely different course for himself
professionally, Manners stopped working as an assistant publisher and
returned to Canada to study forestry at the University of Toronto. He
found the curriculum there boring; however, he was attracted to stage
work on campus. After receiving some drama training, he made his
acting debut in 1924 at the school's Hart House Theater in Euripides'
play Hippolytus. Despite his father's objections, Manners continued to
pursue an entertainment career when he came back to the United States.
Before long he was performing in theaters in Chicago, on Broadway, and
elsewhere after joining Basil Sydney's Touring Company and later Eva
Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Company in New York. During his time,
before he moved to Hollywood at the beginning of the sound era in
films, he obtained additional training under Le Gallienne, even though
she had remarked that he was "a very bad actor" after seeing one of
his performances. Manners in this period also appeared on the New York
stage with Helen Hayes, with whom he co-starred in Edgar Selwyn and
Edmund Goulding's play Dancing Mothers at the Booth Theatre.
â€" December 23, 1998) was a Canadian-American actor who plays John
Harker in Tod Browning's 1931 horror classic Dracula, which stars Bela
Lugosi in the title role. The following year, Manners portrayed the
archaeologist Frank Whemple in The Mummy, another pre-Code thriller by
Universal Pictures.David Manners (originally Rauff Acklom) was born in
Canada at 108 Tower Road in Halifax, Nova Scotia on April 30, 1900. He
was the son of British parents, Lilian Manners and writer George
Moreby Acklom, as well as being the nephew of Cecil Ryther Acklom, a
senior officer in the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. His father in
Halifax was then the headmaster of Harrow House School, a prestigious
private boarding school for boys. Eight years later, in 1907, Rauff,
his mother, and his older sister Cecily left Canada and emigrated to
the United States to join his father, who had emigrated in the
previous year and secured a job as a literary advisor for E.P. Dutton,
a publishing company in New York. By 1910 the entire Acklom family was
living at 108 Hillside Avenue in Mount Vernon, New York, a northern
suburb of New York City.The Ackloms by January 1920 had moved again,
then to West 123rd Street in Manhattan, where 19-year-old Manners
(still Rauff) continued to reside with his parents. He was employed as
an assistant publisher and seemed destined to repeat his father's own
career choice and live out his life as an editor and publisher. Soon,
perhaps in an effort to chart an entirely different course for himself
professionally, Manners stopped working as an assistant publisher and
returned to Canada to study forestry at the University of Toronto. He
found the curriculum there boring; however, he was attracted to stage
work on campus. After receiving some drama training, he made his
acting debut in 1924 at the school's Hart House Theater in Euripides'
play Hippolytus. Despite his father's objections, Manners continued to
pursue an entertainment career when he came back to the United States.
Before long he was performing in theaters in Chicago, on Broadway, and
elsewhere after joining Basil Sydney's Touring Company and later Eva
Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Company in New York. During his time,
before he moved to Hollywood at the beginning of the sound era in
films, he obtained additional training under Le Gallienne, even though
she had remarked that he was "a very bad actor" after seeing one of
his performances. Manners in this period also appeared on the New York
stage with Helen Hayes, with whom he co-starred in Edgar Selwyn and
Edmund Goulding's play Dancing Mothers at the Booth Theatre.
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