Ralph Michael

Biography: British character actor Ralph Michael was a stage actor of some ten years' experience when he made his first film, John Halifax, Gentleman, in 1938. With fine aristocratic features and a cultured voice, Michael was a natural in roles calling for British reserve. Among his film credits were The Captive Heart (1946), Breaking the Sound Barrier (1952) and A Night to Remember (1958). Ralph Michael's best film role was one in which he reached beyond his stiff-upper-lip demeanor: in Dead of Night (1945), Michael gave an appropriately feverish but carefully modulated performance as a man who finds his life being dominated by a ghostly reflection in a mirror -- which very nearly compels him to murder his wife.