Colin Keith-Johnston

{{Short description|British actor (1896–1980)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Colin Keith-Johnston

|image = Actor_Colin_Keith-Johnston.jpg

|caption = Publicity photo, dated 1950

| birth_date = {{birth date|1896|10|8|df=y}}

| birth_place = London, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|1980|1|3|1896|10|8|df=y}}

| death_place = London, England

| occupation = Actor

| yearsactive = 1927–1959

}}

Colin Keith-Johnston {{post-nominals|country=GBR|MC}} (8 October 1896 – 3 January 1980) was a British actor.

Keith-Johnston was born in London, the son of Robert Keith-Johnston and Jessy Macfie, and was a prominent actor of the stage.{{Cite web|url=https://theatricalia.com/person/1r9/colin-keith-johnston|title=Colin Keith-Johnston | Theatricalia|website=theatricalia.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/colin-keith-johnston-67946|title=Colin Keith-Johnston – Broadway Cast & Staff | IBDB|website=www.ibdb.com}} As well as film appearances, he appeared onstage as Stanhope in the first production of Journey's End in the United States.Bordman, p. 381

He played hero Mr. Darcy in Helen Jerome's Broadway-hit adaptation of Pride and Prejudice at the Music Box Theatre in 1935.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/pride-and-prejudice-12018|title=Pride and Prejudice – Broadway Play – Original | IBDB}} This was a notable role, the first to make Darcy a central part of the love story and to emphasize throughout the play the character's passion for and physical attraction to heroine Elizabeth Bennet.{{Cite book|last=Looser|first=Devoney|title=The Making of Jane Austen|location=Baltimore, MD|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|year=2017|page=110|isbn=978-1421422824}} Colin married Margaret Cookson (cousin of actors Marjorie Browne and Joy Launor Heyes) and their son Hugo Keith-Johnston born in 1954 was a successful child actor who appeared in Not In Front of the Children (1968) for BBC Television with Ronald Hines and Wendy Craig.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2bbb73c6e6|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191005211616/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2bbb73c6e6|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 October 2019|title=Hugo Keith-Johnston|website=BFI}}

He fought in World War One as an officer in the Bedfordshire Regiment and was awarded an MC in the 1917 New Year Honours. The citation said that it was awarded for: "For conspicuous gallantry in action. He rallied men of several units, led them forward, and captured many prisoners. He continued at duty until relieved, although wounded three times."