Jack Hawkins makes authority sound reasonable, and we believe in the humane concern beneath the sternness. His officers are persuasive company, though repeated casting in uniform can make a dependable actor too easy to take for granted.
Fi1m perspective
Hawkins's rich voice makes an order sound considered. He can play a stern officer and still let us believe there is someone approachable beneath the rank, which is why his authority seldom needs much explaining. We value that humane quality, although the repeated military roles can leave us recognising a familiar manner before we have taken much interest in the individual man.
His breakthrough in the early 1950s, through Mandy (1952) and The Cruel Sea (1953), established him in authority roles. David Lean puts that assurance to good use in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), where Hawkins plays Major Warden. We were glad of him there, because he helps keep the film from becoming solely a contest between two colonels. Alec Guinness's Nicholson remains the central attraction, and the Shears strand still takes longer than it needs to, but Hawkins gives the drama another person worth attending to.
William Wyler's Ben-Hur (1959) uses his firmness as Quintus Arrius. Hawkins gives the part a convincing weight, a welcome quality in a film so prone to solemn instruction. The chariot race and the tension between Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd remain our stronger reasons for recommending it. Hawkins is well suited to this sort of supporting work, where he can establish a man's standing quickly and leave the film time for its larger concerns.
Lean casts him as General Allenby in Lawrence of Arabia (1962). We recommend that film wholeheartedly, with Peter O'Toole's unsettling performance the chief attraction. Hawkins again fits a large production's need for credible authority, but the succession of officers makes the limits of the casting apparent. His assurance is dependable enough for a film to take it for granted.
The League of Gentlemen (1960) offers a useful change: a heist comedy with Hawkins as Hyde, subverting the officer persona. The familiar authority has a different use here, and that is a more promising way to employ him than simply asking for another decent man in uniform. We would have welcomed more chances for him to disturb that expectation. Start with The Bridge on the River Kwai, then try The League of Gentlemen for a less familiar Hawkins.
Biography
Jack Hawkins (also credited as John Edward Hawkins) was an English actor who worked on stage and in film from the 1930s until the 1970s. Born in Wood Green, London, on 14 September 1910, he trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts and made his London stage debut as a child in 1923.
He became one of the most popular British film stars of the 1950s and was frequently cast as military officers or figures of authority. Notable roles include Major Warden in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Quintus Arrius in Ben-Hur (1959) and General Allenby in Lawrence of Arabia (1962). He was appointed CBE in 1958 and appeared in further films such as Zulu (1964) after losing his natural voice following throat surgery in 1966.
Hawkins died in London on 18 July 1973, aged 62.
