Friedrich Robert Donat was born on 18 March 1905 in Withington, Manchester, the fourth and youngest son of Emil Ernst (1863-1939), a Polish-born civil engineer, and Rose Alice (née Green, 1864-1964) who came from Whitby in Yorkshire. He attended Ducie Avenue Central School in Ardwick, Manchester, later moving to the Central High School for Boys. His memories of school were mixed: he was not an outstanding scholar and as a schoolboy he also suffered from a serious stammar.

Outside school one of his principal passions was the cinema, but from an early age he was also enthusiastic about the theatre, staging plays in the garden shed at his home in St Paul's Road which he transformed into the 'Star Theatre of Varieties'. He subsequently became a pupil of the well-known Manchester elocutionist, James Bernard, under whom he received stage-training and elocution lessons which helped him to shed both his stutter and his broad Lancashire accent (although he was to enjoy reviving this in stage and film roles later in life). Under Bernard he also began to develop his famous speaking voice and his gift for reciting verse. His teacher advocated a stage career for the young R

t, who consequently left school at 15; he worked as Bernard's secretary to fund his continued lessons, while taking part in dramatic recitals at venues across the North West of England.

Bernard was keen for Donat to join a Shakespearian company, and in 1921, at the age of 16, he made his first stage appearance with Henry Baynton's company at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham, playing Lucius in Julius Caesar. His real break was to come in 1924, however, when he joined the renowned Shakespearian company of Sir Frank Benson where he stayed for four years. Here he made the transition from apprentice to successful actor, and his vacations from the Benson company enabled him to undertake seasons in provincial repertory theatre. During one of these seasons - after a performance of Masefield's The Witch at the Theatre Royal, Huddersfield - Donat proposed to Ella Annesley Voysey, a young actress he had first met in Withington.

The marriage did not take place for two years, and Donat spent the interim period gaining further stage experience. In 1928 he began a year at the Liverpool Playhouse, where he starred in plays by Shaw, Brighouse and Galsworthy among others. In 1929 he moved on to the Festival Theatre in Cambridge under the direction of Tyrone Guthrie. Ella accompanied him as one of the leading actresses, and plays by Euripides, Pirandello, Sheridan, and Shakespeare gave Donat the opportunity to experiment in a wide range of different and challenging leading roles. Here he was also able to try his hand at directing for the first time.

On 6 August 1929, Robert and Ella were married at Wilmslow, Cheshire, and the couple spent their honeymoon in Cornwall. They returned to Cambridge for another year, but then Donat's ambitions to act in London prompted them to move to a small flat in Seven Dials. At first his search for stage work was unsuccessful and dispiriting. He was typecast in romantic roles and his first London appearance was in the sentimental comedy Knave and Quean at the Ambassadors Theatre in 1930. In the following year, however, he succeeded in making his mark on the London stage, as Gideon Sarn in a dramatization of Mary Webb's novel Precious Bane. His powers were subsequently confirmed in three roles at the 1931 Malvern Festival, where he was a great success, despite having recently suffered his first s

s. In 1929 he moved on to the Festival Theatre in Cambridge under the direction of Tyrone Guthrie. Ella accompanied him as one of the leading actresses, and plays by Euripides, Pirandello, Sheridan, and Shakespeare gave Donat the opportunity to experiment in a wide range of different and challenging leading roles. Here he was also able to try his hand at directing for the first time.

On 6 August 1929, Robert and Ella were married at Wilmslow, Cheshire, and the couple spent their honeymoon in Cornwall. They returned to Cambridge for another year, but then Donat's ambitions to act in London prompted them to move to a small flat in Seven Dials. At first his search for stage work was unsuccessful and dispiriting. He was typecast in romantic roles and his first London appearance was in the sentimental comedy Knave and Quean at the Ambassadors Theatre in 1930. In the following year, however, he succeeded in making his mark on the London stage, as Gideon Sarn in a dramatization of Mary Webb's novel Precious Bane. His powers were subsequently confirmed in three roles at the 1931 Malvern Festival, where he was a great success, despite having recently suffered his first serious bout of asthma.

Meanwhile Donat took numerous screen tests in the hope that cinema might provide a means of financial support while he pursued his ultimate goal of becoming a great actor-manager. It was an interview with the influential producer and director Alexander Korda which guaranteed his entry into film work. The Hungarian-born founder of London films was keen to recruit casts from leading stage actors during the early 1930s, and he offered Donat a three-year contract. A quick succession of film parts followed: he portrayed an Oxford Undergraduate in Men of Tomorrow (1932), a country bank clerk in That Night in London (1932), and an electricity inspector in Cash (1933). The film which brought him to wider attention was The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), directed by Korda himself, in which Donat played Culpeper. The success of this film led to a Hollywood offer, and in 1934 he travelled to America to play Edmond Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo. This was to be Donat's only Hollywood role: he disliked its atmosphere of unreality, and did not enjoy working outside Britain or away from the stage for any length of time.

He developed his stage career throughout the 1930s alongside his extensive film work. At the 1933 Malvern Festival he played the two Camerons in James Bridie's A Sleeping Clergyman. His performance as the dying consumptive and the brilliant doctor was memorable and brought highly favourable reviews. The play was transferred to the West End for a long run. Donat later named this as one of his favourite parts, and he repeated his early success in a revival of the play at the Criterion Theatre in 1947. In 1936 he briefly realized his dream of being an actor-manager when he presented and starred in J.L. Hodson's First World War play Red Night at the Queen's Theatre. Despite poor reviews of the play's pre-London run, Donat took the play to the capital and gave the young John Mills his first West End appearance. Donat went on to appear in three roles at the 1939 Buxton Festival, including the grotesque Croaker in Goldsmith's The Good-Natured Man, an entirely unexpected character part which gave him a much-appreciated comic freedom.

By this time he was well-established as a film star. After the success of Monte Cristo film offers came flooding in, many of them rejected by Donat who was always r