David Niven was born March 1, 1910 in Belgrave Mansions, London, England, UK (some say he was born in Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland). He was the son of a well-to-do British Army lieutenant who died at Gallipoli in 1915. Because of his father's reputation he entered the Royal Military College where he earned the rank of second lieutenant in the Highland Light Infantry. Niven insisted that he fell into acting without any prior interest but he had done some amateur theatricals in college. In 1935 he became a Hollywood extra and ultimately came to the attention of producer Samuel Goldwyn. After several secondary roles for Goldwyn he was loaned out for a lead role in the 20th Century Fox second feature Thank you, Jeeves, 1936. Mostly in the 1930's he was found in support of bigger stars although he came into his own in such films as Dinner at the Ritz, 1937 and Raffles, 1939. During the 1930's he had an affair with Merle Oberon and became fast friends with many of Hollywood's biggest stars. He entered the war in 1940 and got married to his first wife, Primula. They had two children and were very happy until her death in 1946 when she fell down some stairs and fractured her skull. He married again in 1946 to his second wife, Hjordis Tersmeden with whom he had two daughters.

In 1949, Niven aligned with Dick Powell, Charles Boyer and Ida Lupino to form Four-Star, a television production firm. Because of this, he became one of TV's first and most prolific stars. However, he remained a film actor and he gained real star quality in the mammoth Around the World in 80 days, 1956. In the 1958 film Separate Tables, Niven played an elderly disgraced British military man for which he won an Oscar. He was also in the enormously successful Pink Panther, 1964, which started a series of hysterically funny films. Niven died of Lou Gehrig's Disease on July 29, 1983 in his Switzerland home.

Niven wrote his autobiography "The Moon's a Balloon" in 1972. He also wrote Bring on the Empty Horses, published by Putnam books in 1975 a collection of reminiscences of Hollywood personalities from his perspective. Its wonderful and delightful reading which I highly recommend. Also, many libraries have them in their movie's section.

Be sure to see other images from David Niven's life in the Images section.