Whatever happened to - Michael Rennie

Published on Thursday 20 November 2008 17:33

HOWEVER the intriguing new remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still turns out, it seems unlikely that Keanu Reeves will eclipse memories of Michael Rennie, who starred in the 1951 original.

While the new film, out next month, boasts special effects galore – giant lights in the sky, football stadiums exploding, that sort of thing – the original mostly hinged on the understated yet charismatic performance of Rennie as Klaatu, the benevolent alien who comes to earth to warn mankind to sort its act out, or else.

Other than brief interludes featuring a giant tank-disintegrating Playmobil robot, after all, much of The Day the Earth Stood Still consisted of Rennie, tall, gangly yet debonair, wandering around Washington observing human life (a bit like David Byrne going to the shops).

So who was Michael Rennie? While most famous for The Day the Earth Stood Still, the car salesman turned actor from Yorkshire had a long career in TV (he can be spotted in episodes of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., the 1960s TV series of Batman – as the Sandman – and The Invaders, a TV series about a very different kind of alien invader) and cinema. Although he began working in films in 1936, the film that really got him noticed was a 1945 musical called I'll Be Your Sweetheart.

He died in June 1971, shortly before his 61st birthday. His final film, oddly, was another alien invasion tale, although a much sillier one – in Dracula vs Frankenstein he played a scientist brought back to life by aliens to help reanimate monsters. It wasn't his finest moment.