Michael Rhodes
2004-05-29 16:33:05 UTC
Portland Mason, the former child star, daughter of the screen legend
James Mason and his first wife Pamela Kellino, died 10 May, 2004, at
Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 55.
Later a scriptwriter - Portland Mason Schuyler - she was born 25
November, 1948, and received much publicity from an early age. She
plaed the Virgin Mary in a children's TV show produced by her parents
at the age of six, then toured with them in "Midsummer" at the age of
10 and later appeared in several films and plays. She was the
precocious Hortense, head girl, in "The Great St Trinians Train
Robbery".
Portland Mason was the daughter of James Mason and his first wife,
Pamela Kellino. She had been the wife of his friend, Roy Kellino, and
with the couple Mason had set up his own film in 1939, "I Met a
Murderer", a crime story in which he was the killer of the title.
James Mason and Pamela Kellino married in 1941 and divorced in 1964.
She received her unusual christian name in honour of Portland Hoffa,
the wife of the comedian Fred Allen.
She grew up in the 10,000-square-foot mansion built by silent screen
star Buster Keaton near the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Along with her younger brother, Morgan, ( who starred with Elizabeth
Taylor in "The Sandpiper") the little girl became known for a widely
publicized bohemian upbringing unfamiliar to mainstream 1940s and '50s
families.
As a child she was known as "the most precocious child in the world".
James Mason and Pamela decided from the start to raise Portland as "an
equal adult." Press reports from the 50s carried such headlines as
"Mink coat at four", "night club pallor at three..." "High heels and
lipstick at six..." "Renounces smoking at eight..."
In a 1966 interview - aged 17- Portland said that such things were
taken out of proportion. "Smoking," she said, "I wanted to try it, and
Mummy said go ahead. So I did and hated it, and I haven't smoked
since.
On the high heels and lipstick phase, she said: "You just show me one
girl who hasn't played with her mother's make-up." And she claimed she
never possessed a mink coat at such an early age. Pamela Mason, it
seems, cut the pocket off a mink coat because she did not like
it...and gave it to Portland to play with. The child went round
saying: "I've got a mink." "Nobody bothered to check, " Portland said,
"and that was how the story started."
The children stayed up as late as they wished while their more
conservative father went to bed at 10 and their flamboyant mother
partied until dawn.
An actress at 4, she starred as Sally in a short film called "The
Child"
written by her mother and directed by her father.
"Portland really wrote it," Pamela Mason told The Times in 1957. "I
just
watched her and wrote about what she did."
It was not surprising, even given her parentage, that Portland went
into films. She spent her childhood observing the famous from the
world of celluloid visiting her father and mother. Her favourite was
Audrey Hepburn.
The girl also worked for her parents in a child's television version
of "The Nativity," which was shown on Ed Sullivan's Christmas show for
two
years.
Schuyler played Janey Rath, Gregory Peck's daughter, in the 1956 film
"The Man
in the Gray Flannel Suit," and had child and juvenile roles in the
subsequent films "Bigger Than Life," "Cry Terror!" "The Great St.
Trinian's Train Robbery" and "Sebastian." She also appeared as a
princess in an episode of
television's "Shirley Temple's Storybook."
In 1957, the whole family got into the same act, portraying a family
of four trapped on the 22nd floor of a deserted building. The TV show,
when Schuyler was 8 and her brother not yet 2, was an episode called
"Marooned" for
NBC's "Panic!" series.
Schuyler also acted with her mother in a summer stock play directed by
her father, "Murder in the Red Barn," at the Laguna Playhouse in 1959.
In 1976 Portland Mason was left £20,000 in the £1.5m will of her
maternal grandfather, Maurice Ostrer, chairman of Illingworth Morris
and Co, of Bradford, which group included Salts (Saltaire) Ltd. The
bulk of his shares in the Yorkshire concern passed to Portland's
mother. Mr Ostrer was also the founder of the company from which
sprang Gaumont British Picture Corporation, and among his productions
were many well-liked films including "Fanny by Gaslight", "Madonna and
the Seven Moons" and "Wicked Lady" (in which Portland's father
starred opposite Margaret Lockwood).
Five years ago a tale of skulduggery, intrigue and family disputes
worthy of Hitchcock or Kubrick came to light regarding the remains of
her late father. In 1984 when Mason died in Switzerland of a heart
attack, his Ausralian-born second wife, Clarissa, refused to hand over
his ashes to other members of his family. She kept them on her
mantlepiece in her home overlooking Lake Geneva.
But when Clarissa died in the early 1990s, Mason's remains were placed
in a Swiss bank, out of reach of POrtland and her brother Morgan.
Portland said in 1999: "Dad had a great sense of black humour but I
think even he would have thought that this particular joke had gone
too far." When Rob Schuyler, also the family's lawyer, found out the
ashes had been put in a safety deposit box he began a lawsuit in 1994
to have the box opened. "It took another year before we could take the
ashes to a bank vault which could be administered by both sides," said
Mr Shuyler. In November, 2000, Portland and her brother gained control
of their father's remains and they laid the star to rest in a SWiss
cemetery on the shores of Lake Geneva.
In addition to her brother (who is married to the singer Belinda
Carlisle), she is survived by her husband, Rob Schuyler, who said she
had been writing a book about her father (who died in 1984) at the
time of her death.
--Michael Rhodes (please delete the x to e-mail me)
*****************************************************
James Mason and his first wife Pamela Kellino, died 10 May, 2004, at
Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 55.
Later a scriptwriter - Portland Mason Schuyler - she was born 25
November, 1948, and received much publicity from an early age. She
plaed the Virgin Mary in a children's TV show produced by her parents
at the age of six, then toured with them in "Midsummer" at the age of
10 and later appeared in several films and plays. She was the
precocious Hortense, head girl, in "The Great St Trinians Train
Robbery".
Portland Mason was the daughter of James Mason and his first wife,
Pamela Kellino. She had been the wife of his friend, Roy Kellino, and
with the couple Mason had set up his own film in 1939, "I Met a
Murderer", a crime story in which he was the killer of the title.
James Mason and Pamela Kellino married in 1941 and divorced in 1964.
She received her unusual christian name in honour of Portland Hoffa,
the wife of the comedian Fred Allen.
She grew up in the 10,000-square-foot mansion built by silent screen
star Buster Keaton near the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Along with her younger brother, Morgan, ( who starred with Elizabeth
Taylor in "The Sandpiper") the little girl became known for a widely
publicized bohemian upbringing unfamiliar to mainstream 1940s and '50s
families.
As a child she was known as "the most precocious child in the world".
James Mason and Pamela decided from the start to raise Portland as "an
equal adult." Press reports from the 50s carried such headlines as
"Mink coat at four", "night club pallor at three..." "High heels and
lipstick at six..." "Renounces smoking at eight..."
In a 1966 interview - aged 17- Portland said that such things were
taken out of proportion. "Smoking," she said, "I wanted to try it, and
Mummy said go ahead. So I did and hated it, and I haven't smoked
since.
On the high heels and lipstick phase, she said: "You just show me one
girl who hasn't played with her mother's make-up." And she claimed she
never possessed a mink coat at such an early age. Pamela Mason, it
seems, cut the pocket off a mink coat because she did not like
it...and gave it to Portland to play with. The child went round
saying: "I've got a mink." "Nobody bothered to check, " Portland said,
"and that was how the story started."
The children stayed up as late as they wished while their more
conservative father went to bed at 10 and their flamboyant mother
partied until dawn.
An actress at 4, she starred as Sally in a short film called "The
Child"
written by her mother and directed by her father.
"Portland really wrote it," Pamela Mason told The Times in 1957. "I
just
watched her and wrote about what she did."
It was not surprising, even given her parentage, that Portland went
into films. She spent her childhood observing the famous from the
world of celluloid visiting her father and mother. Her favourite was
Audrey Hepburn.
The girl also worked for her parents in a child's television version
of "The Nativity," which was shown on Ed Sullivan's Christmas show for
two
years.
Schuyler played Janey Rath, Gregory Peck's daughter, in the 1956 film
"The Man
in the Gray Flannel Suit," and had child and juvenile roles in the
subsequent films "Bigger Than Life," "Cry Terror!" "The Great St.
Trinian's Train Robbery" and "Sebastian." She also appeared as a
princess in an episode of
television's "Shirley Temple's Storybook."
In 1957, the whole family got into the same act, portraying a family
of four trapped on the 22nd floor of a deserted building. The TV show,
when Schuyler was 8 and her brother not yet 2, was an episode called
"Marooned" for
NBC's "Panic!" series.
Schuyler also acted with her mother in a summer stock play directed by
her father, "Murder in the Red Barn," at the Laguna Playhouse in 1959.
In 1976 Portland Mason was left £20,000 in the £1.5m will of her
maternal grandfather, Maurice Ostrer, chairman of Illingworth Morris
and Co, of Bradford, which group included Salts (Saltaire) Ltd. The
bulk of his shares in the Yorkshire concern passed to Portland's
mother. Mr Ostrer was also the founder of the company from which
sprang Gaumont British Picture Corporation, and among his productions
were many well-liked films including "Fanny by Gaslight", "Madonna and
the Seven Moons" and "Wicked Lady" (in which Portland's father
starred opposite Margaret Lockwood).
Five years ago a tale of skulduggery, intrigue and family disputes
worthy of Hitchcock or Kubrick came to light regarding the remains of
her late father. In 1984 when Mason died in Switzerland of a heart
attack, his Ausralian-born second wife, Clarissa, refused to hand over
his ashes to other members of his family. She kept them on her
mantlepiece in her home overlooking Lake Geneva.
But when Clarissa died in the early 1990s, Mason's remains were placed
in a Swiss bank, out of reach of POrtland and her brother Morgan.
Portland said in 1999: "Dad had a great sense of black humour but I
think even he would have thought that this particular joke had gone
too far." When Rob Schuyler, also the family's lawyer, found out the
ashes had been put in a safety deposit box he began a lawsuit in 1994
to have the box opened. "It took another year before we could take the
ashes to a bank vault which could be administered by both sides," said
Mr Shuyler. In November, 2000, Portland and her brother gained control
of their father's remains and they laid the star to rest in a SWiss
cemetery on the shores of Lake Geneva.
In addition to her brother (who is married to the singer Belinda
Carlisle), she is survived by her husband, Rob Schuyler, who said she
had been writing a book about her father (who died in 1984) at the
time of her death.
--Michael Rhodes (please delete the x to e-mail me)
*****************************************************