DavidManners

David Manners

April 30, 1900 – December 23, 1998

Born in Halifax as Rauff de Ryther Duan Acklom, he starred in Dracula with Bela Lugosi, The Mummy with Boris Karloff, and The Black Cat with both of them, along with Katherine Hepburn and others in other films -- and then walked away from his Hollywood career.1

He left Hollywood with a goal to discover the nature of God and the universe, and founded the Yucca Loma Ranch and began exploring the great religious writings of the East and West.

In 1948 he met Frederic William Mercer, a playwright, who would become his companion until Mercer's death thirty years later. The two eventually left the ranch and found property near the ocean in Pacific Palisades.2

David was the son of British parents Lilian Manners Acklom and writer George Moreby Acklom, who was, at the time, the headmaster of Harrow House School, a renowned private boarding school in Halifax. His mother's lineage alleges Lady Diana Cooper and the Duke of Rutland as descendants, while his father's family tree includes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Moving to New York City in 1907, his father found work as a major editor and literary advisor for the publishing firm E.P. Dutton.3

His Wikipedia page is here, his IMDB page is here.