Bored with the peacetime army, he resigned his commission in 1933, relocated to New York, then travelled to Hollywood. Upon developing an interest in acting, he found a role as an extra in the British film There Goes the Bride (1932). After Sandhurst, he joined the British Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Highland Light Infantry. He received an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award.īorn in central London to an upper-middle-class family, Niven attended Heatherdown Preparatory School and Stowe School before gaining a place at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Niven was known as a handsome and debonair leading man in Classic Hollywood films.

James David Graham Niven ( / ˈ n ɪ v ən/ 1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983 ) was a British actor, soldier, memoirist, and novelist.