Trivia

He, along with wife Benita Hume, was a frequent guest on Jack Benny's radio show and Benny would frequently refer to them on his television show as well, often in regard to the pretense that the Colmans were his next-door neighbors and wishing forlornly to be allowed into their social circle, invited to their parties, etc. One ongoing gag on the radio show was that he borrowed Colman's Oscar, which was stolen, with Benny making excuses while trying to track it down.

In his early film career he was panned by many critics for his overtheatrics (used in the stage work he was doing at the time) and his pronounced limp (from a bad war injury). He credited working with greats such as George Arliss for overcoming those obstacles.

When he made his mark in Hollywood as a handsome young silent actor, there were some who doubted he would translate well to "talkies." His subsequent success in radio (he made a multi-volume recording of the William Shakespeare sonnets, as well) proved them wrong with a vengeance.

He was all set to play the leading role in a proposed MGM film based on John Wyndham's novel "The Midwich Cuckoos" when he took ill and subsequently died. MGM did make a film of this book two years after his death, when his role was taken over by George Sanders--who had, in the meantime, also married Colman's widow, Benita Hume.

His Oscar statuette sold for $206,250 when it was auctioned by Nate D. Sanders Memorabilia on 2/28/12.

He had been troubled with fibrosis of the lung since a pneumonia attack during World War I. He never fully recovered from a lung infection that kept him in St. John's Hospital, Santa Monica, for three weeks in March 1956.

Fought with the British Army in World War I, and was wounded during the Battle of Ypres.

Christopher Walken (whose given name is Ronald) was named for him.

His recording of "A Christmas Carol", originally released in a Decca 78-RPM set in 1941, was the first recorded version to win wide acclaim. It appeared several times on LP, and has recently (October 2005) been released on CD by Deutsche Grammophon, along with its frequent companion piece on LP, "Mr. Pickwick's Christmas".

Appeared in six Oscar Best Picture nominees: Arrowsmith (1931), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Lost Horizon (1937), The Talk of the Town (1942), Random Harvest (1942) and Around the World in 80 Days (1956), with the last of these the only winner.

His Shakespearean acting for the scenes from "Othello" in A Double Life (1947) was coached by Walter Hampden.

He appeared in three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Lady Windermere's Fan (1925), Lost Horizon (1937) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1937).

Appeared on the radio program "The Jack Benny Show" with his wife Benita Hume. They were supposed to be Jack's next-door neighbors and were often referred to as "Ronnie and Benita". Their episodes usually dealt with either Jack embarrassing the couple in public or trying to weasel his way into a Colman party at their house.

Due to a mistake by the enumerator, his birth was registered under the name "Roland Charles Colman".

He made his film debut in an unreleased two-reel short made in 1919. Its title is unknown, and references to it as 'Live Wire, The (1917)' apparently erroneously connect it to a play of that title in which Colman appeared around the same time.

Daughter Juliet Benita Colman (b. 1944).

He passed away on 19 May 1958 at the age of 67 due to a lung infection that was compounded by emphysema resulting from his lifetime of heavy smoking.

On the Jack Benny show, whenever Benny went next door to call on the Colemans, Ronald was always emoting his closing lines from A Tale of Two Cities: "It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done before.".

His surname is mispronounced most of the time because of it's spelling. The proper way is "Khal-man" and not "Cole-man".

Mentioned in How Jack Found Mary (1954).

Was originally considered for the leading role of "Wade Rawlins" in the Hal Roach /MGM production Merrily We Live (1938). The role eventually went to Brian Aherne.

In 1926, The Los Angeles Examiner selected him to appear as a member of the 'All American Screen Players Team,' along with Estelle Taylor, Monte Blue, Norma Talmadge, Ricardo Cortez, Eleanor Boardman, Marion Davies, Patsy Ruth Miller, Sydney Chaplin, George Beranger, Noah Beery, Alec B. Francis, Julia Faye, William Boyd, Edmund Lowe and Victor McLaglen.

Like most of the other famous stars playing brief cameos in "Around The World In 80 Days", he was paid with a gift rather than a sum of money; in his case, it was a new car. When a fan asked him, incredulously, if it was true that he had been a given a Cadillac for a single day's work, he famously replied, "No, madam, it was for the work of a lifetime".