David Niven Net Worth

David Niven's Quotes

• I've been lucky enough to win an Oscar, write a best-seller-my other dream would be to have a painting in the Louvre. The only way that's going to happen is if I paint a dirty one on the wall of the gentlemen's lavatory.
• [on Separate Tables (1958)] They gave me very good lines and then cut to Deborah Kerr while I was saying them.
• [during an Academy Award presentation. responding to the unexpected entrance of a streaker] Isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?
• I have a face that is a cross between two pounds of halibut and an explosion in an old clothes closet.
• Can you imagine being wonderfully overpaid for dressing up and playing games?

Interesting Facts about David Niven

1. After the UK declared war in 1939, he was one of the first expatriate British actors to go back and join the army. Although Niven had a reputation for telling good stories over and over again, he was totally silent about his war experience. He said once: "I will, however, tell you just one thing about the war, my first story and my last. I was asked by some American friends to search out the grave of their son near Bastogne. I found it where they told me I would, but it was among 27,000 others, and I told myself that here, Niven, were 27,000 reasons why you should keep your mouth shut after the war".
2. He once asked Greta Garbo why she quit making movies. She answered, "I had made enough faces".
3. During his war service, his batman was Pvt. Peter Ustinov.
4. Contrary to a popular myth, he was not a cousin of actor Patrick Macnee. According to Macnee, in Sheridan Morley's 1985 biography "The Other Side of the Moon,", his elder brother Max and Patrick's mother were friends and Max was described as an "uncle," as opposed to a cousin. However, there was no blood link.
5. Ian Fleming recommended him for the role of James Bond for Dr. No (1962), but producer Albert R. Broccoli thought that Niven was too old.
6. In the James Bond novel "You Only Live Twice," by Ian Fleming, he is referred to, and a pet bird in the story was named after him. Three years after the book was released, he played Bond in Casino Royale (1967).
7. Knew his first wife, Primula Rollo, 17 days before he married her. He knew his second wife, Hjördis Genberg, 10 days before marrying her. Father, with Primula Rollo, of David Niven Jr. and Jamie Niven; and the father, with Hjordis, of two adopted daughters, Kristina (adopted 1960) and Fiona (adopted 1962).
8. Died at Château-d'Oex, Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut District, Vaud, Switzerland, on the same day as his The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) and A Matter of Life and Death (1946) co-star Raymond Massey. He was interred there.
9. Niven claimed he was born in Kirriemuir, Scotland (he thought it sounded more romantic) until an appearance on the radio show "Desert Island Discs" when he admitted he was born in London. His mother was there for the day visiting a specialist regarding the pregnancy when he was born.
10. Niven's father, Lt. William Edward Graham Niven, was killed during World War I at the battle of Gallipoli on 21 August 1915, aged 38, while serving with the Berkshire Yeomanry. He was reported missing until 1917. A landowner, William Niven left a widow, Henriette Julia (née Degacher), of French and Welsh descent, and four children (Max, David, Joyce, and Grizel).
11. Once wrote that as a child, he felt superior to others. He attributed this to the fact that when reciting the Lord's Prayer in church, he thought for several years that the correct phrasing was, "Our Father, who art a Niven . . . "
12. Grandson Ryan (born 1998), by daughter Fiona. Grandson Michael (born 1990), by daughter Kristina. Grand-daughters Fernanda and Eugenie, by son Jamie.
13. Is portrayed by Nigel Havers in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004).
14. Became friends with Clark Gable during the 1930s. While Gable was serving in England during World War II, he used to stay over at the Nivens' cottage and spend time with Niven's wife and children. A few years later Niven's wife died in a tragic accident, and Gable did his best to comfort him. Niven said, "Clark was drawing on his own awful experience [his wife Carole Lombard 's tragic death] to steer me through mine".
15. His first wife, Primula Rollo, died tragically while attending a dinner at fellow actor Tyrone Power 's house. After dinner, while playing hide and seek, she opened what she thought was a closet door but instead tumbled down the basement stairs and onto the concrete floor. She died shortly after.
16. Died the same day as his The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) and A Matter of Life and Death (1946) co-star Raymond Massey.
17. After he left the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst he was asked to write down his three preferred regiments; he wrote, "Anything but the HLI [Highland Light Infantry]". He was, of course, commissioned into the HLI, later being transferred to the Rifle Brigade.
18. Ex-father-in-law of Barbara Niven.
19. Joined the British Army's Rifle Brigade regiment and served through Dunkirk, joining the commandos and later the secret Phantom Reconnaissance Regiment. He spent most of the time behind German lines with the latter outfit, a rough, tough, hit-and-run group harassing the enemy.
20. Met director Blake Edwards, when Edwards was writing and directing films for Four Star Television, a production company partly owned by Niven.