Jack Cardiff Trivia

Ten Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Jack Cardiff

1. Jack's father played professional football for Watford.
2. Jack's first film appearance was in My Son in 1918, when he was just four years old.
3. The famous music-hall singer Marie Kendal was Jack's great aunt and Kay Kendal his cousin.
4. Jack once played a duck in a commercial for Sharp's Creamy Toffee.
5. Jack once accidentally hit King George VI on the nose (while setting up a shot).
6. The famous ballet dancer Ludmilla Tcherina and her husband once performed the ballet Romeo and Juliet for Jack and his wife in their drawing room.
7. Jack wasn't nominated for an Oscar for The Red Shoes because he had already won one for Black Narcissus the previous year.
8. Jack is a cricket addict and would have loved to play for England, if he hadn't become a successful cinematographer.
9. Frank Sinatra once serenaded Ava Gardner while she was sitting at Jack's table in a restaurant.
10. When filming The African Queen Jack, along with most of the cast and crew, became very ill. Humphrey Bogart and John Huston were the only ones to escape illness as they never drank the water (whiskey only!).