Brian Aherne on the Screen

If talent and good looks were all that it took to become a Hollywood legend, then Brian Aherne would be remembered alongside such contemporaries as Clark Gable, Cary Grant and James Stewart: not just as an actor revered by vintage film aficionados, but as a star who continues to shine brightly, whose name remains familiar to newer generations. One of the most classically handsome leading men to grace the screen, Aherne was also one of its most accomplished actors. That combination should’ve assured him of celebrity, if not longevity — but it didn’t. Studios began wooing him in the early ’30s, but within a decade, they’d washed their hands of him. He hadn’t been eager to play by their rules, and they were no longer willing to play by his.