Stewart Granger was one of the few British stars who made it as a swashbuckling Hollywood screen hero during the golden age of the movies.
In his most famous roles — in films such as Scaramouche, King Solomon's Mines and The Prisoner of Zenda - he established himself as a prototypical man of action: uncomplicatedly masculine, chivalrous, something of a buccaneer.
Before that, he had become a major domestic star when he landed a part in The Man in Grey, a success which paved the way to his becoming a national icon in postwar Britain.
But his time as an international star was relatively short: Hollywood moved on to more complex films, starring youthful, enigmatic anti-heroes like James Dean and Marlon Brando, and Granger also gained a reputation for being prickly and difficult to work with. The later years of his life were characterised by unsuccessful business ventures, forgettable low-budget movies in Europe and parts in Western TV series, but he made a belated come-back in the action-movie The Wild Geese.
His private life, however, was complicated and spectacular: there was a torrid affair with Deborah Kerr (subsequently his co-star in King Solomon's Mines) and then marriage to the young screen idol Jean Simmons, who was the love of his life.