--- name: "Herbert Mundin" canonical: "https://film.one/person/herbert-mundin" roles: ["Actor"] born: "20 August 1898" died: "5 March 1939" reviewed_on_fi1m: 4 average_fi1m_score: 78 average_as: "actor" average_over: 4 updated: "2026-09-19T23:39:29.773657+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Herbert Mundin Actor. Born 20 August 1898 in St Helens, Lancashire, UK. Died 5 March 1939. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 20 August 1898, St Helens, Lancashire, UK - **Died:** 5 March 1939 - **Active:** 1933–1938 - **Frequently works with:** [Frank Lloyd](https://film.one/person/frank-lloyd-72061.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 78, as actor, over 4 titles - **Fi1m against the critics:** 77 to 82 across 3 titles - **Score spread:** 3 at 80+, 0 at 60–79, 1 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 4 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Adventure 3, Drama 3, Romance 2, Action 1, History 1, War 1 - **Screen time:** 8 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $19m across 4 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Mundin, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q975153, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0612743/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/72060 ## Streaming the US now - **Tubi:** [*The Adventures of Robin Hood*](https://film.one/film/the-adventures-of-robin-hood.md) (90) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Herbert Mundin > Herbert Mundin was the cheerful, jowly Englishman at the edge of the 1930s Hollywood frame, the Cockney servant or crewman who got the laugh and rarely the plot. In *Cavalcade* he was allowed something more, and he took it. Look for him at the edge of the frame. Herbert Mundin spent the 1930s in Hollywood playing the lower orders: butlers, publicans, sailors, servants, Cockney by accent and cheerful by nature, with a soft, jowled face that seemed already to have settled into middle age. He did not have to do much to be funny. He turned up, looked pleased to be there, and the scene had somewhere to rest. He came to it late and stayed a short time. After the Royal Navy in the First World War and a spell installing telephones, he was on the London stage by the early 1920s, on Broadway in Charlot revues from 1925, and in Australia and London before settling in America in 1931 under contract to Fox. Then more than fifty films in eight years: Alfred Bridges in *Cavalcade* (1933), Barkis in *David Copperfield* (1935), Smith in *Mutiny on the Bounty* (1935), Rawlins in *Tarzan Escapes* (1936) and, the part people remember, Much the miller's son in *The Adventures of Robin Hood* (1938). We have not reviewed *Robin Hood* and will not judge it here, but the reputation is for timing, and for getting the laugh in a crowded cast. *Cavalcade* is the one to see for him. It is a stiff, saluting film that we did not much care for, and Mundin is the part of it that behaves like a person. Alfred Bridges is a butler who leaves service to run a pub, and Mundin plays it straight, without asking for a laugh or a tear. We were more touched than the film had any right to make us, because he lets Alfred enjoy himself, and the enjoyment is what hurts. Una O'Connor is his Ellen, sniffing at him across the bar; they were paired three times on screen and it is easy to see why. Her sourness needed his good humour, and his good humour needed something to push against. The reservation is the obvious one, and it is not really his. The face and the voice fixed him as a type, and the studios were not in the business of arguing with a type that worked. In *Mutiny on the Bounty* he is Smith, one of the crew, and if you come away remembering Charles Laughton and not him, that is what a man like Mundin was for in a film like that. He filled the space he was given and did not spill over it. If you want to know what he could do when the space was larger, it is a pub in *Cavalcade*, in a film that otherwise keeps its gloves on. He got few such chances, and the career stopped in 1939 before anyone thought to give him another. ## Biography Herbert Mundin was an English character actor. Born in St Helens, Lancashire, he served in the Royal Navy during the First World War and began his career on the London stage in the 1920s. He appeared on Broadway in Charlot's Revue in 1925 before moving permanently to the United States in 1931. He received a contract with the Fox Film Corporation and appeared in over fifty films. Mundin is known for roles such as Alfred Bridges in *Cavalcade* (1933), Smith in *Mutiny on the Bounty* (1935), Barkis in *David Copperfield* (1935), and Much in *The Adventures of Robin Hood* (1938). He died in a car crash in Van Nuys, California, on 5 March 1939. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (4) - *The Adventures of Robin Hood* (1938), Fi1m 90, as Much — [page](https://film.one/film/the-adventures-of-robin-hood.md) - *David Copperfield* (1935), Fi1m 81, as Barkis — [page](https://film.one/film/david-copperfield.md) - *Mutiny on the Bounty* (1935), Fi1m 83, as Smith — [page](https://film.one/film/mutiny-on-the-bounty.md) - *Cavalcade* (1933), Fi1m 57, as Alfred Bridges — [page](https://film.one/film/cavalcade.md) ## Complete filmography (54) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Society Lawyer* (1939), as Layton - *Exposed* (1938), as Skippy - *Lord Jeff* (1938), as Bosun 'Crusty' Jelks - *The Adventures of Robin Hood* (1938), as Much — Fi1m 90, [page](https://film.one/film/the-adventures-of-robin-hood.md) - *Invisible Enemy* (1938), as Sergeant Alfred M. Higgs - *Angel* (1937), as Mr. Greenwood - *That’s My Story* (1937), as Hiram - *Another Dawn* (1937), as Wilkins, Wister's Orderly - *You Can't Beat Love* (1937), as Jasper 'Meadows' Hives - *Tarzan Escapes* (1936), as Rawlins - *Champagne Charlie* (1936), as Mr. Fipps - *Under Two Flags* (1936), as Rake - *A Message to Garcia* (1936), as Henry Piper - *Charlie Chan's Secret* (1936), as Baxter - *King of Burlesque* (1936), as English Impresario - *The Widow from Monte Carlo* (1935), as John Torrent - *Mutiny on the Bounty* (1935), as Smith — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/film/mutiny-on-the-bounty.md) - *The Perfect Gentleman* (1935), as Frederick Hitch - *Black Sheep* (1935), as Oscar - *Spring Tonic* (1935), as Thompson - *Ladies Love Danger* (1935), Actor - *David Copperfield* (1935), as Barkis — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/david-copperfield.md) - *Hell in the Heavens* (1934), as Granny Biggs - *Love Time* (1934), as Caesar - *Springtime for Henry* (1934), as Trivers - *Call It Luck* (1934), as Herbert Biggelwade - *Such Women Are Dangerous* (1934), as Horatio Wilson - *All Men Are Enemies* (1934), Actor - *Bottoms Up* (1934), as Limey Brook aka Lord Brocklehurst - *Ever Since Eve* (1934), as Horace Saunders - *Orient Express* (1934), as Herbert Thomas Peters - *Hoopla* (1933), as Hap Spissel - *Shanghai Madness* (1933), as Larsen - *Arizona to Broadway* (1933), as Kingfish Miller - *The Devil's in Love* (1933), as Bimpy - *It's Great to Be Alive* (1933), as Brooks - *Adorable* (1933), as Detective Pipac - *Pleasure Cruise* (1933), as Henry - *Dangerously Yours* (1933), as Grove - *Cavalcade* (1933), as Alfred Bridges — Fi1m 57, [page](https://film.one/film/cavalcade.md) - *Sherlock Holmes* (1932), as George - *One Way Passage* (1932), as S.S. Maloa Steward (uncredited) - *Life Begins* (1932), as Mr. MacGilvairy (uncredited) - *Love Me Tonight* (1932), as Groom (uncredited) - *Chandu the Magician* (1932), as Albert Miggles - *Bachelor's Affairs* (1932), as Jepson - *The Trial of Vivienne Ware* (1932), as William Boggs - *Devil's Lottery* (1932), as Trowbridge - *The Silent Witness* (1932), as Henry Hammer - *The Wrong Mr. Perkins* (1931), as Jimmy Perkins - *East Lynne on the Western Front* (1931), as Bob Cox / Lady Isobel - *Immediate Possession* (1931), as Peter Bootle - *Ashes* (1930), as Cricketeer - *Enter the Queen* (1930), as Goss ## Gallery - ![Herbert Mundin](https://film.one/media/person/1225869/gallery-01d2340c653b.jpg) Herbert Mundin — Fox Film Corporation Studio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Herbert_mundin_1_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Promotional still from the 1935 film David Copperfield, published in National Board of Review Magazine. L-R: Herbert Mundin, Freddie Bartholomew, and Jessie Ral](https://film.one/media/person/1225869/gallery-3ee9890b3205.jpg) Promotional still from the 1935 film David Copperfield, published in National Board of Review Magazine. L-R: Herbert Mundin, Freddie Bartholomew, and Jessie Ral — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/David-Copperfield-Bartholomew.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Herbert Mundin](https://film.one/media/person/1225869/gallery-ff5a40c4a386.jpg) Herbert Mundin — Image via TMDB - ![Herbert Mundin](https://film.one/media/person/1225869/gallery-a617ffa06a05.jpg) Herbert Mundin — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/herbert-mundin