Ronald Charles Colman (9 February 1891 – 19 May 1958) was an English actor who started his career in theatre and silent film in his native country, then emigrated to the United States where he had a highly successful Hollywood film career. Colman starred in silent films and successfully transitioned to sound, aided by his distinctive, pleasing voice. He was most popular during the 1930s and 1940s. He received Oscar nominations for Bulldog Drummond (1929), Condemned (1929) and Random Harvest (1942). Colman starred in several classic films, including A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Lost Horizon (1937) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). He also played the starring role in the Technicolor classic Kismet (1944), with Marlene Dietrich. In 1947, he won an Academy Award for Best Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film A Double Life.

Colman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in motion pictures, and later was awarded a second star for his television work.

Ronald Charles Colman was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the third son (his eldest brother died in infancy in 1882) and fifth child of Charles Colman,^note1 a silk merchant and mantle manufacturer, and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His surviving siblings were Gladys, Edith, Eric and Freda. He was a cousin of the Labour politician Grace Colman.

He attended Hadleigh House School in Littlehampton where he discovered that he enjoyed acting, despite his shyness. Later he was educated at Rolandseck School in Ealing under the German-born headmaster Ernst Felix Marx (1858–1942). He intended to study engineering at Cambridge, but his father's sudden death from pneumonia in 1907 made it financially impossible.

While working as a clerk with Watts, Watts & Co., Ltd. (managers of the Britain Steamship Company) in the City of London, Colman joined the London Scottish Regiment in 1909 for four years. At the outbreak of the First World War, he quit his job the next day and rejoined his regiment. He was Private No. 2148 with the 1/14th (County of London) Battalion of the London Regiment (London Scottish).

On 15 September 1914, the battalion embarked at Southampton in the SS Winifred and arrived the next day at Le Havre. Six weeks later, the London Scottish were driven to Ypres to reinforce the front. At Ypres on 30 October, Colman was said to have "had the decidedly unpleasant experience of being buried alive by the explosion of a shell", but was dug out unharmed. Later that day, the battalion was moved to Wytschaete, where it engaged in the Battle of Messines on the next day. Colman was seriously wounded in the ankle, which gave him a limp that he sought to hide throughout his acting career: "Disability. Fracture of Ankle (Rt.) In action near Ypres 31-10-14. Man states that when advancing a shell burst near him, and he was thrown heavily injuring his right foot either by the fall or his foot being struck. There is considerable thickening of Rt. ankle. There is also some tenderness and after walking any distance there is pain and lameness." He was treated at the field ambulance and was transferred to England the next day. Colman was admitted to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, where he stayed from 6 to 11 November. Having sufficiently recovered, he was transferred to the 3/14 Battalion of the London Scottish and was sent to Perth, where he did light clerical duty and lived at Strathview (No. 75–77), Muirton Place. About half a year later, on 6 May 1915, he was declared "No longer fit physically for war service" and discharged.

His military character was given as "Very good. Honest, sober and trustworthy." Colman was awarded a pension as well as the Victory Medal, the British War Medal, the 1914 Star with clasps and roses and the Silver War Badge. In 1928 he was made an honorary life member of the London Scottish.

Fellow Hollywood actors Claude Rains, Herbert Marshall, Cedric Hardwicke, and Basil Rathbone all saw service with the London Scottish in the war.