Roddy Mcdowall Dies Of Cancer At 70

LOS ANGELES - Roddy McDowall, who like his near-lifelong friend Elizabeth Taylor was a child star who successfully made the transition to adult roles, died of cancer yesterday. He was 70.

Mr. McDowall had a six-decade screen career that also encompassed theater and television. He became a versatile character player, whose work moved from Shakespeare to horror pictures.

Mr. McDowall was one of the most respected members of the entertainment community for serving on the boards of key industry organizations and for donating his time and talent for good causes.

And Mr. McDowall was famous for his friendships, especially with Taylor. He had an appreciation of fellow artists that was extraordinary in its compassion and insight.

After Army Archerd announced Mr. McDowall's illness Sept. 18 in his Daily Variety column, the actor received countless calls, letters and visits from such close friends as Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Dominick Dunne, Tuesday Weld and Michael Douglas.

A gifted photographer, Mr. McDowall published four volumes of "Double Exposure," collections of photos of actors accompanied by remarks by friends and admirers, with royalties donated to the Motion Picture and Television Fund. Only recently he completed a collection of photos of contemporary stars posed against a series of murals featuring vintage stars serving as camouflage for a construction site at Warner Bros. Studio.

Born Sept. 17, 1928, he evacuated to the United States during the London blitz of 1940 with his mother and older sister. Mr. McDowall made his American film debut in a key role in Fritz Lang's classic spy thriller "Man Hunt" (1941), in which he helped Walter Pidgeon escape the Nazis. That was followed by one of his most memorable films, John Ford's "How Green Was My Valley" (1941), in which Pidgeon played a minister encouraging the boy's struggle to overcome a crippling accident.

Starring roles in 1943 in "My Friend Flicka" and "Lassie Come Home" (with Taylor) established Mr. McDowall as one of Hollywood's most popular young actors, vulnerable yet resilient, and well-mannered in the tradition of British-born screen children.

At 20, Mr. McDowall played Malcolm in Orson Welles "Macbeth," moving on to Broadway and television in the '50s, collecting a Tony and Emmy. The screen career that followed encompassed everything from "Cleopatra" to "Funny Girl" to "Lord Love a Duck" and was highlighted by his recurring role as the simian scientist Cornelius in "Planet of the Apes," three of its sequels and its TV series. Mr. McDowall participated in the 30th-anniversary celebration of the original "Planet of the Apes" in August.

Throughout his life Mr. McDowall remained trim and dapper and was a witty raconteur. He photographed Mae West for Life magazine - and then had her over for dinner with Bette Davis and Beverly Sills.

Mr. McDowall's efforts were by no means restricted to the famous, and he recently visited a beloved retired studio publicist to talk to her about the possibility of moving to the Motion Picture Country House.

Mr. McDowall was a longtime board member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which last week announced that it was naming its photo collection in his honor.

Mr. McDowall, who never married, is survived by his sister, Virginia McDowall of Los Angeles.