Dry, dapper and a master of light comedy, David Niven was not only an English gentleman navigating the Hollywood miasma, but a “first-rate personality. A wit and raconteur, he seems to have been possessed of an almost superhuman bonhomie.” As Mae West once explained, ”Niven has charm where other men have only cologne.”
And in true dandy fashion, Niven knew that a sunny disposish was the best defense against life’s vicissitudes: ”Well, old bean,” he told Gregory Peck, “life is really so bloody awful that I feel it’s my absolute duty to be chirpy.”