#17: Wartime and Postwar Character Roles (1941-1946)
The most notable shift came when he teamed up with producer Val Lewton at RKO Pictures, moving towards a more restrained style of horror. In The Body Snatcher (1945), he delivered one of his strongest performances as the calculating John Gray. That same year, Isle of the Dead cast him as a rigid general unraveling under fear and isolation. In Bedlam (1946), he played Master Sims, a controlled yet cruel asylum head, reinforcing his shift toward more nuanced roles.
