Happy Birthday Robert Donat 18th March 1905 - 9th June 1958
Mr Donat is the best film actor - at any rate in star parts - we possess: he is convincing, his voice has a pleasant roughness, and his range is far greater than that of his chief rival for film honours, Mr Laurence Olivier. Mr Donat is sensible, authentic, slow; emotion when it comes has the effect of surprise, like plebian poetry.
- Graham Greene in 1937, reviewing Knight Without Armour.