New plaque to be unveiled in Harrogate to Hollywood legend with close links to the town

Mr David Rennie will be on hand with Harrogate Civic Society on Saturday, September 9 to pay tribute to his father Michael Rennie, the British film, stage and TV actor whose family home was in Harrogate and whose remains are interred in Harlow Hill Cemetery.

Best known for starring as Klaatu in the classic sci-fi movie The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Rennie was a major name from the late 1930s to the late 1960s with roles in hit movies such as The Wicked Lady (1945), Mambo (1954), The Lost World (1960) and The Battle of El Alamein (1969).

A former car salesman, he also starred alongside William Holden and Cliff Robertson in The Devil's Brigade (1968) and famously guested in cult 1960s TV series Batman.

Harrogate Civic Society first introduced The Heritage Plaques of Harrogate in 1975 and have since installed a total of 93 devoted to significant figures and places in Harrogate.

Born in Bradford, Michael Rennie remained in the public eye for more than three decades until one day in 1971 when he suffered an aortic aneurysm while visiting his mother in Harrogate.

His ashes were interred at the cemetery at All Saints Church on Otley Road which had first opened in 1871.

A grade-II listed building, the church last opened its doors in 2009 after being hit by dry rot and damp.