“Anyone who says a bullet sings past, hums past, flies, pings, or whines past, has never heard one – they go crack!”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Figure timeline
David Niven
James David Graham Niven was an English actor, soldier, raconteur, memoirist and novelist. Niven was known as a handsome and debonair leading man in classic Hollywood films. His accolades include an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards in addition to nominations for a BAFTA Award and two Emmy Awards.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
culture · English actor, memoirist and novelist (1910–1983) · film actor · actor · military personnel · stage actor · autobiographer · television actor · author · journalist · novelist · writer · also David Niven, Niven
Born 1 March 1910 · Died 29 July 1983 · Q181917
36 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
13 photos
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Quote
2026· 3 entries
HELLO! Magazine: Meet David Niven's 4 children – including famous son who followed him into showbusiness
- #news
- #headline
Public attention spiked: 29,143 Wikipedia readers in one day, 13.9× the usual 2,104, with 1 article edits.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #attention
- #spike
- #pageviews
2012· 1 entry
UPI: Topic: David Niven
- #news
- #headline
1985· 1 entry
Niven was included in a series of British postage stamps, along with Alfred Hitchcock, Charles Chaplin, Peter Sellers, and Vivien Leigh, to commemorate "British Film Year"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1983· 2 entries
Died 1983-07-29.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #death
“Going to war was the only unselfish thing I have ever done for humanity.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
1981· 1 entry
Niven published a second and much more successful novel, Go Slowly, Come Back Quickly, which was set during and after the Second World War, and which drew on his experiences during the war and in Hollywood
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1978· 2 entries
Niven began experiencing weight loss, and by 1980 general fatigue, muscle weakness, and slurred speech
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Niven and Ustinov starred together in a film adaptation of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1975· 2 entries
Narrated The Remarkable Rocket, a short animation based on a story by Oscar Wilde
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
A collection of entertaining reminiscences from the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1971· 1 entry
Published his autobiography, The Moon's a Balloon, selling over five million copies
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1965· 1 entry
Niven made two films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: the Peter Ustinov-directed Lady L with Paul Newman and Sophia Loren, and Where the Spies Are, as a doctor-turned-secret agent
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1964· 1 entry
Charles Boyer, Gig Young, and top-billed Niven appeared in the Four Star series The Rogues for NBC
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1960· 1 entry
Niven bought a chalet in Château-d'Œx near Gstaad in Switzerland, living near expatriate friends including Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov, and Noël Coward
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1959· 2 entries
Awarded Academy Award for Best Actor for Separate Tables (1959).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Became the host of his own TV drama series, The David Niven Show, but he was still starring in major films
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1958· 1 entry
Won Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for Separate Tables (1958).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
1955· 1 entry
But Four Star became a highly successful TV production company
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1953· 1 entry
Won Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for The Moon Is Blue (1953).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
1951· 1 entry
When his film career was at its nadir, and was forgotten immediately
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1948· 1 entry
Niven met and married Hjördis Paulina Tersmeden (née Genberg, 1919–1997), a divorced Swedish fashion model
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1944· 1 entry
Worked extensively with the BBC and SHAEF to expand these broadcast efforts
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1943· 1 entry
Answered, "Haven't the foggiest idea, but I did co-star with Ginger Rogers in Bachelor Mother
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1942· 1 entry
Co-starred in the morale-building film about the development of the renowned Supermarine Spitfire fighter plane, The First of the Few (1942)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1940· 1 entry
Niven met Primula "Primmie" Susan Rollo (18 February 1918 – 21 May 1946), the daughter of London lawyer William H
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1939· 1 entry
Niven returned home and rejoined the British Army
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1933· 1 entry
Relocated to New York, then travelled to Hollywood
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1928· 2 entries
While she was on holiday in Bembridge, 15-year-old Margaret Whigham (the future socialite and Duchess of Argyll) had a sexual encounter with 18-year-old Niven, resulting in her pregnancy
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“How he did this, I shall never know, but he made every single boy at that school feel that what he said and what he did were of real importance to the headmaster.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
1915· 2 entries
And that Comyn-Platt was actually Niven's biological father, a supposition that had some support among Niven's siblings
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Henrietta Niven remarried in London in 1917 to Conservative politician and diplomat Sir Thomas Walter Comyn-Platt (1869–1961)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1910· 1 entry
Born 1910-03-01.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth
1909· 1 entry
But his birth certificate disproves this
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1874· 1 entry
And his older brother Lieutenant Colonel Henry Degacher (1835–1902), both followed their father, Walter Henry Hitchcock, in taking their mother's maiden name of Degacher
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event