Actor Shares Bold Christmas Prayer
By Movieguide® Contributor
Actor David Niven, known for his roles in movies such as THE BISHOP’S WIFE and THE PINK PANTHER, shared how a simple but bold act of faith can have a surprising effect.
It was 1939 and Niven had volunteered for the British Army where he was made second lieutenant in charge of a platoon of forty men.
Morale was low among his platoon who felt at the time were fighting a “phony war.” Furthermore, taking orders from a Hollywood actor “was an additional irritant for them and made the whole thing seem even more ridiculous,” recalled Niven in a Guideposts article.
He and the other soldiers were lodged in a stable on a farm near Dover that Christmas Eve, in preparation to be shipped out to France the next day and tensions were high.
“I could sense the hostility in every soldier. The air was thick with sarcastic cracks about my bravery in various motion pictures,” the London native said.
Every night Niven made it a habit to kneel down by his bed and pray, but that particular night he was hesitant to be seen praying in front of the other men for fear they would “take it as a final evidence of Hollywood flamboyance,” he confessed.
“On the other hand, I have always felt it wrong to avoid saying my prayers because the situation was not convenient. Besides, here it was the eve of Christ’s birth,” Niven wrote.
So he knelt down by his bunk as he did every night and prayed.
Despite “snickering” from some of the soldiers at first, he realized that wasn’t the reaction of all the men.
“When I finished and lay down on the straw, I looked rather sheepishly around the stable and saw at least a dozen soldiers kneeling quietly and praying in their own way,” Niven said.
He added, “It was not the first time God had entered a stable—and touched the hearts of men.”
In addition to his decades-long career in Hollywood, the Oscar winner was promoted to colonel and awarded the American Legion of Merit.
Loretta Young, who played opposite David Niven in the Christmas classic THE BISHOP’S WIFE, faith was also important in her life especially in her later years, according to her family.
RELATED: THE BISHOP’S WIFE REVIEW
“She made her faith the center of her life,” Young’s daughter Judy Lewis said. “She made choices about her life, even her life in Hollywood, based on that faith.”
Her son Chris Lewis said that she would attend mass daily and was involved in her community— visiting hospices and spending time with veterans, for instance.
“She was very down to earth and just as generous as a person,” Lewis said of his mom in an interview with Fox news.
READ MORE: HOW LORETTA YOUNG’S FAITH BECAME PART OF HER LEGACY
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