介绍：He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child[1] of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he discovered he enjoyed acting. He intended to study engineering at Cambridge University, but his father's sudden death from pneumonia in 1907 made this financially impossible.

He became a well-known ******* actor, and was a member of the West Middle*** Dramatic Society in 1908-9. He made his first appearance on the professional stage in 1914.

After working as a clerk at the British Steamship Company in the City of London, he joined the London Scottish Regiment in 1909 and was among the first of Territorial Army to fight in World War I. During the war, he served with fellow actors Claude Rains, Herbert Marshall, Cedric Hardwicke and Basil Rathbone. On 31 October 1914 at the Battle of Messines Colman was seriously wounded by shrapnel in his leg, which gave him a limp that he would attempt to hide throughout the rest of his acting career. He was invalided from the service in 1916.