Donat gave superb performances in Hitchcock's "The 39 Steps" (1935), Vidor's "The Citadel" (1938) and Carol Reed's "The Young Mr. Pitt" (1942) and "The Winslow Boy" (1948). For a time his popularity and prestige exceeded that of Olivier and Leslie Howard; his early promise was never fulfilled, however, partly due to his depressive character and chronic asthma. (Illness sometimes lent his performances an ethereal edge, as in 1939's "Goodbye, Mr. Chips", which enabled Donat to beat Clark Gable--"Gone With the Wind"--out of an Oscar.) His death at the age of 53 was hastened by the illness.