John Batten on AllMovie

En route from his native New Zealand to the U.K., handsome, dark-haired John Batten enjoyed a stopover in San Francisco where a friend persuaded him to try Hollywood. Signed by Cecil B. DeMille, Batten played a miniscule bit in The Ten Commandments (1923) and had supporting roles in Backstage (1927), The Godless Girl (1929), and The Chorus Kid (1930), after which he finally continued his journey. He became a star, albeit briefly, in such British films as the old-fashioned Under the Greenwood Tree (1929), the English language version of Lillian Harvey's The Love Waltz (aka Liebeswaltzer [1930]), and the disaster epic Men Like These (aka Trapped in a Submarine [1931]). He continued to balance stage and screen work.