According to distant relative Richard Tearle, who has a website devoted to his famous ancestor, Sir Godfrey was considered to be one of the greatest Othellos of all time.
Brother of actor Malcolm Tearle.
Half-brother of actor Conway Tearle.
In the early 1930s he became an extremely strong and well-liked president of the fledgling Actors' Equity Association and remained in that post until 1940. It was his prolific work with Equity which earned him knighthood in 1951.
Married three times, he had no children. He was involved with stage actress Jill Bennett for the last four years of his life. She opined that because of Godfrey's own unsettling childhood as the son of actors, he was unwilling to inflict such a life on his own children.