Donat suffered from chronic asthma which affected his career and limited him to appearing in only twenty films. Author David Shipman speculates that Donat's asthma may have been psychosomatic: "His tragedy was that the promise of his early years was never fulfilled and that he was haunted by agonies of doubt and disappointment (which probably were the cause of his chronic asthma)";[1] however, this has never been substantiated. Donat's final role was the mandarin Yang Cheng in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958). His last spoken words in this film were prophetic, "We shall not see each other again. I think. Farewell." He died on 9 June 1958 aged 53 in London, England. His biographer Kenneth Barrow writes on the cause of his death: "Perhaps the asthma had weakened him but, in fact, it was discovered he had a brain tumour the size of a duck egg and cerebral thrombosis was certified as the primary cause of death."[2]
Donat was twice married, first to Ella Annesley Voysey (1929–1946), with whom he had three children, and subsequently to British actress Renée Asherson (1953–1958). His nephew is the actor Peter Donat.
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