James Mason played the Flying Dutchman opposite Ava Gardner in Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.
The 1951 film casts Mason as Hendrik van der Zee, the doomed sailor identified with the legend of the Flying Dutchman. Ava Gardner plays Pandora Reynolds, whose encounter with him forms the center of the romantic fantasy. Albert Lewin wrote and directed the production.
The Flying Dutchman legend concerns a captain condemned to sail indefinitely, often because of an act of defiance or blasphemy. The film adapts that legend into a stylized story of love, fate, and sacrifice rather than presenting the Greek Pandora myth directly.
Mason was a major British actor whose career included stage, film, and television work. Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier were also prominent actors of the period, but neither played the Dutchman in this film. James Mason is the specific cast answer.