Content deleted Content added
Citation bot (talk | contribs) Alter: url, template type. URLs might have been anonymized. Add: date, title, doi. Changed bare reference to CS1/2. | Use this bot. Report bugs. | Suggested by Grimes2 | #UCB_webform 348/1201 |
|||
| (18 intermediate revisions by 11 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
Line 18:
| years_active = 1917–1986
| spouse = {{Marriage|[[Herbert Wilcox]]|1943|1977|end=died}}
| relatives = [[Nicholas Hoult]]<br />(grand-nephew)
}}
Line 33:
=== Early life ===
In 1931, she starred in the West End musical ''Stand Up and Sing'' with actor [[Jack Buchanan]], who encouraged her to take a featured role. For this play, she began using the professional name Anna Neagle (the surname being her mother's maiden name).<ref name="fandango">{{cite web |url=http://www.fandango.com/annaneagle/biographies/p52015 |title=''Fandango'' Biography. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130102164107/http://www.fandango.com/annaneagle/biographies/p52015 |archive-date=2 January 2013}}</ref> The play was a success with a total run of 604 performances.<ref name="fandango" /> ''Stand Up and Sing'' provided her big break when film producer and director [[Herbert Wilcox]] caught the show to consider Buchanan for an upcoming film, but also took note of her cinematic potential.<ref name="britishpictures">[http://www.britishpictures.com/stars/Neagle.htm ''British Pictures'' Profile and Reviews.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071216175734/http://www.britishpictures.com/stars/Neagle.htm |date=16 December 2007 }}</ref>
Line 53:
She continued in the musical genre, co-starring with Fernand Gravey (later known as Fernand Gravet) in ''[[Bitter Sweet (1933 film)|Bitter Sweet]]'' (1933). This first version of [[Noël Coward]]'s tale of ill-fated lovers was later obscured by the better-known [[Jeanette MacDonald]]–[[Nelson Eddy]] remake in 1940.<ref name="fandango"/>
Neagle had her first major success with ''[[Nell Gwyn (1934 film)|Nell Gwyn]]'' (1934), which Wilcox had previously shot as a [[silent film|silent]] starring [[Dorothy Gish]] in 1926. Neagle's performance as [[Nell Gwyn|Gwyn]], who became the mistress of [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] (played by [[Cedric Hardwicke]]) prompted some [[censorship in the United States]]. The [[Hays Office]] had Wilcox add
Two years after ''Nell Gwyn'', she followed up with another real-life figure, portraying Irish actress [[Margaret Woffington|Peg Woffington]] in ''[[Peg of Old Drury]]'' (1936). That same year, she appeared in ''[[Limelight (1936 film)|Limelight]]'', a backstage film musical in which she played a chorus girl. Her co-star was [[Arthur Tracy]], who had gained fame in the United States as a radio performer known as the Street Singer. The film also featured Jack Buchanan in an uncredited cameo.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027888/fullcredits IMDb listing for ''Limelight'']</ref> performing "Goodnight Vienna".<ref name="britishpictures" />
Neagle and Wilcox followed with a [[circus]] [[trapeze]] fable ''[[Three Maxims]]'' (1937), which was released in the United States as ''The Show Goes On''. The film, with a script featuring a contribution from [[Herman J. Mankiewicz]] (later to co-write ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' with [[Orson Welles]]), had Neagle performing her own high-wire acrobatics.<ref name="bfireleases" /> Although now highly successful in films, Neagle continued acting on the stage. In 1934, while working under director Robert Atkins, she performed as Rosalind in ''[[As You Like It]]'' and Olivia in ''[[Twelfth Night]]''. Both productions earned her critical accolades, despite the fact that she had never performed [[William Shakespeare|Shakespearean]] roles before.<ref name="fandango" />
In 1937, Neagle gave her most prestigious performance so far – as [[Queen Victoria]] in the historical drama ''[[Victoria the Great]]'' (1937), co-starring [[Anton Walbrook]] as [[Albert, Prince Consort|Prince Albert]]. The script by [[Robert Vansittart, 1st Baron Vansittart|Robert Vansittart]] and [[Miles Malleson]] (from [[Laurence Housman]]'s play ''Victoria Regina'') alternated between the political and the personal lives of the royal couple.<ref name="bfireleases" /> The [[Diamond Jubilee#Diamond Jubilee for Queen Victoria|Diamond Jubilee]] sequence that climaxed the film was shot in [[Technicolor]]. ''Victoria the Great'' was such an international success that it resulted in Neagle and Walbrook playing their roles again in an all-Technicolor sequel entitled ''[[Sixty Glorious Years]]'' (1938), co-starring [[C. Aubrey Smith]] as the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]]. While the first of these films was in release, Neagle returned to the London stage and entertained audiences with her portrayal of the title role in ''[[Peter Pan]]''.<ref name="fandango"/>
=== An American
[[File:News. Anna Neagle BAnQ P48S1P01531.jpg|thumb|Neagle giving a radio interview in Montreal in 1937]]
The success of ''Victoria the Great'' and ''Sixty Glorious Years'' caused [[Hollywood (film industry)|Hollywood]] studios to take notice. Neagle and Wilcox began an association with [[RKO Pictures|RKO Radio Pictures]]. Their first American film was ''[[Nurse Edith Cavell]]'' (1939), a remake of ''[[Dawn (1928 film)|Dawn]]'', a Wilcox [[silent film|silent]] that starred [[Sybil Thorndike]]. In this, another Neagle role based on an actual British heroine, she played the role of [[Edith Cavell|the nurse]] who was shot by the [[Germany|Germans]] in World War I for alleged aiding llied PoWs to escape and for spying. The resulting effort had a significant impact for audiences on the eve of the [[World War II|
In a turnabout from this serious drama, the couple followed with three musical comedies, all based on once-popular stage plays. The first of these was ''[[Irene (1940 film)|Irene]]'' (1940), co-starring [[Ray Milland]]. It included a Technicolor sequence, which featured Neagle singing the play's most famous song, "[[Alice Blue Gown]]". She followed this film with ''[[No, No, Nanette (1940 film)|No, No, Nanette]]'' (1940) with [[Victor Mature]], in which she sang "[[Tea for Two (song)|Tea For Two]]", and ''[[Sunny (1941 film)|Sunny]]'' (1941), with [[Ray Bolger]].
Line 83:
Neagle and Wilding were reunited in ''[[The Courtneys of Curzon Street]]'' (1947), a period drama that became the year's top box-office attraction. The film featured Wilding as an upper-class dandy and Neagle as the maid he marries, only to have the two of them driven apart by [[Victorian morality|Victorian]] society.<ref name="britishpictures" />
The third pairing of Neagle and Wilding in the "London Films", as the series of films came to be called, was in ''[[Spring in Park Lane]]'' (1948). A
By now, Neagle was at her peak as Britain's top box-office actress, and she made what reputedly became her own favourite film, ''[[Odette (1950 film)|Odette]]'' (1950), co-starring [[Trevor Howard]], [[Peter Ustinov]], and [[Marius Goring]]. As [[Odette Sansom]], she was the [[UK|Anglo]]-French [[resistance fighter]] who was pushed to the edge of betrayal by the Nazis.<ref name="bfireleases" /> In 1950, Neagle and Wilcox moved to the top-floor flat in Aldford House overlooking [[Park Lane]], which was their home until 1964.<ref name="westminster.gov.uk"/> She played [[Florence Nightingale]] in ''[[The Lady with a Lamp]]'' (1951), based on the 1929 play by [[Reginald Berkeley]].
Line 109:
[[File:Anna Neagle Plaque Covent Garden.jpg|thumb|right|Memorial plaque to Neagle in [[St Paul's, Covent Garden]]]]
Although affected by [[Parkinson's disease]] in her last years, Neagle continued to be active. She appeared in [[Cameron Mackintosh]]'s revival of ''[[My Fair Lady]]'' and in 1985 she appeared as the Fairy Godmother in a
Neagle's grand-nephew is actor [[Nicholas Hoult]],<ref name="cite1">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3662564/Teen-player.html|title=Teen player|last=Shoard|first=Catherine|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|access-date=13 May 2018|date=14 January 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110303154849/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3662564/Teen-player.html|archive-date=3 March 2011}}</ref> through Hoult's father's side.<ref name="irishtimes">{{cite news|last=Clarke|first=Donald|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/from-skins-to-mad-max-nicholas-hoult-knows-how-to-pick-a-role-1.2410353|title=From Skins to Mad Max, Nicholas Hoult knows how to pick a role|location=London|newspaper=[[The Irish Times]]|date=30 October 2015|access-date=20 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151031123918/http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/from-skins-to-mad-max-nicholas-hoult-knows-how-to-pick-a-role-1.2410353|archive-date=31 October 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Line 127:
1986 Cinderella at The London Palladium
1986 11 May The Week's Good Cause, BBC Radio 4.--->
Neagle died aged 81 from breast cancer on 3 June 1986.<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB|id=39943|title=Neagle, Dame Anna [real name Florence Marjorie Robertson] (1904–1986)}}</ref> A
A memorial plaque on her former home at Aldford House, [[Park Lane (road)|Park Lane]] was unveiled on 30 May 1996, by [[Princess Anne]] and [[Lana Morris]].<ref name="westminster.gov.uk"/> She also has a memorial plaque in [[St Paul's, Covent Garden|St Paul's Church]], the Actors' Church in [[Covent Garden]].
Line 152:
| ''[[Those Who Love (1929 film)|Those Who Love]]''
| bit part
| directed by H. Manning Haynes<br />uncredited
|-
| {{sort|1930.1|1930}}
| ''{{sort|sch|[[The School for Scandal (1930 film)|The School for Scandal]]}}''
| Flower Seller
| directed by Maurice Elvey, filmed in [[Raycol color process]], [[lost film]]<br />uncredited
|-
| {{sort|1930.2|1930}}
Line 410:
[[Category:Actresses awarded damehoods]]
[[Category:Actors from the London Borough of Newham]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Deaths from
[[Category:Deaths from kidney failure]]▼
[[Category:People educated at St Albans High School for Girls]]
[[Category:Actresses from Essex]]
Line 420 ⟶ 419:
[[Category:20th-century English singers]]
[[Category:Singers from Essex]]
[[Category:
[[Category:20th-century English women singers]]
[[Category:People educated at Queen's Park Secondary School]]
| |||