Anna Neagle
City of London Cemetery, Manor Park, London , England | |
---|---|
Occupation(s) | Actress, singer |
Years active | 1917–1986 |
Spouse | |
Relatives | Nicholas Hoult (grand-nephew) |
She was a successful box-office draw in British cinema for 20 years and was voted the most popular star in Britain in 1949. She was known for providing glamour and sophistication to
In her historical dramas, Neagle was renowned for her portrayals of British historical figures, including Nell Gwyn (Nell Gwyn, 1934), Queen Victoria (Victoria the Great, 1937 and Sixty Glorious Years, 1938), Edith Cavell (Nurse Edith Cavell, 1939), and Florence Nightingale (The Lady with a Lamp, 1951).
Biography
Early life
Neagle was born in Forest Gate, Essex, the daughter of Florence Neagle and her husband, Herbert William Robertson, a Merchant Navy captain.[1] Her elder brother was the bass-baritone and actor Stuart Robertson (1901–1958).[2] Robertson attended primary school in Glasgow and then St Albans High School for Girls.[citation needed] She made her stage debut as a dancer in 1917, and later appeared in the chorus of C.B. Cochran's revues and also André Charlot's revue Bubbly. While with Cochran, she understudied Jessie Matthews.[3]
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).[4] The play was a success with a total run of 604 performances.[4] 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.[5]
Cinematic beginnings
"Naturally enough when I was a young dancer, I was terribly anxious to get ahead, and to get ahead quickly. I was impatient with all those older people who talked of the long grind to the top, who turned me down for jobs I knew I could do."
Anna Neagle[6]
Forming a professional alliance with Wilcox, Neagle played her first starring film role in the musical Goodnight, Vienna (1932), again with Jack Buchanan. With this film, Neagle became an overnight favourite. Although the film cost a mere £23,000 to produce, it was a hit at the box office, with profits from its Australian release alone being £150,000.[7]
After her starring role in The Flag Lieutenant (also 1932), directed by and co-starring Henry Edwards, she worked exclusively under Wilcox's direction for all but one of her subsequent films,[4] becoming one of Britain's biggest stars.
She continued in the musical genre, co-starring with Fernand Gravey (later known as Fernand Gravet) in 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.[4]
Neagle had her first major success with
Two years after Nell Gwyn, she followed up with another real-life figure, portraying Irish actress
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.[7] Although now highly successful in films, Neagle continued acting on 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 Shakespearean roles before.[4]
In 1937, Neagle gave her most prestigious performance so far – as
An American excursion
The success of Victoria the Great and Sixty Glorious Years caused
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), 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) with Victor Mature, in which she sang "Tea For Two", and Sunny (1941), with Ray Bolger.
Neagle and Wilcox's final American film was
Return to the UK
Returning to the UK, Neagle and Wilcox commenced with
Neagle and Wilcox married in August 1943 at London's Caxton Hall.[10]
They continued with
In 1945, Neagle appeared on stage in Emma, a dramatisation of Jane Austen's novel. That same year, she was seen in the film I Live in Grosvenor Square, co-starring Rex Harrison. She wanted Harrison for the lead in her next film, Piccadilly Incident (1946). However, he (as well as John Mills) proved to be unavailable at the time, so Wilcox cast Michael Wilding in the lead. Thus was born what film critic Godfrey Winn called "the greatest team in British films".[7] The story – of a wife, presumed dead, returning to her (remarried) husband – bears a resemblance to the Irene Dunne–Cary Grant comedy My Favorite Wife. Piccadilly Incident was chosen as Picturegoer's Best Film of 1947. Despite the fact that Neagle was some eight years senior than Wilding, they proved to be an extremely bankable romantic pairing at the British box office. By now in her mid-40s, Neagle continued to have success in youthful and romantic lead roles.
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 society.[5]
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 drama, this depicted the romance between a millionaire's niece and a footman (actually a nobleman who has seen better days). The script was written by Nicholas Phipps, who also played Wilding's brother. Although not a musical, it contains a dream sequence featuring the song "The Moment I Saw You". Spring in Park Lane was the 1949 Picturegoer winner for Best Film, Actor, and Actress.[7] Neagle and Wilding were together for a fourth time in the Technicolor romance Maytime in Mayfair (1949). The plot is reminiscent of Roberta, as it had Wilding inheriting a dress shop owned by Neagle.[5]
By now, Neagle was at her peak as Britain's top box-office actress, and she made what reputedly became her own favourite film,
Returning to the stage in 1953, she scored a success with The Glorious Days, which had a run of 476 performances. Neagle and Wilcox brought the play to the screen under the title Lilacs in the Spring (1954), co-starring Errol Flynn. In the film, she plays an actress knocked out by a bomb, who dreams she is Queen Victoria and Nell Gwyn, as well as her own mother. As she begins dreaming, the film switches from black-and-white to colour. In Britain, where Neagle had top billing, the film was reasonably successful. In the United States, however, where Flynn had top billing, the title was changed to Let's Make Up, and it flopped, with limited bookings.[7][11]
On the wane
Neagle and Flynn reteamed for a second film, King's Rhapsody (1955), based on an Ivor Novello musical and also starring Patrice Wymore (Flynn's wife at the time). Although Neagle performed several musical numbers for the film, most of them were cut from the final release, leaving her with essentially a supporting role. Shot in Eastmancolor and CinemaScope with location work near Barcelona, Spain, King's Rhapsody was a major flop everywhere. Neagle's (and Flynn's) box-office appeal, it seemed, was fading.[12]
Neagle's last box-office hit was My Teenage Daughter (1956), which featured her as a mother trying to prevent her daughter (Sylvia Syms) from lapsing into juvenile delinquency.[5]
Neagle and Syms worked together again on No Time for Tears (1957), also starring Anthony Quayle and Flora Robson. As directed by Cyril Frankel, this was the first film for over 20 years where Neagle was directed by someone other than Herbert Wilcox. Set in a children's hospital, the film features Neagle as a matron dealing with the problems of the patients and the staff, notably a nurse (Syms) infatuated with one of the doctors (George Baker).[5]
With her husband, Neagle began producing films starring Frankie Vaughan, but these were out of touch with changing tastes, and lost money, resulting in Wilcox going heavily into debt. Neagle herself made her final film appearance in The Lady Is a Square (1959), also Wilcox's last film as director.
Neagle was the subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions, in February 1958 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre,[citation needed] and in March 1983, when Andrews surprised her at London's Royal National Hotel.[citation needed]
Final years
Herbert Wilcox was bankrupt by 1964, but his wife soon revived his fortunes. She returned to the stage the following year and made a comeback in the
Two years after Charlie Girl – which she also performed in Australia and New Zealand – Neagle was asked to appear in a revival of
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 production of Cinderella at the London Palladium.[14]
Neagle's grand-nephew is actor Nicholas Hoult,[15] through Hoult's father's side.[16]
Neagle died aged 81 from breast cancer on 3 June 1986.
A memorial plaque on her former home at Aldford House,
A street named in her honour, Anna Neagle Close,[19] is situated in Forest Gate, east London.
Awards
Neagle was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1952 New Year Honours[20] and, for her contributions to the theatre, a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 1969 Birthday Honours.
Filmography
The following list contains all of Neagle's acting credits in feature-length films with the exception of Queen Victoria (1942), which is actually a compilation of two earlier films, Victoria the Great and Sixty Glorious Years. All of her films were directed by Herbert Wilcox and produced in the United Kingdom unless otherwise noted.
In addition, Neagle also appeared briefly as herself in a documentary short entitled The Volunteer (1943), and served as narrator for the films The Prams Break Through (1945) and Princess's Wedding Day (1947). Neagle also produced, but did not appear in, three films starring Frankie Vaughan: These Dangerous Years (1957), Wonderful Things (1957), and The Heart of a Man (1959).
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1929 | Those Who Love | bit part | directed by H. Manning Haynes uncredited |
1930 | The School for Scandal | Flower Seller | directed by Maurice Elvey, filmed in Raycol color process, lost film uncredited |
1930 | The Chinese Bungalow | Charlotte | directed by Arthur Barnes and J.B. Williams |
1930 | Should A Doctor Tell? | Muriel Ashton | directed by H. Manning Haynes |
1932 | Goodnight, Vienna | Viki | Neagle's first collaboration with director Herbert Wilcox |
1932 | The Flag Lieutenant | Hermione Wynne | directed by Henry Edwards |
1933 | The Little Damozel | Julie Alardy | |
1933 | Bitter Sweet | Sarah Millick and Sari Lind | |
1934 | The Queen's Affair | Queen Nadia | |
1934 | Nell Gwynn
|
Nell Gwyn | Neagle's first major hit |
1935 | Peg of Old Drury | Peg Woffington
|
|
1936 | Three Maxims | Pat | Franco-British production |
1936 | Limelight | Marjorie Kaye | |
1937 | London Melody | Jacqueline | |
1937 | Victoria the Great | Queen Victoria | finale filmed in Technicolor |
1938 | Sixty Glorious Years | Queen Victoria | filmed in Technicolor |
1939 | Nurse Edith Cavell | Edith Cavell | Neagle's first American film |
1940 | Irene | Irene O'Dare | features one sequence in Technicolor, produced in the U.S. |
1940 | No, No, Nanette | Nanette | U.S. production |
1941 | Sunny | Sunny O'Sullivan | U.S. production |
1942 | They Flew Alone | Amy Johnson | |
1943 | Forever and a Day | Susan Trenchard | U.S. production |
1943 | Yellow Canary | Sally Maitland | |
1944 | The Volunteer | herself, leaving Denham Studio | |
1945 | I Live in Grosvenor Square | Lady Patricia Fairfax | |
1946 | Piccadilly Incident | Diana Fraser | |
1947 | The Courtneys of Curzon Street | Katherine O'Halloran | |
1948 | Spring in Park Lane | Judy Howard | |
1948 | Elizabeth of Ladymead | Elizabeth | filmed in Technicolor |
1949 | Maytime in Mayfair | Eileen Grahame | filmed in Technicolor |
1950 | Odette | Odette Sansom | |
1951 | The Lady with a Lamp | Florence Nightingale | |
1952 | Derby Day | Lady Helen Forbes | |
1954 | Lilacs in the Spring | Carole Beaumont / Lillian Grey / Nell Gwynne / Queen Victoria
|
filmed in Eastmancolor with a black-and-white prologue |
1955 | King's Rhapsody | Marta Karillos | filmed in CinemaScope and Eastmancolor |
1956 | My Teenage Daughter | Valerie Carr | |
1957 | No Time for Tears | Matron Eleanor Hammond | directed by Cyril Frankel, filmed in Eastmancolor |
1958 | The Man Who Wouldn't Talk | Mary Randall, Q.C. | |
1959 | The Lady Is a Square | Frances Baring |
Recordings
- "Ray Noble
- HMV B 4365 (matrix: 0B 4586-3)
- Recorded London, 4 January 1933
- "The Dream Is Over", with orchestra conducted by Ray Noble
- HMV B 4365 (matrix: 4587-4)
- Recorded London, 4 January 1933
- "Tonight", duet with Trefor Jones with Geraldo and his Orchestra
- Columbia (England) DB 1316 (matrix: CA 14314-1)
- Recorded London, 30 January 1934
- "Kiss Me Goodnight"
- Decca (England) F 5649 (matrix: TB 1869)
- Recorded London, 9 August 1935
- "A Little Dash of Dublin"
- Decca (England) F 5649 (matrix: TB 1870)
- Recorded London, 9 August 1935
- "The Glorious Days" (medley)
- Philips Records (England) P.B.153
- Recorded 1953
Box office popularity
Annual polls of British exhibitors for the Motion Picture Herald consistently listed Neagle as a leading box office star in her home country.
- 1936 – 14th-most popular British star[22]
- 1937 – 8th-most popular British star[23]
- 1938 – 8th-most popular British star[24]
- 1939 – 5th-most popular British star[25]
- 1940 – 10th-most popular British star[26]
- 1941 – 7th-most popular British star[27]
- 1942 – most popular female British star[28]
- 1944 – 9th-most popular British star[29]
- 1945 – 8th most popular British star[30]
- 1946 – 5th-most popular British star[31]
- 1947 – 3rd-most popular star (2nd most popular British star)[32]
- 1948 – most popular British star (2nd overall)[33]
- 1949 – most popular star – the first time since the polls started that the most popular star in Britain was British[34]
- 1950 – 3rd-most popular star – third year in a row as most popular British star[35]
- 1951 – 6th-most popular star (2nd most popular British star)[36]
- 1952 – 8th-most popular British star – 6th year in a row as most popular female British star[37]
Publications
- There's Always Tomorrow – Autobiography – 1974, ISBN 0-491-01941-6.
Footnotes
- ^ Springer, John, and Jack Hamilton. They Had Faces Then. Castle Books. p. 319.
- ^ Pearl Records, The Mikado, sleeve notes.
- ^ Vermilye, Jerry. The Great British Films. Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1978. p. 21.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Fandango Biography". Archived from the original on 2 January 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g British Pictures Profile and Reviews. Archived 16 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Anna Neagle Quotes". Brainyquote.com.
- ^ PDFfile).
- ^ Vermilye, p. 23
- ^ IMDb listing for Limelight
- ^ a b c City of Westminster green plaques "Westminster City Council – Green Plaques Scheme". Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
- ^ Thomas, Tony, Rudy Behlmer, and Clifford McCarthy. The Films of Errol Flynn. Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel, 1969. p. 201.
- ^ Thomas, Behlmer, and McCarthy. p. 206
- ^ "anna neagle – biography – gallery". Leninimports.com.
- ^ "The Gallery – Playbills – Palladium Cinderella 1985". Its-behind-you.com.
- ^ Shoard, Catherine (14 January 2007). "Teen player". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 3 March 2011. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
- ^ Clarke, Donald (30 October 2015). "From Skins to Mad Max, Nicholas Hoult knows how to pick a role". The Irish Times. London. Archived from the original on 31 October 2015. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39943. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ "Anna Neagle". IMDb.
- ^ Anna Neagle Close London, Greater London E7 0HH, UK. Source: Google Maps
- ^ Pathé, British. "Palace Investitures Aka Anna Neagle Investiture". Britishpathe.com. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
- ^ "BFI Screenonline: Neagle, Anna (1904–1986) Credits". Screenonline.org.uk.
- ^ "Motion Picture Herald". archive.org. Quigley Publishing Co. 1937.
- ^ "Most Popular Stars of 1937". The Mercury. Hobart, Tasmania. 12 February 1938. p. 5. Retrieved 25 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "FORMBY IS POPULAR ACTOR". The Mercury. Hobart, Tasmania. 25 February 1939. p. 5. Retrieved 25 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "BOX OFFICE POLL". The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 February 1940. p. 22. Retrieved 25 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Motion Picture Herald". archive.org. Quigley Publishing Co. 1941.
- ^ "Motion Picture Herald". archive.org. Quigley Publishing Co. 1942.
- ^ "CROSBY and HOPE try their luck in Alaska". The Mercury. Hobart, Tasmania. 2 March 1946. p. 3 Supplement: The Mercury Magazine. Retrieved 25 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Motion Picture Herald". archive.org. Quigley Publishing Co. 1945.
- ^ "'Bloomer Girl' to Play Instead of Jolson Opus". Los Angeles Times. 23 March 1946. p. A5.
- ^ "FILM WORLD". The West Australian (SECOND ed.). Perth. 28 February 1947. p. 20. Retrieved 25 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Anna Neagle Most Popular Actress". The Sydney Morning Herald. 3 January 1948. p. 3. Retrieved 25 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Bing Crosby Still Best Box-office Draw". The Sydney Morning Herald. 31 December 1948. p. 3. Retrieved 11 July 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "SNAPSHOTS". The Argus. Melbourne. 21 January 1950. p. 10 Supplement: The Argus Week–End Magazine. Retrieved 25 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Actor father wants film career for his two sons". The Sunday Times. Perth. 14 January 1951. p. 20. Retrieved 25 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "British Film Favourites". The Central Queensland Herald. Rockhampton, Qld. 3 January 1952. p. 10. Retrieved 25 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
- The Sunday Herald. Sydney. 28 December 1952. p. 4. Retrieved 25 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
External links
- Anna Neagle at IMDb
- Anna Neagle at the BFI's Screenonline
- Photographs of Anna Neagle