Meriel Forbes
Meriel Forbes, Lady Richardson (13 September 1913 – 7 April 2000) was an English actress. She was a granddaughter of Norman Forbes-Robertson and great-niece of Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson. After making her stage debut with her father's touring company in 1929 she progressed via provincial repertory to the West End, where she appeared continually from the 1930s to the 1970s.
She married the actor Ralph Richardson in 1944, and the couple regularly appeared together in London, and on tour in the UK, continental Europe, Australia and North and South America. She appeared in fifteen films between 1934 and 1969.
Life and career
Forbes was born Muriel Elsa Florence Forbes-Robertson in Fulham, London, daughter of Frank Forbes-Robertson and his wife Honoria, née McDermot.[1] She was educated in Eastbourne, Brussels and Paris. At the age of sixteen she made her first stage appearance, in her father's touring company in 1929, as Mrs de Hooley in The Passing of the Third Floor Back by Jerome K Jerome. After a short spell with the Dundee Repertory company in 1931, she made her first London appearance in the same year, as Simone D'Ostignac in Porcupine Point by Gabriel Toyne.[2]
In 1931 she joined the Birmingham Repertory company, and then worked mostly in the West End. She was briefly engaged to Robert Morley in the 1930s and later had an affair with Robert Donat.[3]
In 1934 Forbes made her film debut in
Among the productions in which Forbes played in the early 1950s were The Philadelphia Story (1950) and
In 1955, together with Sybil Thorndike and Lewis Casson, the Richardsons undertook a long tour of Australia, in Terence Rattigan's Separate Tables and The Sleeping Prince. Forbes and Richardson appeared on Broadway in Jean Anouilh's The Waltz of the Toreadors (1957).[5] During Richardson's long West End run in Robert Bolt's Flowering Cherry (1958), he had three leading ladies in succession: Celia Johnson, Wendy Hiller and finally Forbes.[5]
In 1959 Forbes took the part of the Duchess of Clausonnes in
In 1967 husband and wife appeared together in a
In 1973–74 Richardson and Forbes toured the comedy Lloyd George Knew My Father in Australia and North America, with Forbes in the role of Lady Boothroyd previously played in the West End by Peggy Ashcroft, and later by Celia Johnson.[3]
The Richardsons lived in a large house near
Forbes died in London at the age of 86.[3]
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1934 | Girls Please!
|
Ann Arundel | |
1934 | The Case for the Crown | Shirley Rainsford | |
1934 | Borrow a Million | Eileen Dacres | |
1935 | Vintage Wine | ||
1935 | Mr. Cohen Takes a Walk | Sally O'Connor | |
1936 | The Belles of St. Clements | Natalie de Mailliere | |
1939 | Over the Moon | Miss Fortescue | Uncredited |
1939 | Young Man's Fancy | Miss Emily Crowther | |
1939 | Come on George!
|
Monica Bailey | |
1942 | The Day Will Dawn | Milly, the barmaid | |
1943 | The Gentle Sex | Junior Commander Davis | |
1943 | The Bells Go Down | Susie | |
1946 | The Captive Heart | Beryl Curtiss | |
1951 | The Long Dark Hall | Majorie Danns | |
1952 | Home at Seven | Peggy Dobson | |
1969 | Oh! What a Lovely War | Lady Grey | |
1969 | Battle of Britain | Undetermined role | Uncredited, (final film role) |
Notes
- ^ a b Morley, Sheridan. "Richardson, Sir Ralph David (1902–1983)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2014 (subscription or UK public library membership required)
- ^ "Gate Theatre", The Times, 15 September 1931, p. 10
- ^ a b c d e Vallance, Tom. "Obituary: Meriel Forbes", The Independent, 2 May 2000
- ^ a b c Gaye, p. 614
- ^ a b c d e "Lady Richardson", The Daily Telegraph, 14 April 2000, p. 12
- ^ "Blandings Castle – Lord Emsworth and the Crime Wave at Blandings" Archived 13 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine, British Film Institute. Retrieved 18 January 2014
- ^ Cooper, R W. "Wodehouse's Emsworth on TV", The Times, 25 February 1967, p. 7
- ^ Reynolds, Stanley. "Television", The Guardian, 25 February 1967, p. 6; and Richardson, Maurice. "Television", The Observer, 26 February 1967, p. 25
- ^ "Meriel Forbes", British Film Institute. Retrieved 1 February 2014
References
- Gaye, Freda, ed. (1967). Who's Who in the Theatre (fourteenth ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons. OCLC 5997224.
External links
- Meriel Forbes at IMDb