Noele Gordon
Noele Gordon | |
---|---|
Actress | |
Years active | 1945–1984 |
Joan Noele Gordon (25 December 1919 – 14 April 1985) was an English actress and television presenter, of Scottish descent.[1] She played the role of Meg Mortimer (originally Richardson, later Ryder) in the long-running British soap opera Crossroads from 1964 to 1981, with a brief return in 1983.[2]
Early life
Gordon was born on 25 December 1919, at 139 Clements Road,
Career
Early career
Gordon attended
She appeared in two British films, 29 Acacia Avenue (1945) and Lisbon Story (1946) in minor parts.
In 1954, Gordon spent a year in New York City learning American television production at New York University.[8][9] Her stage career came to a halt in 1955, when she joined Associated Television in London, where she presented their first-ever programme, The Weekend Show. She worked behind the scenes as Head of Lifestyle programmes. Gordon helped Reg Watson and Ned Sherrin launch ATV Midlands in 1956.[10]
As well as being a producer, Gordon became a presenter for the new Birmingham-based service. Her first television appearance for ATV in the Midlands, Tea With Noele Gordon, was the first popular ITV chat show, and while presenting this series, she became the first woman to interview a British Prime Minister,[10] when Harold Macmillan was in office. Initially commissioned as an emergency schedule filler, the show became so successful that Gordon gave up her executive position to concentrate on presenting.[11] She then moved on to present a daily live entertainment show, Lunchbox, an early daytime programme.[10]
Crossroads
In the summer of 1964, Lunchbox came to an end after more than 2,000 episodes. It made way for a new daily soap opera,
First in 1969, and over the following decade, she won the
Gordon was the only member of the Crossroads cast who had a permanent contract;[14] all other cast members were booked on an ad hoc basis.
Gordon stayed with the programme until she was sacked in 1981, when
In 1985, Matheson's successor
Later career
After the termination of her Crossroads contract, Gordon starred in the musical
In an interview she gave to
Personal life, illness and death
Gordon never married.[18] For many years, in the 1960s and early 1970s, she stayed in a large white-washed Georgian manor house at Weir End, near Ross-on-Wye, beside the A40 road to Monmouth; her mother Joan (1893–1979) lived in the house and Gordon joined her at weekends.[19]
It became known in 1982 that Gordon was suffering from cancer, for which she underwent two major operations. She retired to her home in Birmingham, where she died in 1985 of stomach cancer, at the age of 65. She was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's parish church in Ross-on-Wye, next to her mother.[19] Tony Adams, who played Adam Chance in Crossroads, commented just after her death that "There has never been a star of Crossroads, although Nolly was Crossroads."[20]
Legacy
A televised drama, Nolly, with Helena Bonham Carter playing Gordon,[21] written by Russell T Davies and directed by Peter Hoar, was made by ITV Studios. It depicts her time in Crossroads and her sacking from the show.[22] It first aired in February 2023.[23]
References
- ^ "ATV Icon: Noele Gordon". ATV Today. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
- ^ Osborn, Michael (17 January 2008). "The great British soap matriarch". BBC News. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
- ^ "Welcome to Nollywood: The staggering true story of Crossroads queen Noele Gordon". The Independent. 2 February 2023.
- ^ "Biography – Noele Gordon Archive – Nolly Online".
- ^ a b As detailed by ITV in their on-air obituary broadcast prior to an episode of Crossroads broadcast on 14 April 1985
- ^ As noted in BBC One's TV Heros series, 1991
- ^ Gordon, AUTHOR: Noele. "It all began with green stripes on my face". Transdiffusion. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
- ^ "Welcome to Nollywood: The staggering true story of Crossroads queen Noele Gordon". The Independent. 2 February 2023. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
- BirminghamLive. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
- ^ a b c Detailed in her autobiography, My Life at Crossroads, 1974
- ^ "Noele Gordon (obituary)". The Stage. 18 April 1985. p. 15.
- ^ "Hazel Adair". The Times. London. 25 November 2015. Retrieved 28 November 2015. (subscription required)
- TV Times(Unforgettables! ed.). 1988. p. 22.
- ^ As noted by Jane Rossington and Paul Henry on the documentary Crossroads Revisited in 1985
- ^ Crossroads – The Drama of a Soap Opera. 1982.
- ^ "Crossroads Appreciation Society". Crossroads Fan Club 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
- ^ TV Times interview with Noele Gordon in November 1981.
- ^ Young, Graham (4 February 2023). "Crossroads star Noele Gordon faced brutal hurdles no Rolls-Royce could overcome". BirminghamLive. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
- ^ a b "Ross-on-Wye : Noele Gordon". Ross-on-wye.com. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
- ^ As spoken by Adams on Crossroads Revisited, the 21st Anniversary documentary for the soap.
- ^ Lewis, Tim (29 January 2023). "Helena Bonham Carter: I've got so many issues, but as you get older you go: whatever". The Observer. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
- ^ Troup, Janice (23 November 2021). "ITV commissions Nolly starring academy award-nominated Helena Bonham Carter as Noele Gordon". ITV Press Centre.
- ^ Duke, Simon (2 February 2023). "What happened to Noele Gordon? ITV drama remembers soap legend and Crossroads sacking". The Chronicle. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
External links
- Noele Gordon at IMDb
- Noele Gordon webpage