Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge

Raphael Tuck & Fils in Paris published this series of postcards of ensemble members of the Comédie-Française shown in their dressing rooms. Many of the cards were mailed in 1901. Though the postcard series seems to have dated from ca. 1900, the photos seem older and were probably taken a decade earlier. The backs of the cards were undivided. There were two series of Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge, no. 100 and 101, with included each 12 postcards. Below you find 17 cards of the series.


French postcard in the series Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 100-1.

Eugène Sylvain (1851-1930), better known as Sylvain and Silvain, was a prominent French stage actor, though he is best remembered as the evil bishop Cauchon in Carl Dreyer’s silent masterpiece La passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928).


French postcard in the series Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 100-2.

Jules Truffier (1856-1943) was a respected actor of the Comédie-Française. As far as is known, he didn't act in a film, but as a teacher at the Conservatoire (from 1906 onward), he trained future screen actors such as Pierre Blanchar.


French postcard in the series Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 100-4.

Edmond Got (1822-1901) was a French stage actor of the Comédie-Française. He entered the company in 1844 and was appointed Sociétaire in 1850, and Doyen between 1873 and 1894. In 1894, he left the Comédie. In the mid-19th century, he was one of the most respected stage actors, beloved for his grand style.


French postcard in the series Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 100-5. Card mailed 26 May [1904 or 1905]. Mary Kalb in her costume of Toinette in Molière's 'Le Malade imaginaire'. French actress Mary Kalb was born Mary Caroline Kalb in 1854 in La Chapelle and died in 1930 in Ville-d'Avray. She joined the Comédie-Française in 1882, became a member in 1894 and retired in 1905.


French postcard in the series Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 100-6.

Jean Mounet-Sully (1841-1916) was one of the biggest French theatre actors in the late 19th and early 20th century. At the end of his life, he played in several French film d'art films, some based on previous stage successes of Mounet-Sully.


French postcard in the series 'Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge' by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 100-7.

Frédéric-Alexandre Febvre was a French actor and director born in Paris on February 20, 1833 and died in Paris 2e on December 15, 1916. Febvre joined the Comédie-Française in 1866; became a member of the board in 1867; and retired in 1893.


French postcard in the series Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 100-8.

Georges Baillet (1848-1935) was a French stage actor. After fighting in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and graduating from the Conservatoire drama school, he started acting at the Paris Odéon. In 1875, he joined the Comédie Française, where he became sociétaire in 1887 and regularly played until 1903. His best-known role, often reprised, was that of Don César de Bazan in 'Ruy Blas' by Victor Hugo. In 1908, Baillet left the Comédie Française over a row over being forced to leave his dressing-room. Meanwhile, he continued with charity shows and during the First World War, he was first a nurse and later on put on 274 shows for wounded soldiers, until the end of the war. In his later years, he painted and travelled around the world. As far as is known, he didn't act in a film.

The dressing rooms of the Comédie-Française

The Comédie-Française is an institution of rare longevity. Founded over three centuries ago, it only ceased to exist for a very short period during the turmoil of the Revolution. It therefore has the distinction of having sustained an essentially ephemeral activity over time. The Salle Richelieu, the principal theatre of the Comédie-Française, is located in the Palais-Royal in the first arrondissement of Paris. It was built 1786-1790 by Victor Louis as Théâtre des Variétés amusantes for Louis-Philippe d'Orléans, the duke of Chartres. It opened on 15 May 1791, but was renamed Théâtre de la République in 1792. In 1798, it was restorated by Jean-Charles-Alexandre Moreau and re-opened on 30 May 1799 as Comédie-Française, also known as Salle Richelieu. The theatre was destroyed by a fire on 8 March 1900. The actress Jane Henriot was the only casualty of the fire. The theatre was subsequently restored by Goudet, and in the following century, several renovations followed. Originally, the theatre counted 2000 seats; today, there are 896 seats.

Founded in 1680, the Comédie-Française is the oldest active theatre company in the world. The company has a permanent troupe, which is unusual in France. The membership of the theatrical troupe is divided into sociétaires (members) and pensionnaires (residents). The sociétaires of the Comédie-Française are chosen from among the pensionnaires who have been in the company a year or more. The former are regular members of the organisation and, as such, receive a pension after 20 years of service, while the latter are paid actors who may, after a certain length of service, become sociétaires. The names of nearly all the great actors and dramatists of France have, at some time in their career, been associated with that of the Comédie-Française.

Each actor has a dressing room, a 'loge' in the Salle Richelieu. The loges are individual for members and sometimes shared for residents. The dressing rooms are located above the theatre, some overlooking Place Colette, others overlooking the gardens of the Palais-Royal and Buren's columns. Allocated by the head dresser according to a protocol and hierarchical order, the 'loges' have seen generations of artists come and go. In most theatres, the dressing room is primarily a functional space, as neutral as a hotel room, where one settles in temporarily. One stores one's costumes and make-up there, sometimes distilling one's universe made up of a few souvenirs and photographs, but on the last night of the performance, one packs one's boxes to make room for someone else.

At the Comédie-Française, because the troupe is permanent, dressing rooms hold a special place, becoming personal, furnished spaces that reflect the personality of their current occupant. Conservator Agathe Sanjuan writes at the site of the Comédie-Française: "The dressing room provides a space for ‘intimacy’ within a public space – the theatre – occupied by a troupe of actors performing both on stage and, sometimes, in their private lives. The dressing room is at the crossroads of these two worlds."

A shifting space, the dressing room is at once a work studio, a place of rest, a costume wardrobe, a lounge where visitors can be welcomed, and an intimate gallery that, with its accumulated objects, resembles a personal museum. The 'loge' allows the symbolic and the very personal to coexist by combining personal memories, functional objects (mirrors, make-up tables, screens), effigies of tutelary figures (notably Molière), furniture representative of the period, and portraits of oneself, friends and admired actors. The Comédie-Française today has a repertoire of 3,000 works and three theatres in Paris (Salle Richelieu, théâtre du Vieux-Colombier and Studio-Théâtre).


French postcard in the series Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 100-9.

Gustave-Hippolyte Worms (1836-1910) was a French stage actor. He joined the Comédie-Française in 1858; left from 1863 to 1877; became a member in 1878; and retired in 1900.


French postcard in the series Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 100-11.

Ernest Alexandre Honoré Coquelin (1848-1909) was a French actor. Also called Coquelin Cadet, to distinguish him from his brother Benoit-Constant.


French postcard in the series Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 100-12.

Franco-Belgian actress Adeline Élie Françoise Dulait, known as Mademoiselle Dudlay or Adeline Dudlay, was born in Brussels in 1858 and died in Paris in 1934. In 1876, she signed a contract with the Comédie-française and made her Paris debut in September. She went on to enjoy a successful career as a tragedienne, playing Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine and Victor Hugo, as well as contemporary authors. On January 1, 1883, she was named a sociétaire of the Comédie-Française. On 8 March 1900, a fire ravaged the Théâtre-Français. Jane Henriot was killed, while Adeline Dudlay was rescued from the flames by the Paris fire department. She retired in 1909 and performed her last play at the Théâtre-Français in April 1909.


French postcard in the series Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 101-2.

Georges Berr (1867-1942) was a French actor and dramatist, a member and Sociétaire of the Comédie-Française from 1886 to 1923. Under the pseudonyms Colias and Henry Bott, he wrote several plays, particularly in collaboration with Louis Verneuil. He was Jean-Pierre Aumont's uncle. He only acted in one film, Les précieuses ridicules (1910), directed by himself, and only directed one other film, L'enfant prodigue (1909), both for Pathé Frères. Berr was an active playwright whose plays were often adapted for the cinema, such as Le Million, filmed by René Clair and scripted by Clair and Berr himself. Berr worked on three other film scenarios, while he was the dialogue writer for four more films, including La porteuse de pain (René Sti, 1934).


French postcard in the series Les artistes de la "Comédie-Française" dans leur loge by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 101-3.

Jules Théophile Boucher was a French actor, born in 1847 in Troyes (Aube) and died in 1924 in Paris. Boucher joined the Comédie-Française on graduating from the Conservatoire (Regnier's class) in 1866, and was admitted to the sociétariat after 22 years. He retired in 1901.


French postcard in the series Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 101-7.

Pierre Laugier (1864-1907) was an actor of the Comédie Française from 1885, becoming sociétaire in 1894. Memorable parts he had in 'Tartuffe' (Orgon), 'L'Avare' by Molière, 'Les Folies amoureuses' (Albert) by Jean-François Regnard, 'Le Gendre de M. Poirier' by Emile Augier and Jules Sandeau, 'Il ne faut jurer de rien' by Alfred de Musset, and 'Thermidor' by Victorien Sardou. He died, aged just 42, from scarlet fever at the bedside of one of his two daughters. As far as is known, he didn't act in films.


French postcard in the series Les artistes de la "Comédie-Française" dans leur loge by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 101-8. Card mailed 5 April 1904 or 1905.

Maurice de Féraudy was a French actor, member of the Comédie-Française, playwright and film actor & director. Dominique Marie Maurice de Féraudy was born in Joinville-le-Pont on December 3, 1859, and died in Paris on May 12, 1932. Maurice de Féraudy joined the Comédie-Française in 1880; became sociétaire/ member in 1887; doyen/ dean in 1929. He retired in 1929 and finally became an honorary member in 1930.


French postcard in the series Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 101-9.

Marguerite Moreno (1871-1948) was a famous French stage and screen actress. She was engaged by the Comédie-Française in 1890 and acted on stage with the famous names of the French stage.


French postcard in the series Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 101-10.

Marie-Rose-Eugénie Müller, named Mademoiselle Müller, was born in Paris in 1865 and died there in 1953. She joined the Comédie-Française in 1882, became sociétaire in 1887 and retired in 1908.


French postcard in the series Les artistes de la "Comédie Française" dans leur loge by Raphael Tuck et Fils, Éditeurs, Paris, no. 101-12.

Louis Leloir a.k.a. Leloir (1860-1909), originally Louis Pierre Sallot, was a French actor and a Sociétaire of the Comédie-Française between 1889 and 1909. Parallel to his stage career, he was appointed teacher at the Conservatoire de musique et déclamation in 1894 and vice-president of the Société des artistes dramatiques in 1897. Because of his courageous behaviour during the 1900 fire at the Comédie-Française, he was awarded the Légion d'Honneur the same year. When he died in 1909, he was a board member of the Comédie-Française and one of its regular stage directors. About Leloir's involvement in cinema, little is known. He may have written the script for the Film d'Art production Louis XI (André Calmettes, 1910), starring Emile Dehelly, while he may have made the poster for the Film d'Art production Un Duel sous Richelieu (André Calmettes, 1908), starring Henry Krauss.

Earlier posts on the actors of the Comédie-Française:

Vedettes of the Comédie-Française, 2 May 2020.
Male stars of the Comédie-Française, 9 May 2020.

Sources: Agathe Sanjuan (Comédie-FRançaise- French), Andreas Praefcke (Carthalia) and Wikipedia.

Ruth Warrick

Ruth Warrick (1916-2005) will forever be best remembered as the first wife of Orson Welles in the classic Citizen Kane (1941). Later, she played Bobby Driscoll’s mother in Disney’s Song of the South (1946) and appeared in 555 episodes of the Soap Opera All My Children (1970-2005) as Phoebe Tyler Wallingford.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no W. 70. Photo: Edward Small Prod.


Dutch postcard, no. A 3100. Photo: Universal International.

One of the greatest American films of all time

Ruth Elizabeth Warrick was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1915. Ruth moved to Kansas City while in high school and later studied at the University of Kansas City. In 1937, she won a contest to serve as Kansas City's paid ambassador by writing an essay in high school called 'Prevention and Cure of Tuberculosis'. As Miss Jubilesta, she ended up in New York, presenting a live turkey to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia at City Hall.

She decided to stay in the big city. Stage-trained in New York, she appeared in such plays as 'Bury the Dead' (1933) and was a radio singer at one point. She met her first husband, Erik Rolf, during one of her broadcasts. In 1938, she met Orson Welles when she was working at CBS Radio. He invited her to join his Mercury Theatre troupe.

In 1941, Welles escorted his troupe to Hollywood and selected Warrick to make her film debut as Emily Norton Kane in one of the greatest American films of all time. Warrick was expecting her first child during the filming of Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941), which prevented her from being cast in The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942). Under contract to RKO, she followed Citizen Kane with nearly two dozen films, most of which were B melodramas and rugged adventures. Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "She could play the altruistic wife with stoic ease, but enjoyed more enthusiastic notices when controlling, tightly-wound or neurotic. She appeared with some of Hollywood's most illustrious male and female stars."

Warrick played a countess opposite Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in The Corsican Brothers (Gregory Ratoff, 1941 and co-starred with Joseph Cotten in the classic Film Noir Journey Into Fear (Norman Foster, Orson Welles, 1943). She starred in several war-themed films, including Secret Command (A. Edward Sutherland, 1944) with Pat O'Brien, Mr. Winkle Goes to War (Alfred E. Green, 1944) with Edward G. Robinson, and China Sky (Ray Enright, 1945) with Randolph Scott.

Following World War II, she had a role in the Academy Award-winning Disney film Song of the South (Harve Foster, Wilfred Jackson, 1946). In Daisy Kenyon (Otto Preminger, 1947), which starred Joan Crawford and Henry Fonda, she had a secondary role. Still, she managed a few top femme roles in such films as Driftwood (Allan Dwan, 1947) and One Too Many (Erle C Kenton, 1950), the latter in which she played an alcoholic.


Spanish postcard by Sobe, Barcelona, no. 753.


West German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin W, no. T 610. Photo: RKO. Ruth Warrick in China Sky (Ray Enright, 1945). The German title was Am Himmel von China.

The golden age of television

The focus of Ruth Warrick's career switched to the 'Golden Age' of TV in the 1950s. Aside from her many live dramatic showcases, she made a lasting mark in daytime soap opera. Her tight-lipped matrons on The Guiding Light (1952) and As the World Turns (1956) were only a warm-up for her once-in-a-lifetime portrayal of one of daytime's most dominant, colourful and enduring characters, Phoebe Tyler Wallingford in All My Children (1970-2005).

The show was an instant hit, and Phoebe became a popular character. She was the lady you relished hating. Her role was originally that of a serious society snob concerned mainly with keeping her family's name at the top of the town's social register. Warrick later began to add much humour into the role, especially when her character, separated from her husband of many years, began having an affair with phoney professor Langley Wallingford, and eventually married him. Warrick received Daytime Emmy Award nominations in 1975 and 1977. Her priggish socialite character carried strong story lines for nearly two decades until advancing age and failing health restricted her time.

Her well-received and aptly titled autobiography, 'The Confessions of Phoebe Tyler' (1980), chronicled the lives of both her and her alter ego. Prime time also made use of Ruth's sudsy-styled talent as Hannah Cord in Peyton Place (1964), for which she received an Emmy nomination. In 1969, she made her last major film, The Great Bank Robbery (Hy Averback, 1969). Making her Broadway debut with 'Miss Lonelyhearts' in 1957, Ruth's talents also included singing and, in between on-screen assignments, enjoyed the musical stage now and then. She understudied in 'Take Me Along' (1959) with Jackie Gleason and, in 1973, enjoyed a successful return to Broadway with the revival of 'Irene' starring Debbie Reynolds. In regional and summer theater she starred in 'Dial M for Murder,' 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' and 'Long Day's Journey Into Night'. She also toured as Anna in 'The King and I' and appeared in the musicals 'Pal Joey' and 'Roberta.'

Ruth Warrick was long active in arts-in-education programs, including programs for the disadvantaged. She received the first national Arts in Education Award in 1983. The award was subsequently named the Ruth Warrick Award for Arts in Education and continued to be given annually. In 1991, she received her certification as a licensed metaphysical teacher. In her senior years, she became an avid spokesperson for the rights of senior citizens as well as the disabled, and was appointed to the U.N. World Women's Committee on Mental Health.

She celebrated her 80th birthday by attending a special screening of Citizen Kane (1941) to a packed, standing-room-only audience. In frail health in later years, the still feisty, six-times-married-and-divorced actress made occasional appearances on All My Children even while confined to a wheelchair after a serious fall in 2001. She made her final appearance on her beloved daytime show in early January 2005 to commemorate its 35th anniversary. Ruth Warrick passed away shortly after at age 89 of complications from pneumonia. Her remains were interred at the Church of the Transfiguration in New York City. After her death, her family put much of her estate in an auction. She was survived by three children, a grandson and six great-grandchildren.


Vintage playcard. Photo: Ernest A. Bachrach. Orson Welles in Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941).


Dutch postcard. Photo: Republic / Centra.

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Zbigniew Sawan

Polish actor Zbigniew 'Zbyszko' Sawan (1904–1984) starred both in silent and sound films and was a respected stage actor in his country. He also worked as a theatre director and manager.


Polish postcard by Polonia, Krakow, no. 907. Photo: Van Dyck.


Polish postcard, no. 83. Photo: publicity still for Huragan / Hurricane (Joseph Lejtes, 1928) with Aleksander Zelwerowicz. Collection: Joanna.


Polish postcard by Polonia, Krakow, no. 687. Photo: Lux-Film. Zbyszko Sawan in the Polish romance Dzikuska / Savage (Henryk Szaro, 1928).

Romantic artist

Zbigniew 'Zbyszko' Sawan was born as Zbigniew Nowakowski in Voskresenovka, Russian Empire, now Russia, in 1904. He was the brother of the actress Jadwiga Boryta.

After graduating from the Szkoły Dramatycznej (Drama School) in Warsaw, he made his stage debut at the Teatr im. Słowackiego in Kraków.

In 1928, he played the leading role in the Polish-Austrian historical drama film Huragan / Hurricane (Joseph Lejtes, 1928).

In the following years, he appeared in more silent Polish productions, including the romance Dzikuska / Savage (Henryk Szaro, 1928), the drama Przedwiosnie / Early Spring (Henryk Szaro, 1928) and Policmajster Tagiejew / Police Foreman Tagiejew (Juliusz Gardan, 1929).

In these films, the handsome actor often played jeune premier roles as the young student or the romantic artist. He was also credited as Zbyszko Sawan.


Polish postcard by Victoria, no. 565. Photo: Lux. Publicity still for Dzikuska/Savage (1928).


Polish postcard by Polonia, Kraków, no. 705. Photo: Lux-Film. Publicity still for Dzikuska / Savage (Henryk Szaro, 1928).


Polish postcard by Polonia, Kraków, no. 934. Photo: Lux-Film. Zbyszko Sawan in Pod banderą miłości / Under the Milosci flag (Michal Waszynski, 1929).

Blacklisted

In 1930, after the introduction of sound film, Paramount contracted Zbigniew Sawan to appear in their French studio in Joinville to star in the drama Tajemnica lekarza (Ryszard Ordynski, 1930). This was an alternate-language version of their production The Doctor's Secret (William C. De Mille, 1929) starring Ruth Chatterton and John Loder.

Other early sound films were the romantic thriller Serce na ulicy / Heart on the Street (Juliusz Gardan, 1931) with Nora Ney, Uwiedziona / Seduced (Michal Waszynski, 1931) starring Maria Malicka, and Palac na kólkach / Palace on Wheels (Ryszard Ordynski, 1932) with Igo Sym.

After an interval, he starred in two more films in the late 1930s, Ostatnia brygada / Last Brigade (Michal Waszynski, 1938) with Maria Gorczynska, and Czarne diamenty / Black Diamonds (Jerzy Gabryelski, 1939).

Then World War II ended his film career. Most of the actors who boycotted German-controlled theatres during the war had to find another way to make a living. He rejected offers to start working for the pro-Nazi Ufa.

Blacklisted, he was taken hostage (along with other Polish artists) by the Gestapo in 1941 and as a result of German retaliatory action for the Polish resistance assassination of the Nazi spy Igo Sym, his co-star from Palac na kólkach (1932). Sawan ended up in the Auschwitz concentration camp, but happily, he survived.


Polish postcard by Polonia, Kraków, no. 1403. Photo: Paramount-Film. Publicity still for Tajemnica Lekarza / The Doctor's Secret (Ryszard Ordynski, 1930).


Polish postcard by Polonia, Kraków, no. 111. Photo: Produkcja Orton / Muza-Film. Publicity still for Palac na kólkach / Palace on Wheels (Ryszard Ordynski, 1932).

A screen come-back

After the war, Zbigniew Sawan began performing in Teatr Mały in Warsaw alongside his wife, the former film actress Lidia Wysocka, whom he had married in 1943. They later also performed together in Teatr Miniatura in Warsaw and Teatr Nowy.

In 1947, they moved to the Polish Theatre in Szczecin, where Sawan would take the manager's seat. The couple returned to Warsaw in 1949 and started working in Teatr Ludowy: Sawan again as the manager, while his wife began directing plays.

More than 20 years after his last film, he made a screen comeback in Odwiedziny prezydenta / Visit of a President (Jan Batory, 1961) with Beata Tyszkiewicz. He also appeared in Andrzej Wajda’s Popioly / Ashes (1965) starring Daniel Olbrychski, and Katastrofa / Catastrophe (Sylwester Checinski, 1966) as the father of Marta Lipinska.

During the 1970s, he played small parts in such films as Epilog norymberski / Nuremberg Epilogue (Jerzy Antczak, 1971), the war drama Akcja pod Arsenalem / Action at the Arsenal (Jan Lomnicki, 1978) and Aria dla atlety / Aria for an Athlete (Filip Bajon, 1979).

His final film was the drama Klejnot wolnego sumienia / The Supreme Value of a Free Conscience (Grzegorz Królikiewicz, 1983). Later, he only appeared as a priest in the Polish-British TV production Ceremonia pogrzebowa / Funeral Ceremony (Jacek Bromski, 1985). Zbigniew Sawan died in 1984 in Warszawa (Warsaw), Poland, at the age of 80. He was survived by his wife, Lidia Wysocka.


Polish postcard by Polonia, Krakow, no. 559. Photo: Van Dyck. Signature from 1928. Collection: Joanne.


Polish postcard by Edition Victoria. Photo: Lux. Publicity still for Dzikuska / Savage (Henryk Szaro, 1928) with Marja Malicka. Collection: Joanna.

Sources: Film Polski (Polish), Wikipedia (English and Polish) and IMDb.

Anna Neagle

Endearing Anna Neagle (1904-1986) was a leading star in British films for over 25 years from 1932 till the late 1950s. She provided glamour and sophistication to war-torn London audiences with her lightweight musicals, comedies and historical dramas. Almost all of her films were produced and directed by Herbert Wilcox, whom she married in 1943.

British postcard by Real Photograph in the Picturegoer Series, no. 867a. Photo: Cannons.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 66. Photo: R.K.O. Radio. Anna Neagle in No, No, Nanette (Herbert Wilcox, 1940).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 414. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding and Josephine Fitzgerald in Spring in Park Lane (Herbert Wilcox, 1948).

Overnight favourite

Anna Neagle was born Florence Marjorie Robertson in Forest Gate, near London, in 1904. She was the daughter of Herbert Robertson, a merchant navy captain, and his wife, the former Florence Neagle. Her brother was actor Stuart Robinson.

She made her stage debut as a dancer in 1917. In 1925, she appeared in the chorus of André Charlot's revue 'Bubbly', and later also in C.B. Cochran's revues, where she understudied Jessie Matthews.

Actor Jack Buchanan encouraged her to take on a featured role in the musical 'Stand Up and Sing' (1931), and she began using the professional name of Anna Neagle, the surname being her mother's maiden name. The play was a huge success with a total run of 604 performances. Her big break came when film producer-director Herbert Wilcox caught the show purposely to consider Buchanan for his upcoming film. He was taken (and smitten) with Anna.

Photographing extremely well, Neagle was a natural for the screen, and she played her first starring film role opposite Jack Buchanan in the musical Goodnight Vienna (Herbert Wilcox, 1932). Neagle became an overnight favourite. Although the film cost a mere £23,000, it was a huge hit at the box office, with profits from its Australian release alone being £150,000.

After her starring role in The Flag Lieutenant (Henry Edwards, 1932), she worked exclusively under Wilcox's direction for all but one of her subsequent films, becoming one of Britain's biggest stars. She continued in the musical genre, co-starring with Fernand Gravey (aka Fernand Gravet) in Bitter Sweet (Herbert Wilcox, 1933), the first film version of Noel Coward's tale of ill-fated lovers.


British postcard in the Film Shots series by Film Weekly. Photo: United Artists. Fernand Gravey (centre) and Anna Neagle (right) in Bitter Sweet (Herbert Wilcox, 1933).

Italian postcard by FilmImpero, SA IRDAG. Photo: United Artists. Anna Neagle in Bitter Sweet (Herbert Wilcox, 1933), released in Italy as Ottocento Romantico (The Romantic 19th Century).


British postcard in the Film Shots series by Film Weekly. Photo: United Artists. Anna Neagle (centre) and Fernand Gravey (right) in Bitter Sweet (Herbert Wilcox, 1933).

Critical accolades

Anna Neagle had her first major film success in the title role of Nell Gwynn (Herbert Wilcox, 1934), as the woman who became the mistress of Charles II (Sir Cedric Hardwicke). In the United States, the Hays Office had Wilcox add a (historically false) scene featuring the two leads getting married and also a 'framing story' resulting in an entirely different ending.

Author Graham Greene said of Nell Gwynn: "I have seen few things more attractive than Miss Neagle in breeches." Two years later, she followed up with another real-life figure, Irish actress Peg Woffington in Peg of Old Drury (Herbert Wilcox, 1936).

Neagle and Wilcox then made the backstage musical Limelight (Herbert Wilcox, 1936) and a circus trapeze fable, The Three Maxims (Herbert Wilcox, 1937).

The latter film had Neagle performing her own high-wire acrobatics. The script was co-written by Herman J. Mankiewicz, who later co-wrote Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941),

Although now highly successful in films, Neagle continued to act on stage too. In 1934, she performed as Rosalind in 'As You Like It' and as Olivia in 'Twelfth Night', directed by Robert Atkins. She earned critical accolades in both productions, despite the fact that she had never before done any Shakespeare.


British postcard by Real Photograph, London in the Picturegoer series, no. 672. Photo: Cannons.


British postcard by Real Photograph, London in the Picturegoer series, no. 867. Photo: Cannons.

Queen Victoria

In 1937, Anna Neagle gave her most prestigious performance so far – as Queen Victoria in the successful historical drama Victoria the Great (Herbert Wilcox, 1937), co-starring Anton Walbrook as Prince Albert.

Victoria the Great was such an international success that it resulted in Neagle and Walbrook essaying their roles again in an all-Technicolour sequel entitled Sixty Glorious Years (Herbert Wilcox, 1938), co-starring C. Aubrey Smith as the Duke of Wellington.

While the first of these films was in release, Neagle returned to the London stage in the title role in 'Peter Pan'.bThe two Queen Victoria biographies were successful enough to get Wilcox and Neagle a contract with RKO Radio Pictures, and they moved to Hollywood at the end of the 1930s.

Their first American film was Nurse Edith Cavell (Herbert Wilcox, 1939). She essayed the role of the true-life nurse who was shot by the Germans in World War I for alleged spying. The film had a significant impact on audiences on the eve of war.

In a turnabout from this serious drama, they followed with three musical comedies, all based on once-popular stage plays. The first was Irene (Herbert Wilcox, 1940), co-starring Ray Milland. It included a Technicolour sequence, which featured Neagle singing the play's most famous song, 'Alice Blue Gown'.


British postcard by Real Photograph, no. 101. Photo: British and Dominions Films.


British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London, no. C 188. Photo: British and Dominions.


Dutch postcard by S. & v. H, A. Photo: M.P.E.A. Signed in 1948.

Entertaining the troops

Anna Neagle followed this film with No, No, Nanette (Herbert Wilcox, 1940) with Victor Mature, and Sunny (Herbert Wilcox, 1941) with Ray Bolger.

During the war, Anna entertained the troops. Her final American film was Forever and a Day (Herbert Wilcox, 1943), a tale of a London family house from 1804 to the 1940 Blitz.

This film boasts 80 performers (mostly British), including Ray Milland, C. Aubrey Smith, Claude Rains, Charles Laughton, and – among the few Americans – Buster Keaton.

Wilcox directed the sequence featuring Neagle, Milland, Smith, and Rains, while other directors who worked on the film included René Clair, Edmund Goulding, Frank Lloyd, Victor Saville and Robert Stevenson.

During the war, the profits and salaries were given to war relief. After the war, prints were slated to be destroyed so that no one could profit from them. However, this never occurred.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 415. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding and Nigel Patrick in the romantic comedy Spring in Park Lane (Herbert Wilcox, 1948).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 417. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Michael Wilding and Anna Neagle in the romantic comedy Spring in Park Lane (Herbert Wilcox, 1948).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 418. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Publicity still for Spring in Park Lane (Herbert Wilcox, 1948) with Tom Walls and Michael Wilding.

Undercover agent

Returning to England, Anna Neagle and Herbert Wilcox commenced with They Flew Alone (Herbert Wilcox, 1942). Neagle added another real-life British heroine to her gallery, this time as aviatrix Amy Johnson. The film, released a year after the aviatrix’s death, was noted for intercutting the action with newsreel footage.

They returned to filmmaking with the wartime espionage thriller The Yellow Canary (Herbert Wilcox, 1943), co-starring Richard Greene and Margaret Rutherford. Neagle played a German sympathiser (or that is what she seems to be at first) who is forced to go to Canada for her own safety. In reality, she's working as an undercover agent.

After making this film, Neagle and Wilcox made their professional relationship a personal one as well when they married in 1943.

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 (Herbert Wilcox, 1945), co-starring Rex Harrison.

For seven straight years after WWII, Anna Neagle was voted the top favourite English actress.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 711. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding in Maytime in Mayfair (Herbert Wilcox, 1949).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 713. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Publicity still for Maytime in Mayfair (Herbert Wilcox, 1949) with Michael Wilding.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 714. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Publicity still for Maytime in Mayfair (Herbert Wilcox, 1949) with Michael Wilding.

The greatest team in British films

Anna Neagle wanted Rex Harrison again for the lead in her next film, Piccadilly Incident (Herbert Wilcox, 1946). He proved to be unavailable, so Wilcox cast Michael Wilding in the lead. Thus was born what film critic Godfrey Winn called "the greatest team in British films". 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 (Garson Kanin, 1940). Piccadilly Incident was chosen as Picturegoer’s Best Film of 1947.

Neagle and Wilding were reunited in The Courtneys of Curzon Street (Herbert Wilcox, 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.

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), which depicted the romance between a millionaire’s niece and a valet. Spring in Park Lane was the 1949 Picturegoer winner for Best Film, Actor and Actress.

Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding were together for a fourth time in the Technicolour romance Maytime in Mayfair (Herbert Wilcox, 1949). The plot is reminiscent of Roberta, as it had Wilding inheriting a dress shop owned by Neagle.

David Absalom comments on BritishPictures.com: “These films rarely pleased the critics. This is particularly true of the 'London Series' of frothy nonsense, usually co-starring Michael Wilding and usually musicals. The critics wanted neo-realist pictures depicting grim reality - the audience, who were suffering through the Austerity Years and knew all about grim reality, wanted fun and escapism. Anna Neagle pictures provided that in spades.”


British postcard, no. 257.


British postcard by Real Photograph, London in the Picturegoer series, no. W 700. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Prods.

Florence Nightingale

By 1950, Anna Neagle was at her zenith as Britain’s top box-office actress, and in that year she made what reputedly became her own favourite film, Odette, co-starring Trevor Howard, Peter Ustinov, and Marius Goring. As Odette Sansom, she was the Anglo-French resistance fighter who was pushed to the edge of betrayal by the Nazis.

Going from this real-life British heroine, she went straight on to playing Florence Nightingale in The Lady with the Lamp (Herbert Wilcox, 1951). Returning to the stage in 1953, she scored a major 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 (Herbert Wilcox, 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.

Neagle and Flynn reteamed for a second film together, King's Rhapsody (Herbert Wilcox, 1955), based on an Ivor Novello musical. 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 beginning to fade. Neagle's last box-office hit was My Teenage Daughter (Herbert Wilcox, 1956), which featured her as a mother trying to prevent her daughter (Sylvia Syms) from lapsing into juvenile delinquency.


British postcard by Real Photograph, London, no. 148.


British postcard by Real Photograph, London. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Productions.

Bankrupt

Anna Neagle and Syms worked together again on No Time For Tears (Cyril Frankel, 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.

She produced a series of films directed by her husband, including These Dangerous Years (Herbert Wilcox, 1957), Wonderful Things! (Herbert Wilcox, 1958), and The Heart of a Man (Herbert Wilcox, 1959).

The films all starred pop idol Frankie Vaughan, but they 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 (Herbert Wilcox, 1959) opposite Frankie Vaughan.

Herbert Wilcox was bankrupt by 1964, but his wife soon revived his fortunes.

Anna Neagle returned to the stage the following year and made a spectacular comeback in the West End musical 'Charlie Girl'. In it, she played the role of a former ´Cochran Young Lady´ who marries a peer of the realm.


British postcard by Real Photograph, no. 101A. Photo: British & Dominions Films.


British postcard in the Colourgraph series, London, no. C330. Photo: Cannons.

Dame of the British Empire

'Charlie Girl' was a phenomenal success that ran for a staggering six years and 2,047 performances. During the show's six-year run, Anna Neagle was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1970 in recognition of her work.

Two years after 'Charlie Girl', she appeared in a revival of 'No, No, Nanette', which she had done onscreen three decades earlier.

In 1975, she replaced Celia Johnson in 'The Dame of Sark', and in 1978 (the year after her husband's death), she was acting in 'Most Gracious Lady', which was written for the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

Although plagued by Parkinson's disease in her later years, Neagle continued to be active well into her eighties. On TV, she was last seen in an episode of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected (1983). In 1985, she appeared as the Fairy Godmother in a production of 'Cinderella' at the London Palladium.

Anna Neagle was still working in 1986, just a few weeks before her death in West Byfleet, England, from complications of renal disease and cancer. She was 81.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 716. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding in Maytime in Mayfair (Herbert Wilcox, 1949).


Movie Legends - Anna Neagle. Source: Movie Legends (YouTube).

Sources: Roger Phillip Mellor (Encyclopedia of British Cinema), David Absalom (BritishPictures.com), Bruce Eder (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.