Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 140. Photo: Rank Film.
Dutch postcard. Photo: Eagle Lion.
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 135. Photo: Rank Film.
Starlet at the Rank Charm School
Jane Hylton was born as Audrey Gwendolene Clark in 1926 in London. In her teens, she studied for a commercial career at Clarks College but gave it up when she was talent-spotted. She went to RADA and then to the Rank Organisation's Company of Youth.
The 'Rank Charm School' took promising young actors and groomed them for a film career. The programme turned out some genuine stars such as Dirk Bogarde and Diana Dors, but most alumni only had modest film careers. They were regularly employed in British films but rarely received star billing.
Female graduates of the programme were often referred to, somewhat disparagingly, as "Rank Starlets". Hylton, however, featured in substantial roles with prominent billing. Her first screen appearance came in the programmer A Girl in a Million (Francis Searle, 1946). She quickly moved on to minor roles in films produced by Gainsborough Studios, such as Jassy (Bernard Knowles, 1947) and When the Bough Breaks (Lawrence Huntington, 1947).
For Ealing Studios, she appeared in Holiday Camp (Ken Annakin, 1947) and It Always Rains on Sunday (Robert Hamer, 1947). In 1948, she landed her largest role to date, as an escaped convict's mistress in Gainsborough's My Brother's Keeper (Alfred Roome, 1948), starring Jack Warner.
She was then cast as one of the daughters in the successful comedy Here Come the Huggetts (Ken Annakin, 1948). In 1949, she played Molly Reed in the Ealing Comedy Passport to Pimlico (Henry Cornelius, 1949) starring Stanley Holloway, Margaret Rutherford and Hermione Baddeley.
Dutch postcard, no. 3189-73.
Dutch postcard. Photo: Eagle Lion.
Vintage collector card. Photo: Eagle Lion. Jane Hylton in Passport to Pimlico (Henry Cornelius, 1949).
Toiling mainly in quickly-shot B-films
In the early 1950s, Jane Hylton was cast in major roles in several films with a predominantly female cast and targeted at female audiences. These included Dance Hall (Charles Crichton, 1950), It Started in Paradise (Compton Bennett, 1952), set in the world of haute couture, and the women's prison drama The Weak and the Wicked (J. Lee Thompson, 1954) starring Glynis Johns.
After giving birth to a baby girl, she returned to the screen in the mystery Burnt Evidence (Daniel Birt, 1954). The quality of film roles offered to her then began to fall. She found herself for the rest of the decade toiling mainly in quickly-shot B-films. An exception was a prominent role in the Horror film Circus of Horrors (Sidney Hayers, 1960) opposite Anton Diffring.
Hylton's first television appearance was in the starring role of Queen Guinevere in the series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (Bernard Knowles et al., 1956) with William Russell. From the early 1960s, she spent her career entirely in television and featured in several one-off productions for the BBC and ITV. She also appeared in series such as Dixon of Dock Green, Journey to the Unknown, The Troubleshooters and Take Three Girls. Her most identifiable TV role was Beryl Fisher, the mother of Betty Spencer (Michele Dotrice) in the comedy series Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.
The film historians Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane praise her "quite unusual intensity and a real capacity for depicting working-class lives". They also note her extensive B-movie career in the 1950s: "Virtually everything she did is worth watching, for her if sometimes for little else." Hylton's first marriage to film producer Euan Lloyd ended in divorce, although the couple remained on good terms. The marriage produced a daughter, Rosalind Lloyd, who also became an actress. Hylton and her daughter both appeared in Lloyd's big-budget mercenary drama The Wild Geese (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1978), starring Richard Burton and Roger Moore. It was Hylton's first screen role for 17 years and turned out to be her last.
Jane Hylton met her second husband, actor Peter Dyneley, on the set of Ett kunglit aventyr / Laughing in the Sunshine (Daniel Birt, 1956). Their marriage lasted until Dyneley's death from cancer in 1977. Hylton, who had been diagnosed with a congenital heart defect in her late 30s, died of a heart attack in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1979. She was only 52.
Dutch postcard by Rembrandt N.V., Amsterdam. William Russell (left) as Sir Lancelot and Jane Hylton as Queen Guinevere in the TV series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (Bernard Knowles, a.o., 1956). The Dutch title was Sir Lancelot. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1965.
Dutch postcard by Rembrandt N.V., Amsterdam. Jane Hylton as Queen Guinevere, William Russell (middle) as Sir Lancelot and Martin Benson (left) as Hassim in the TV series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (Bernard Knowles, a.o., 1956). The Dutch title was Sir Lancelot. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1965.
Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam. William Russell (left) as Sir Lancelot and Jane Hylton as Queen Guinevere in the TV series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (Bernard Knowles, a.o., 1956). The Dutch title was Sir Lancelot.
Sources: The Goon Show Depository, Wikipedia and IMDb.
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