Andy Merriman
Autor(a) de Margaret Rutherford: Dreadnought With Good Manners
About the Author
Now, Andy Merriman has talked to surviving ENSA veterans from Vera Lynn to Dame Beryl Grey, to piece together the extraordinary adventures of the ordinary men and women sent out across the world - even to inhospitable, dangerous Burma - whose vital contribution to the war effort was song, dance and mostrar mais laughter. mostrar menos
Obras por Andy Merriman
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Nome canónico
- Merriman, Andy
- Outros nomes
- Merriman, Andrew
Membros
Críticas
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 6
- Membros
- 87
- Popularidade
- #211,168
- Avaliação
- 3.7
- Críticas
- 2
- ISBN
- 12
- Línguas
- 1
Her stage career only really took off after this, she having supported herself through giving music and elocution lessons. Her first film roles came in the 1930s (when she was already around 40) and she made a very early TV appearance in 1938. Her lack of classical good looks and her quirkiness restricted the parts she was able to land, much to her regret (at various times she rued not having played Shakespeare's Juliet, and Cleopatra, which would have been difficult to picture!). Her devoted late marriage at age 53 to the younger (James) Stringer Davis is lovingly described here, and he was her gofer, dogsbody and carer for the rest of her life (she had a clause in her contract to give him a minor role in her films; otherwise, he landed very few parts, being a rather limited actor). In addition to her acting successes and universally loved personality, she also possessed a broadly based and entirely non-political social conscience, helping young offenders and with tolerant views on issues of race and sexuality, and was incredibly generous with her money (sometimes naively so). She battled all her life with her own mental health issues, and had to rest for long periods during her career. Her deterioration and death in 1972 make a sad ending to this book; her funeral was attended by Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, and Tony Benn, who was the son of her cousin William Wedgewood Benn, and who had supported her financially at times. Her husband only outlived her by a little over a year, but had fallen prey to the wiles of their former housekeeper, Violet Lang-Davis, to whom he proposed shortly after Margaret's death, but who forged his will and stole and sold or otherwise disposed of some of Margaret's most prized possessions, including her Oscar. A sad and sorry ending; a mercy that Stringer and Margaret remained unaware of this sordid deception. A lovely book.… (mais)