Dorothy Hyson

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Dorothy Hyson, Lady Quayle (born on 24. December 1914 in Chicago as Dorothy Wardell Heisen , died on 23. May 1996 in London ) was an American film and stage actress who mostly worked in England. During World War II she worked as a code breaker in Bletchley Park .

Life

She was the only child of the actress Dorothy Dickson and the matinee idol Carl Constantine Hyson (née Heisen). Her mother was known as The Toast of Broadway . Hyson made her acting debut at the age of three, playing her mother's daughter in a silent film directed by director George Fitzmaurice at New York's Paramount Studios. Hyson moved to England with her parents, who eventually divorced. Her mother made a successful appearance in Jerome David Kern's musical Sally and became the highest paid actress in London. Hyson was taught in England and France but made a few appearances in child roles in the West End , including on Quality Street by JM Barrie . After Sybil Thorndike saw her in the film version of Daisy Ashford's The Young Visiters at the age of 13 , she told her mother that she was going to be a star.

Hyson was married twice; from 1935 to 1945 with the actor Robert Douglas , and from 1947 until his death in 1989 with the actor, director and writer Sir Anthony Quayle . After her marriage to Quayle, she withdrew from the stage to look after their three children, a son and two daughters. One of the daughters, Jenny Quayle , is also an actress.

She died of a stroke in England on May 23, 1996 at the age of 81, one year after the death of her mother, who died at the age of 102.

Career

After graduating from school in Paris, Hyson appeared in 1933 at the age of 19 in the period comedy Soldiers of the King with Cicely Courtneidge . Her professional theater debut in Ivor Novello piece flow in the Sun . She worked on films during the day and performed on stage in the evening. Filming in Blackpool of Gracie Fields Sing As We Go and appearing in the West End with Dodie Smiths Touch Wood caused a nervous breakdown. She continued to star in light West End comedies and had great success in a 1936 adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice in 1936. In 1938 she appeared at the Old Vic Theater as Titania in Tyrone Guthrie's version of A Midsummer Night's Dream .

During World War II, Hyson made several other films, including You Will Remember with Robert Morley and the musical comedy Spare a Copper with George Formby . She also starred in revues , musical comedies and plays such as the thriller Pink String and Sealing Wax in 1943 and an adaptation of Anthony Trollope's Scandal at Barchester in 1944. In 1945 she played Lady Windermere in Oscar Wilde's play Lady Windermeres Fan .

She worked as one of the women in Bletchley Park during the Second World War in the secret code breaking facility there, and although she was married to Robert Douglas, she was visited there by her future second husband, Anthony Quayle. Quayle recalled: “She went to Bletchley Park to work as a code breaker. I visited her there and found her sick and exhausted from the long night shifts. "

She was the “epitome of theatrical West End glamor” and returned to the West End after the war, where she moved to John Gielgud at the Haymarket Theater in 1945 .

Filmography

  • 1918: Money Mad (aka Paying the Piper )
  • 1933: The Ghoul (as Betty Harlon)
  • 1933: Soldiers of the King (as Judy Marvello)
  • 1933: Turkey Time (as Rose Adair)
  • 1933: Happy (as Lillian)
  • 1934: That's a Good Girl (as Moya Malone)
  • 1934: Sing As We Go (as Phyllis)
  • 1934: A Cup of Kindness (as Betty Ramsbotham)
  • 1940: Now You're Talking (as Mrs. Hamton)
  • 1941 Spare a Copper (as Jane Gray)
  • 1941: You Will Remember (as Ellaline Terriss)
  • 1957: Salute to Show Business (Participant)

stage

Trivia

Hyson's particular beauty, her blue eyes, blonde hair and her fragile singing and dancing style, is said to have been the inspiration for the 1935 hit The Most Beautiful Girl in the World by American songwriters Rodgers and Hart .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dorothy Hyson. In: bfi.org.uk. Retrieved September 25, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Sandra Brennan: Dorothy Hyson - Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos. In: AllMovie. Retrieved September 25, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Adam Benedick: Obituary: Dorothy Hyson. In: The Independent. May 25, 1996, accessed September 25, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e George's Leading Ladies: Dorothy Hyson. In: georgeformby.co.uk. Retrieved September 25, 2019 .
  5. ^ A b Glen Collins: Obituary: Sir Anthony Quayle, British Actor And Theater Director, Dies at 76. In: The New York Times. October 21, 1989, accessed September 25, 2019 .
  6. ^ Sinclair McKay: The Secret Life of Bletchley Park . Aurum Press, London 2011, ISBN 978-1-84513-539-3 , pp. 7, 72, 306 .
  7. ^ A b Dorothy Hyson, 81, Actress in Britain. In: The New York Times. May 28, 1996, accessed September 25, 2019 .
  8. ^ How Alan Turing's secret papers were saved for the nation. In: The Telegraph. July 30, 2011, accessed September 25, 2019 .
  9. ^ Sinclair McKay: The Secret Life of Bletchley Park . Aurum Press, London 2011, ISBN 978-1-84513-683-3 , pp. 72 : "She had gone to work as a cryptographer at Bletchley Park. I went to see her there and found her ill and exhausted with the long night shifts. "
  10. ↑ Stephen Raby: The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde . Ed .: Peter Raby. Cambridge University Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-521-47987-5 .
personal data
SURNAME Hyson, Dorothy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heissen, Dorothy Wardell (maiden name); Hyson, Dorothy Wardell; Quayle, Dorothy Wardell; Lady Quayle
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American code breaker and actress
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago
DATE OF DEATH May 23, 1996
Place of death London