Anna Neagle

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Dame Anna Neagle , DBE ; actually Florence Marjorie Robertson (born October 20, 1904 in Forrest Gate , Essex , † June 3, 1986 in West Byfleet , Surrey ) was a British actress .

Life

Trained for the stage by her ambitious mother as a child, Anna Neagle was already known as a dancer in various revues and vaudevilles at the age of 14. Through his acquaintance with the producer Herbert Wilcox , Neagle quickly rose to become the most famous British film star alongside Gracie Fields . At the beginning of her career she was mostly seen in operettas like Goodnight Vienna and Bitter Sweet , but it was only with her portrayal of historical personalities that she rose to number one at the box office. She starred as Nell Gwyn and played Queen Victoria of Great Britain twice in quick succession in Queen Victoria and Sixty Glorious Years . At the height of her career, she went to the United States in 1939 , where she was signed by RKO . Her appearance as Edith Cavell was not well received by the public and press, and her portrayal of frivolous heroines in light musicals such as No, No, Nannette and Irene were not suitable to make an American star out of her. Neagle returned to her homeland in 1942 and was only able to build on her earlier successes in 1945 with I Live in Grosvenor Square at the side of Michael Wilding . As a result, a whole cycle of opulently produced romances was created, which showed Neagle and Wilding in all sorts of romantic entanglements and mostly played in better company. Neagle was always seen as a perfectly dressed lady who occasionally started a song. The titles of the films were program and Picadilly Incident , The Courtney's of Curzon Street and especially Maytime in Mayfair were among the most successful British productions of the time. Occasionally Neagle also played historical figures again, such as the resistance fighter Odette Sanson in the film Odette from 1950 or Florence Nightingale in Florence Nightingale - A Life for the Next ( The Lady with the Lamp ) from 1951, which, however, compares unfavorably with the interpretation of Kay Francis in the 1936 version, The White Angel .

From the mid-1950s, the career of Anna Neagle, who had been voted the most popular film actress in Great Britain seven times in a row from 1945, quickly sank into mediocrity. She and Wilcox went bankrupt towards the end of the decade. Neagle returned to the stage and secured an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records by making 2062 non-stop appearances in the hit play Charlie Girl from 1965 to 1971 . In 1969 Neagle was named Dame of the British Empire . In 1974 she published her autobiography There's Always Tomorrow .

Anna Neagle was married to Herbert Wilcox from 1943 until his death. The marriage remained childless. The actress died at the age of 81.

Filmography (selection)

Fonts

  • There's Always Tomorrow , Allen, London 1974

Web links

Commons : Anna Neagle  - Collection of Images
personal data
SURNAME Neagle, Anna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Robertson, Florence Marjorie (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actress
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Forrest Gate , Essex , England , UK
DATE OF DEATH June 3, 1986
Place of death West Byfleet , Surrey , England , United Kingdom