Moira Shearer

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Moira Shearer (born January 17, 1926 in Dunfermline , Scotland , † January 31, 2006 in Oxford ; actually Moira King ) was a British dancer and actress .

Life

Moira Shearer was born in Morton Lodge, Dunfermline, Scotland, to the film sound engineer Harold Charles King and Margaret Crawford Reid, nee Shearer. In 1931 she moved with her family to Zambia, then Northern Rhodesia, where her father took a position as an engineer in the city of Ndola and she received her first dance lessons. After returning to Great Britain in 1936, she attended school in Bearsden, Scotland, and took a few months of dance lessons with Flora Fairbairn in London before she was accepted as a student at the Nicholas Legat Studio , where she studied with Nikolai Sergejew , among others .

In 1941 Shearer made her debut as a ballet dancer , from 1942 she danced at the royal ballet at Sadler's Wells , where she rose to prima ballerina . Already at the age of 16, the dancer, famous for her red hair, was an international star. Until 1952 she danced all classical roles and also in new pieces. Her first role at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in 1946 was Sleeping Beauty . Among other things in the role of Titania in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night 's Dream , she undertook several tours through the United States and Canada between 1949 and 1951 .

After the birth of their daughter Alisa, Shearer was ill for a long time and decided to give up dancing: in 1956 she began a second career as an actress with an appearance at the Old Vic in Bristol as "Major Barbara". However, she only appeared sporadically in movies. As early as 1948 it celebrated the ballet film The Red Shoes ( The Red Shoes ) in the role of Victoria Page a great success. The red shoes became so proverbial and associated with her that the Sydney Morning Herald announced the birth of their daughter in 1952 with the headline "Pink Booties for Red Shoes". Her second major role was in Eyes of Fear ( Peeping Tom , 1960, directed by Michael Powell). She hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in Edinburgh in 1972 .

Moira Shearer was married to television man and writer Sir Ludovic Kennedy ; the marriage produced three daughters and one son.

Filmography

  • 1948: The Red Shoes ( The Red Shoes )
  • 1951: Tales of Hoffmann ( The Tales of Hoffmann )
  • 1953: was it great love? ( The Story of Three Loves )
  • 1955: The man who loved redheads ( The Man Who Loved Redheads )
  • 1959: Eyes of Fear ( Peeping Tom )
  • 1960: Carmen 62 ( 1-2-3-4 or Les Collants noirs )
  • 1987: A Simple Man (TV movie)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Shearer, Moira
ALTERNATIVE NAMES King, Moira (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British dancer and actress
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Dunfermline , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 2006
Place of death Oxford