Evelyn Laye

Born: 1900-07-10

From Wikipedia Evelyn Laye, CBE (10 July 1900 – 17 February 1996) was an English theatre and musical film actress, who was active on the London light opera stage. Born as Elsie Evelyn Lay in Bloomsbury, London, and known professionally as Evelyn Laye, and informally as Boo. Her parents were both actors and her father a theatre manager. She made her first stage appearance in August 1915 at the Theatre Royal, Brighton as Nang-Ping in Mr. Wu, and her first London appearance at the East Ham Palace on 24 April 1916, aged 16, in the revue Honi Soit, in which she subsequently toured. For the first few years of her career she mainly played in musical comedy and operetta, including Going Up in 1918. Among her successes during the 1920s were Phi-Phi (1922), Madame Pompadour (1923), The Dollar Princess, Blue Eyes (1928) and Lilac Time. She made her Broadway debut in 1929 in the American première of Noël Coward's Bitter Sweet and appeared in several early Hollywood film musicals. She continued acting in pantomimes such as The Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. After the Second World War, she had less success, but she returned to the West End in 1954, in the musical Wedding in Paris.[citation needed] She also acted several times opposite her second husband, actor Frank Lawton, including in the 1956 sitcom My Husband and I. Other stage successes included Silver Wedding (1957; with Lawton), The Amorous Prawn (1959) and Phil the Fluter (1969). Married to the actor Sonnie Hale in 1926, Laye received widespread public sympathy when Hale left her for the actress Jessie Matthews in 1928. She was initially very reluctant to abandon the marriage, but, despite a trial reconciliation, a divorce case eventually followed in 1930, with the judge labelling Matthews an "odious person". She subsequently wed actor Frank Lawton, with whom she remained married until his death. Awarded a CBE in 1973, Laye continued acting well into her nineties.


Placeholder

Princess Charming

as Princess Elaine
Released: 1934-04-24

Revolution breaks out in a small European kingdom, and a young princess is forced to flee for...

Movie page

Theatre of Death

as Madame Angelique
Released: 1967-11-01

The Theatre of Death in Paris specialises in horror presentations. A police surgeon finds...

Movie page

The Woman He Loved

as Lady Cunard
Released: 1988-04-03

In 1936, Edward VIII abdicated in order to marry the woman he loved, Wallis Simpson, a twice...

Movie page

Say Hello to Yesterday

as Woman's mother
Released: 1971-01-14

Approaching middle-age and stuck in an unfulfilled marriage, a suburban British housewife allows...

Movie page

Evensong

as Madame Irela (Maggie O'Neil)
Released: 1934-09-03

Loosely based on the story of the singer Nellie Melba...

Movie page

The Night Is Young

as Elizabeth Katherine Anne 'Lisl' Gluck
Released: 1935-01-11

Young Austrian Archduke Paul "Gustl" Gustave is in an arranged engagement but his uncle, the...

Movie page

One Heavenly Night

as Lilli
Released: 1930-12-25

A poor but basically honest flower woman agrees to impersonate a wicked opera star.

Movie page

The Luck of the Navy

as Cynthia Eden
Released: 1927-11-22

A spy has his son steal an Admiral's submarine plans.

Movie page

Who Would Not Welcome One?

as Herself
Released: 1922-02-13

The Valentine's card, 1920s-style. Two British actresses put lips to paper in a demonstration of...

Movie page

Tales of the Unexpected

as Mrs Standing
First aired: 1979-03-24

A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and...

TV Show page