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She was one of Stewart Granger's loves in ''[[The Magic Bow]]'' (1946) and had the female lead in a drama about colonialism in Africa ''[[Men of Two Worlds]]'' (1946), made a few years before being released. It was a success, though not profitable because of its high cost. ''[[The Root of All Evil (1947 film)|The Root of All Evil]]'' (1947) was one of the last of the Gainsborough melodramas. She was voted the sixth most popular British star at the box office in 1946.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46266039 |title=FILM WORLD. |newspaper=[[The West Australian]] |volume=63, |issue=18,916 |location=Western Australia |date=28 February 1947 |accessdate=9 August 2017 |page=20 (SECOND EDITION.) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
She was one of Stewart Granger's loves in ''[[The Magic Bow]]'' (1946) and had the female lead in a drama about colonialism in Africa ''[[Men of Two Worlds]]'' (1946), made a few years before being released. It was a success, though not profitable because of its high cost. ''[[The Root of All Evil (1947 film)|The Root of All Evil]]'' (1947) was one of the last of the Gainsborough melodramas. She was voted the sixth most popular British star at the box office in 1946.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46266039 |title=FILM WORLD. |newspaper=[[The West Australian]] |volume=63, |issue=18,916 |location=Western Australia |date=28 February 1947 |accessdate=9 August 2017 |page=20 (SECOND EDITION.) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
===Hollywood===
===Hollywood===
Calvert's success had been noticed in the US, although her films had not been as popular there. Universal signed her to star in ''[[Time Out of Mind (1947 film)|Time Out of Mind]]'' (1947), which was a box office disappointment.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26405124 |title=PHYLLIS CALVERT Makes Her Hollywood Delrit |newspaper=[[The Mercury]] |volume=CLXVI, |issue=23,915 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=2 August 1947 |accessdate=29 August 2017 |page=3 (The Mercury Magazine) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52599861 |title=FILMS AND FILM STARS |newspaper=[[The Examiner (Tasmania)]] |volume=CVI, |issue=121 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=2 August 1947 |accessdate=29 August 2017 |page=1 (WEEK-END MAGAZINE SECTION) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Calvert's success had been noticed in the US, although her films had not been as popular there. Universal signed her to star in ''[[Time Out of Mind (1947 film)|Time Out of Mind]]'' (1947), which was a box office disappointment.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26405124 |title=PHYLLIS CALVERT Makes Her Hollywood Delrit |newspaper=[[The Mercury]] |volume=CLXVI, |issue=23,915 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=2 August 1947 |accessdate=29 August 2017 |page=3 (The Mercury Magazine) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52599861 |title=FILMS AND FILM STARS |newspaper=[[The Examiner (Tasmania)]] |volume=CVI, |issue=121 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=2 August 1947 |accessdate=29 August 2017 |page=1 (WEEK-END MAGAZINE SECTION) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article137125748 |title=Hollywood can't get along without British stars |newspaper=[[The World's News]] |issue=23[?] |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=4 October 1947 |accessdate=4 September 2017 |page=17 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>


She returned to Britain to make ''[[Broken Journey]]'' (1948) playing a role written especially for her, but the film lost money.<ref name="box">[https://books.google.com.au/books?id=sY1LGFNtCOEC&pg=PA232&lpg=PA232&dq=sydney+box+film+producer&source=bl&ots=F02E_WOkLo&sig=bTwtFh0NIsHllgPcTGLkovJObNU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmkt78sr_MAhXltIMKHcEYCX0Q6AEILjAD#v=onepage&q=sydney%20box%20film%20producer&f=false Andrew Spicer, ''Sydney Box'' Manchester Uni Press 2006 p 210]</ref>
She returned to Britain to make ''[[Broken Journey]]'' (1948) playing a role written especially for her, but the film lost money.<ref name="box">[https://books.google.com.au/books?id=sY1LGFNtCOEC&pg=PA232&lpg=PA232&dq=sydney+box+film+producer&source=bl&ots=F02E_WOkLo&sig=bTwtFh0NIsHllgPcTGLkovJObNU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmkt78sr_MAhXltIMKHcEYCX0Q6AEILjAD#v=onepage&q=sydney%20box%20film%20producer&f=false Andrew Spicer, ''Sydney Box'' Manchester Uni Press 2006 p 210]</ref>


Then Calvert went to Hollywood to make two films, both for Paramount: ''[[My Own True Love]]'' (1949), with [[Melvyn Douglas]], and ''[[Appointment with Danger]]'' (1951 but made two years earlier) with [[Alan Ladd]], playing a nun.
Then Calvert went to Hollywood to make two films, both for Paramount: ''[[My Own True Love]]'' (1949), with [[Melvyn Douglas]], and ''[[Appointment with Danger]]'' (1951 but made two years earlier) with [[Alan Ladd]], playing a nun.

===Return to Britain===
===Return to Britain===
Back in Britain she made two films with director [[Ladislao Vajda]], neither particularly successful: ''[[Golden Madonna]]'' (1950) and ''[[The Woman with No Name]]'' (1950). She invested her own money in the latter.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46455501 |title=Phyllis Calvert talks of home and career |newspaper=[[The Australian Women's Weekly]] |volume=17, |issue=50 |location=Australia, Australia |date=20 May 1950 |accessdate=29 August 2017 |page=52 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Back in Britain she made two films with director [[Ladislao Vajda]], neither particularly successful: ''[[Golden Madonna]]'' (1950) and ''[[The Woman with No Name]]'' (1950). She invested her own money in the latter.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46455501 |title=Phyllis Calvert talks of home and career |newspaper=[[The Australian Women's Weekly]] |volume=17, |issue=50 |location=Australia, Australia |date=20 May 1950 |accessdate=29 August 2017 |page=52 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

Revision as of 19:43, 3 September 2017

Phyllis Calvert
Born
Phyllis Hannah Bickle

(1915-02-18)18 February 1915
Chelsea, London, England
Died8 October 2002(2002-10-08) (aged 87)
London, England
Years active1927-2000
SpousePeter Murray-Hill (1941–57) (his death)
ChildrenAnn Auriol (b. 1943)
Piers Auriol (b. 1954)[1]

Phyllis Hannah Murray-Hill (née Bickle; 18 February 1915 – 8 October 2002), known professionally as Phyllis Calvert, was an English film, stage and television actress. She was one of the leading stars of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1940s such as The Man in Grey and was one of the most popular movie stars in Britain in the 1940s. She continued acting until some 50 years later.[2][3]

In the words of one account, "Most of the time she drew what looked like the short straw, playing the "good girl" in films that revelled in the exploits of her wicked opposite number, and it says much for her talent and charisma that she was able to hold attention in what must have seemed thankless parts - she herself acknowledged that "I do think it is much more difficult to establish a really charming, nice person than a wicked one - and make it real"."[2]

Biography

Born in Chelsea, London, she trained at the Margaret Morris School of Dancing[citation needed] and performed from the age of ten, performing with Ellen Terry in Crossings. She gained her first film role at the age of 12, in The Arcadians (1927), also known as The Land of Heart's Desire.[4]

Calvert performed in repertory theatre in Malvern and Coventry. She made her London stage debut in A Woman's Privilege in 1939.[5] Her early films include Two Days to Live (1939).[6]

Gainsborough Pictures

Calvert was spotted in a play Punch without Judy and signed to a contract by Gainsborough Pictures who gave her the lead in They Came by Night (1940), opposite Will Fyffe.[7] She was George Formby's love interest in Let George Do It! (1940) and had a support part in Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt (1940), starring Arthur Askey.

Calvert was in a war movie, Neutral Port (1940), then had a good role as Michael Redgrave's love interest in Kipps (1941), directed by Carol Reed. After a detective film Inspector Hornleigh Goes To It (1941) she had the co-lead in Uncensored (1942),a war movie with Eric Portman. Reed used her again in The Young Mr Pitt (1942), playing Eleanor Eden.

In 1942, she had the lead role as Patricia Graham in Terence Rattigan's Flare Path.[5][8]

Stardom

Calvert was by now very well established in British films. She did not become a star, however, until given one of the four leading roles in the Gainsborough melodrama The Man in Grey (1943). The movie was a huge success, making her and her three co-stars - Stewart Granger, James Mason and Margaret Lockwood - genuine box office stars in Britain.

Calvert followed it with Fanny by Gaslight (1944), co-starring Granger and Mason, and another big hit. Also popular was Two Thousand Women (1944), made by Launder and Gilliat, about British women interned in occupied France. It co-starred Patricia Roc, who appeared with Calvert and Granger in Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945), another Gainsborough melodrama, and another hit. Calvert's successful run at the box office when she and Mason were reunited in They Were Sisters (1945), a more contemporary-set Gainsborough melodrama. Exhibitors voted her the fifth most popular star of 1945 in Britain.[9]

She was one of Stewart Granger's loves in The Magic Bow (1946) and had the female lead in a drama about colonialism in Africa Men of Two Worlds (1946), made a few years before being released. It was a success, though not profitable because of its high cost. The Root of All Evil (1947) was one of the last of the Gainsborough melodramas. She was voted the sixth most popular British star at the box office in 1946.[10]

Hollywood

Calvert's success had been noticed in the US, although her films had not been as popular there. Universal signed her to star in Time Out of Mind (1947), which was a box office disappointment.[11][12][13]

She returned to Britain to make Broken Journey (1948) playing a role written especially for her, but the film lost money.[14]

Then Calvert went to Hollywood to make two films, both for Paramount: My Own True Love (1949), with Melvyn Douglas, and Appointment with Danger (1951 but made two years earlier) with Alan Ladd, playing a nun.

Return to Britain

Back in Britain she made two films with director Ladislao Vajda, neither particularly successful: Golden Madonna (1950) and The Woman with No Name (1950). She invested her own money in the latter.[15]

Calvert was in a thriller Mr. Denning Drives North (1951) with John Mills and a BBC TV production The Holly and the Ivy (1951). She had her first big hit in a while, Mandy (1952).

Calvert was a wife in The Net (1953) then was off screen for a while. He acted on stage in It's Never Too Late (1956), then appeared in the film version.[16] She followed it with Child in the House (1956).

On TV she was in "The Father" for ITV's Television Playhouse and played the lead in Tatiana, the Czar's Daughter. She also played Mrs March in a 6-part BBC adaptation of Little Women.

Calvert had a support part in the Hollywood financed Indiscreet (1958) then played a concerned mother in The Young and the Guilty (1958) and a wacky spinster in A Lady Mislaid (1959). On TV she was in "The Break" for Armchair Theatre (1959) and played Katherine O'Shea in Parnell for Play of the Week (1959), then reprised her role as Mrs March for the BBC in Good Wives (1959). She was Constance Wilde in Oscar Wilde (1960) with Robert Morley and A Righteous Woman on Play of the Week (1962).

Later career

She acted in over 40 films, her later films including The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965),Twisted Nerve (1968), Oh! What a Lovely War and The Walking Stick (1970)[citation needed].

In 1970-72, she starred in her own TV series, playing the part of an agony aunt with problems of her own in Kate[citation needed].

She made TV appearances in programmes such as Crown Court, Ladykillers, Tales of the Unexpected, Boon, After Henry and The Lime Grove Story[citation needed]. She also played D.I. Barnaby's Aunt Alice (Alice Bly) in a Midsomer Murders episode "Blue Herrings" in 2000[citation needed]. She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1972 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.

Personal life

She was married to the actor and antiquarian bookseller Peter Murray Hill,[8][17] with whom she had two children, Ann Auriol (born 1943) and Piers Auriol (born 1954). She died in London in 2002, from natural causes,[17] aged 87.

Partial filmography

Box office ranking

For a number of years, British film exhibitors voted her among the top ten British stars at the box office via an annual poll in the Motion Picture Herald.

References

  1. ^ https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/12/obituaries/12CALV.html
  2. ^ a b "BFI Screenonline: Calvert, Phyllis (1915-2002) Biography". screenonline.org.uk.
  3. ^ "Phyllis Calvert". BFI.
  4. ^ "PHYLLIS CALVERT Britain's Wartime Star". The Australasian. Vol. CLX, , no. 5, 065. Victoria, Australia. 26 January 1946. p. 13. Retrieved 29 August 2017 – via National Library of Australia.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  5. ^ a b "Phyllis Calvert". Telegraph.co.uk. 9 October 2002.
  6. ^ "Phyllis Calvert Featured in Picture". Glen Innes Examiner. New South Wales, Australia. 17 March 1948. p. 4. Retrieved 29 August 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "Phyllis Calvert". Morwell Advertiser. No. 2850. Victoria, Australia. 3 July 1941. p. 4 (morning.). Retrieved 29 August 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ a b Eric Shorter. "Obituary: Phyllis Calvert". the Guardian.
  9. ^ "CROSBY and HOPE try their luck in Alaska". The Mercury. Vol. CLXIII, , no. 23, 475. Tasmania, Australia. 2 March 1946. p. 3 (The Mercury Magazine). Retrieved 9 August 2017 – via National Library of Australia.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  10. ^ "FILM WORLD". The West Australian. Vol. 63, , no. 18, 916. Western Australia. 28 February 1947. p. 20 (SECOND EDITION.). Retrieved 9 August 2017 – via National Library of Australia.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  11. ^ "PHYLLIS CALVERT Makes Her Hollywood Delrit". The Mercury. Vol. CLXVI, , no. 23, 915. Tasmania, Australia. 2 August 1947. p. 3 (The Mercury Magazine). Retrieved 29 August 2017 – via National Library of Australia.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  12. ^ "FILMS AND FILM STARS". The Examiner (Tasmania). Vol. CVI, , no. 121. Tasmania, Australia. 2 August 1947. p. 1 (WEEK-END MAGAZINE SECTION). Retrieved 29 August 2017 – via National Library of Australia.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  13. ^ "Hollywood can't get along without British stars". The World's News. No. 23[?]. New South Wales, Australia. 4 October 1947. p. 17. Retrieved 4 September 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ^ Andrew Spicer, Sydney Box Manchester Uni Press 2006 p 210
  15. ^ "Phyllis Calvert talks of home and career". The Australian Women's Weekly. Vol. 17, , no. 50. Australia, Australia. 20 May 1950. p. 52. Retrieved 29 August 2017 – via National Library of Australia.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  16. ^ By, S. W. (1955, Sep 25). OBSERVATIONS ON THE BRITISH SCREEN SCENE. New York Times (1923-Current File) Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.sl.nsw.gov.au/docview/113205684?accountid=13902
  17. ^ a b "BBC NEWS - Entertainment - Actress Phyllis Calvert dies". bbc.co.uk.
  18. ^ "CROSBY and HOPE try their luck in Alaska". The Mercury. Hobart, Tas.: National Library of Australia. 2 March 1946. p. 3 Supplement: The Mercury Magazine. Retrieved 24 April 2012.
  19. ^ "FILM WORLD". The West Australian. Perth: National Library of Australia. 28 February 1947. p. 20 Edition: SECOND EDITION. Retrieved 27 April 2012.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phyllis_Calvert&oldid=798778851"