Dulcie Gray
Encyclopedia
Dulcie Gray, CBE
(born Dulcie Winifred Catherine Bailey, 20 November 1915 – 15 November 2011) was a British singer and actress of stage, screen and television, a mystery writer and lepidopterist.
, British Malaya
(now Malaysia) in 1915, although she would later shave four years off her age, and attended school in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, later returning to Malaya to teach. After her father's death, she came back to England. Following a brief period at art school, she enrolled at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
, where she met fellow actor Michael Denison
, whom she married in 1939. The couple were together for 59 years before his death from cancer in 1998. They had no children. The couple's professional careers were intertwined and they frequently appeared on stage together. Between them they starred in more than 100 West End plays and in the 1940s and 1950s, were familiar figures in British films. Onscreen they co-starred in My Brother Jonathan
and The Glass Mountain
in 1948, The Franchise Affair
in 1950 and the Battle of Britain movie Angels One Five
in 1952.
Her performance as the luckless waitress Rose in the original stage production of Brighton Rock at the Garrick Theatre
in 1944 led to Gray being offered a contract with Gainsborough Pictures
. However, she was passed over for the role of Rose in the 1947 film version of Brighton Rock, in favour of Carol Marsh
.
During the 1940s, Gray appeared in Gainsborough melodramas
such as They Were Sisters
. She was known to television viewers as Kate Harvey in the 1980s BBC
drama series Howards' Way
(1985–90). Gray and Denison made their joint Broadway debut in the first New York production of Oscar Wilde
's An Ideal Husband
, appearing as Lady Markby and the Earl of Caversham from 1 May 1996 until 26 January 1997. Their wedding anniversary was feted by cast and crew at Tavern on the Green
.
In 1997, she gave an impromptu public performance of her song "You Tickle Me Spitless, Baby" as part of an interview with her and her husband on UK Channel 5's Five's Company. Before singing it on this daytime show, Gray had only sung this legendary ditty to friends at dinner parties. It was never officially released as a record.
In 1999, the year after her husband's death, she played Mrs Wilberforce in an 18-city tour of UK theatres in a stage adaptation of the 1955 Ealing
classic film, The Ladykillers
.
She last appeared on screen in 2000 in an episode of the BBC drama series Doctors.
. She was also a patron of the Chiltern Shakespeare Company
.
in the actors' residential care home, Denville Hall
, Northwood, Middlesex, on 15 November 2011, five days before her 96th birthday.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born Dulcie Winifred Catherine Bailey, 20 November 1915 – 15 November 2011) was a British singer and actress of stage, screen and television, a mystery writer and lepidopterist.
Early life and career
Gray was born in Kuala LumpurKuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
, British Malaya
British Malaya
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
(now Malaysia) in 1915, although she would later shave four years off her age, and attended school in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, later returning to Malaya to teach. After her father's death, she came back to England. Following a brief period at art school, she enrolled at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, formerly the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art, was a drama school, and originally a singing school, in London. It was one of the leading drama schools in Britain, and offered comprehensive training for those intending to pursue a...
, where she met fellow actor Michael Denison
Michael Denison
John Michael Terence Wellesley Denison CBE was an English actor.-Background:Denison was born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire in 1915. He was raised by his aunt and uncle from the age of three weeks, following the death of his mother and his estrangement from his father. He was educated at Harrow...
, whom she married in 1939. The couple were together for 59 years before his death from cancer in 1998. They had no children. The couple's professional careers were intertwined and they frequently appeared on stage together. Between them they starred in more than 100 West End plays and in the 1940s and 1950s, were familiar figures in British films. Onscreen they co-starred in My Brother Jonathan
My Brother Jonathan
My Brother Jonathan is a 1948 British drama film directed by Harold French. It starred Michael Denison, Dulcie Gray, and James Robertson Justice....
and The Glass Mountain
The Glass Mountain (film)
The Glass Mountain is a film released in 1949. It starred Michael Denison, Dulcie Gray and Valentina Cortese. The theme music by Nino Rota is memorable...
in 1948, The Franchise Affair
The Franchise Affair
The Franchise Affair is a 1948 mystery novel by Josephine Tey, in which a small-town lawyer is called on to defend two women accused of kidnapping and mistreating a girl named Betty Kane....
in 1950 and the Battle of Britain movie Angels One Five
Angels One Five
Angels One Five is a 1952 British film directed by George More O'Ferrall, and starring Jack Hawkins, Michael Denison, Dulcie Gray, John Gregson, Cyril Raymond, Veronica Hurst and also featuring Bill Everett. Based on the book 'What Are Your Angels Now?' by Pelham Groom Angels One Five is a 1952...
in 1952.
Her performance as the luckless waitress Rose in the original stage production of Brighton Rock at the Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
in 1944 led to Gray being offered a contract with Gainsborough Pictures
Gainsborough Pictures
Gainsborough Pictures was a British film studio based on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in the former Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, London. Gainsborough Studios were active between 1924 and 1951. Built as a power station for the Great Northern & City Railway it...
. However, she was passed over for the role of Rose in the 1947 film version of Brighton Rock, in favour of Carol Marsh
Carol Marsh
Carol Marsh , born Norma Simpson, was an English film actress known for winning the part of Rose in the film Brighton Rock after thousands auditioned for the part....
.
During the 1940s, Gray appeared in Gainsborough melodramas
Gainsborough melodramas
The Gainsborough melodramas were a sequence of films produced by the British film studio Gainsborough Pictures during the 1940s which conformed to a melodramatic style. The melodramas were not a film series but an unrelated sequence of films which had similar themes and frequently recurring actors...
such as They Were Sisters
They Were Sisters
They Were Sisters is a 1945 British melodrama film, directed by Arthur Crabtree for Gainsborough Pictures and starring James Mason and Phyllis Calvert. The film was produced by Harold Huth, with cinematography from Jack Cox and screenplay by Roland Pertwee...
. She was known to television viewers as Kate Harvey in the 1980s BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
drama series Howards' Way
Howards' Way
Howards' Way is a television drama series produced by BBC Birmingham and transmitted on BBC One between 1 September 1985 and 25 November 1990. The series deals with the personal and professional lives of the yachting and business communities in the fictional town of Tarrant on the South Coast of...
(1985–90). Gray and Denison made their joint Broadway debut in the first New York production of Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's An Ideal Husband
An Ideal Husband
An Ideal Husband is an 1895 comedic stage play by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour...
, appearing as Lady Markby and the Earl of Caversham from 1 May 1996 until 26 January 1997. Their wedding anniversary was feted by cast and crew at Tavern on the Green
Tavern on the Green
Tavern on the Green was a privately owned American cuisine restaurant located in Central Park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in New York City. It remained in operation from 1934 to 2009 under various owners...
.
In 1997, she gave an impromptu public performance of her song "You Tickle Me Spitless, Baby" as part of an interview with her and her husband on UK Channel 5's Five's Company. Before singing it on this daytime show, Gray had only sung this legendary ditty to friends at dinner parties. It was never officially released as a record.
In 1999, the year after her husband's death, she played Mrs Wilberforce in an 18-city tour of UK theatres in a stage adaptation of the 1955 Ealing
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since...
classic film, The Ladykillers
The Ladykillers
The Ladykillers is a 1955 British black comedy film made by Ealing Studios. Directed by Alexander Mackendrick, it stars Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Danny Green, Jack Warner and Katie Johnson...
.
She last appeared on screen in 2000 in an episode of the BBC drama series Doctors.
Writing
She wrote some two dozen murder mysteries, which found wide popularity, including seventeen detective stories featuring "Inspector Cardiff", a character she created, eight radio plays, several volumes of short stories and an autobiography, Looking Forward, Looking Back. With her husband, she wrote some thoughts on her craft for young children, An Actor and His World. She also published Butterflies on My Mind, a work on the conservation and life of butterflies in Great BritainGreat Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. She was also a patron of the Chiltern Shakespeare Company
Chiltern Shakespeare Company
The Chiltern Shakespeare Company is a Shakespearean theatre company founded in 1989 that produces Shakespearean plays annually in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire...
.
Death
Dulcie Gray died from bronchial pneumoniaBronchopneumonia
Bronchopneumonia or bronchial pneumonia or "Bronchogenic pneumonia" is the acute inflammation of the walls of the bronchioles...
in the actors' residential care home, Denville Hall
Denville Hall
Denville Hall is a retirement home for professional actors, situated in Northwood, Hillingdon, London, which was designed by Founded in 1925 as a charity for actors by Alfred Denville, impresario, actor-manager and MP, he dedicated the Hall to the acting profession, in memory of his son Jack, who...
, Northwood, Middlesex, on 15 November 2011, five days before her 96th birthday.
Filmography
- Banana RidgeBanana RidgeBanana Ridge is a 1942 British comedy film directed by Walter C. Mycroft and starring Robertson Hare, Alfred Drayton and Isabel Jeans. The film is based on a 1938 stage play of the same name by Ben Travers...
(1942) - Victory Wedding (1942, short)
- Two Thousand WomenTwo Thousand WomenTwo Thousand Women is a 1944 British comedy-drama war film about a camp of interned British women in Occupied France. Three RAF aircrewmen whose bomber had been shot down enter the camp and are hidden by the women from the Germans...
(1944) - Madonna of the Seven MoonsMadonna of the Seven MoonsMadonna of the Seven Moons is a 1945 British drama film directed by Arthur Crabtree and starring Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. The film was one of the Gainsborough melodramas. It was based on a novel by Margery Lawrence.-Plot:...
(1945) - A Place of One's OwnA Place of One's OwnA Place of One's Own is a British film directed by Bernard Knowles. An atmospheric ghost story based on the novel by Osbert Sitwell, it stars James Mason, Barbara Mullen, Margaret Lockwood, Dennis Price and Dulcie Gray...
(1945) - They Were SistersThey Were SistersThey Were Sisters is a 1945 British melodrama film, directed by Arthur Crabtree for Gainsborough Pictures and starring James Mason and Phyllis Calvert. The film was produced by Harold Huth, with cinematography from Jack Cox and screenplay by Roland Pertwee...
(1945) - The Years BetweenThe Years Between (film)The Years Between is a 1946 British film starring Michael Redgrave, Valerie Hobson and Flora Robson in an adaptation of The Years Between by Daphne du Maurier...
(1946) - Wanted for MurderWanted for Murder (film)Wanted for Murder is a 1946 British crime film directed by Lawrence Huntington.-Plot:Anne Fielding is delayed on the London Underground making her late for a meeting with her friend, Victor James Colebrooke. There, she meets Jack Williams who is also delayed. The two take an immediate liking to...
(1946) - Mine Own ExecutionerMine Own ExecutionerMine Own Executioner is a 1947 British drama film directed by Anthony Kimmins. It was entered into the 1947 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Burgess Meredith - Felix Milne* Dulcie Gray - Patricia Milne* Michael Shepley - Peter Edge...
(1947) - A Man About the HouseA Man About the House (1947 film)A Man About the House is a black-and-white British film directed by Leslie Arliss and released in 1947. The film is a melodrama, adapted for the screen by J.B. Williams from the 1942 novel of the same name by Francis Brett Young...
(1947) - My Brother JonathanMy Brother JonathanMy Brother Jonathan is a 1948 British drama film directed by Harold French. It starred Michael Denison, Dulcie Gray, and James Robertson Justice....
(1948) - The Glass MountainThe Glass Mountain"The Glass Mountain" is the 6th pulp magazine story to feature The Avenger. Written by Paul Ernst, it was published in the February 1, 1940 issue of "The Avenger” magazine.-Publishing history:...
(1949) - The Franchise AffairThe Franchise Affair (film)The Franchise Affair is a 1951 British thriller film directed by Lawrence Huntington and starring Michael Denison, Dulcie Gray, Anthony Nicholls and Marjorie Fielding...
(1951) - Angels One FiveAngels One FiveAngels One Five is a 1952 British film directed by George More O'Ferrall, and starring Jack Hawkins, Michael Denison, Dulcie Gray, John Gregson, Cyril Raymond, Veronica Hurst and also featuring Bill Everett. Based on the book 'What Are Your Angels Now?' by Pelham Groom Angels One Five is a 1952...
(1952) - There Was a Young Lady (1953)
- Welcome, Mr. Beddoes (1966)