Joan Dowling
Encyclopedia
Joan Dowling was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 character actress.

Biography

Joan Dowling was an English Actress of the 1940–50s era. She was the illegitimate daughter of Vera Dowling and was brought up by her great grandmother (Elizabeth Dowling) in Uxbridge
Uxbridge
Uxbridge is a large town located in north west London, England and is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. It forms part of the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is located west-northwest of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres...

. She had a passion for acting, although she was never formally trained, and took roles in small plays, pantomimes and other productions whenever she could. At the age of 14, she approached a London acting agency and was given her first 'proper' part in a small production (title unknown). Her major acting debut came when producer Anthony Hawtrey
Anthony Hawtrey
Anthony John Hawtrey was an English actor on stage and screen, and theatre director.-Life:He was born in Claygate, Surrey, on 22 January 1909, the illegitimate son of Sir Charles Hawtrey and Olive Morris. He was educated at Bradfield College, then studied for the stage under Bertha Moore...

 cast her in the role of Norma Bates in the Joan Temple play No Room at the Inn. The play's first performance was at the Embassy Theatre
Embassy Theatre (London)
The Embassy Theatre is a theatre at 64, Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, London.- Early years :The Embassy Theatre was opened as a repertory company in September 1928 on the initiative of Sybil Arundale and Herbert Jay., when the premises of Hampstead Conservatoire of Music were adapted by architect...

 in July 1945. Subsequently the play transferred under producer Robert Atkins
Robert Atkins
Robert Atkins may refer to:* Robert Atkins , American physician noted for the Atkins diet* Robert Atkins , British film and theatre actor...

 to the Winter Garden Theatre, Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....

. She also played the same role in the 1948 film version, with the screenplay co-written by the famous Welsh author Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...

 and Ivan Foxwell
Ivan Foxwell
Ivan Foxwell was a British screenwriter and film producer. The screenplay for Tiara Tahiti on which he worked was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay in 1962.-Selected filmography:Producer...

. She signed her first film contract at the age of 17 for Associated British Pictures.

She was perhaps best known for her role as the tomboy Clarry in the 1947 Ealing Studios
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...

 production Hue and Cry
Hue and Cry (film)
Hue and Cry is a British film directed by Charles Crichton and starring Alastair Sim, Harry Fowler and Joan Dowling.It is generally considered to be the first of the "Ealing comedies", although it is better characterised as a thriller for children...

, a story set among the rubble and buildings of post-War London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 about a group of school children who discover that crooks have been sending coded messages to their gang about upcoming jobs using the pages of a children's comic book. In 1951 she married Harry Fowler
Harry Fowler
Harry James Fowler, MBE is an English actor in film and TV. He started in juvenile roles, most notably in the first recognised Ealing Comedy Hue and Cry, made in 1947...

 - another actor on the cast of Hue and Cry.

Joan Dowling committed suicide (gas poisoning) in 1954.

Filmography

  • Hue and Cry
    Hue and Cry (film)
    Hue and Cry is a British film directed by Charles Crichton and starring Alastair Sim, Harry Fowler and Joan Dowling.It is generally considered to be the first of the "Ealing comedies", although it is better characterised as a thriller for children...

    (1947)
  • No Room at the Inn
    No Room at the Inn
    No Room at the Inn is a 1948 British melodrama, directed by Daniel Birt and starring Freda Jackson and Ann Stephens. The screenplay was adapted by Dylan Thomas and Ivor Foxwell from the play by Joan Temple...

    (1948)
  • Bond Street
    Bond Street (film)
    Bond Street is a 1948 British drama film directed by Gordon Parry and based on a story by Terence Rattigan. It starred Jean Kent, Roland Young, Kathleen Harrison and Derek Farr...

    (1948)
  • A Man's Affair (1949)
  • For Them That Trespass
    For Them That Trespass
    For Them That Trespass is a 1949 British crime film directed by Alberto Cavalcanti and starring Richard Todd, Patricia Plunkett and Stephen Murray...

    (1949)
  • Train of Events
    Train of Events
    Train of Events is a 1949 British film made by Ealing Studios directed by Sidney Cole, Charles Crichton and Basil Dearden.A portmanteau work, it tells the various stories of the passengers who are on a train which crashes into a stalled petrol tanker at a level crossing.-Plot:The film opens with a...

    (1949)
  • Landfall (1949)
  • Murder Without Crime
    Murder Without Crime
    Murder Without Crime is a 1950 British crime film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Dennis Price, Derek Farr and Patricia Plunkett....

    (1950)
  • Pool of London (1951)
  • The Magic Box
    The Magic Box (film)
    The Magic Box is a 1951 British, Technicolor, biographical drama film, directed by John Boulting and starring Ronald Shiner as the Fairground Barker, Sid James, Laurence Olivier, Peter Ustinov and Charles Victor. It was produced by Ronald Neame and distributed by British Lion Film Corporation...

    (1951)
  • 24 Hours of a Woman's Life (1952)
  • Women of Twilight (1953)

Plays

  • No Room at the Inn (1945-7)
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream (1950) as Puck
    Puck (Shakespeare)
    Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow, is a character in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream that was based on the ancient figure in English mythology, also called Puck. Puck is a clever and mischievous elf and personifies the trickster or the wise knave...

  • Robinson Crusoe (1952) as Principal Boy
    Principal boy
    In pantomime, a principal boy role is the young male protagonist of the play, traditionally played by a young actress in boy's clothes.The tradition grew out of laws restricting the use of child actors in London theatre, and the responsibility carried by such lead roles...



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External links

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