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Moira Shearer

 
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Moira Shearer, Lady Kennedy (17 January, 1926 – 31 January, 2006), was an internationally famous Scottish
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 ballet dancer
Ballet

Ballet is a formalized type of performative dance, the origins of which date lay in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form....
 and actress
Actor

An actor or actress is a person who acting in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio programming in that capacity....
.

She was born Moira Shearer King in Dunfermline
Dunfermline

Dunfermline is a town in Fife which had official City_status_in_the_United_Kingdom#Pretenders until 1970. It is located on high ground five miles from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth on the route of major road and rail crossings across the firth to Edinburgh and the south....
, Fife
Fife

Fife is a council area of Scotland, situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire....
, Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
, the daughter of actor Harold V. King. In 1931 her family relocated to Ndola
Ndola

Ndola is the second-largest city in Zambia, with a population of 374,757 . It is the Industry, Commerce, Administration and distribution hub of the Copperbelt, Zambia's copper extraction region, and capital of Copperbelt Province....
, Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia

Northern Rhodesia was a territory in southern Africa initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by Amalgamation North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia....
 where she received her first dancing training under a former pupil of Enrico Cecchetti
Enrico Cecchetti

Enrico Cecchetti was an Italian ballet dancer, mime, and founder of the Cecchetti method. The son of two dancers, he was born in the costuming room of the Teatro Tordinona in Rome....
. She returned to England in 1936 and trained with Flora Fairbairn in London for a few months before she was accepted as a pupil by the Russian teacher Nicholas Legat
Nicholas Legat

Nikolai Gustavovich Legat , was a dancer with the Russian Imperial Ballet from 1888 to 1914 and was the main successor to the roles of the great ballet dancer, Pavel Gerdt....
.






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Moira Shearer, Lady Kennedy (17 January, 1926 – 31 January, 2006), was an internationally famous Scottish
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 ballet dancer
Ballet

Ballet is a formalized type of performative dance, the origins of which date lay in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form....
 and actress
Actor

An actor or actress is a person who acting in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio programming in that capacity....
.

She was born Moira Shearer King in Dunfermline
Dunfermline

Dunfermline is a town in Fife which had official City_status_in_the_United_Kingdom#Pretenders until 1970. It is located on high ground five miles from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth on the route of major road and rail crossings across the firth to Edinburgh and the south....
, Fife
Fife

Fife is a council area of Scotland, situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire....
, Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
, the daughter of actor Harold V. King. In 1931 her family relocated to Ndola
Ndola

Ndola is the second-largest city in Zambia, with a population of 374,757 . It is the Industry, Commerce, Administration and distribution hub of the Copperbelt, Zambia's copper extraction region, and capital of Copperbelt Province....
, Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia

Northern Rhodesia was a territory in southern Africa initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by Amalgamation North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia....
 where she received her first dancing training under a former pupil of Enrico Cecchetti
Enrico Cecchetti

Enrico Cecchetti was an Italian ballet dancer, mime, and founder of the Cecchetti method. The son of two dancers, he was born in the costuming room of the Teatro Tordinona in Rome....
. She returned to England in 1936 and trained with Flora Fairbairn in London for a few months before she was accepted as a pupil by the Russian teacher Nicholas Legat
Nicholas Legat

Nikolai Gustavovich Legat , was a dancer with the Russian Imperial Ballet from 1888 to 1914 and was the main successor to the roles of the great ballet dancer, Pavel Gerdt....
. After three years with Legat, she joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet School, however after the outbreak of the World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 her parents took her to Scotland. She made her debut with the International Ballet in 1941 before moving on to Sadler's Wells in 1942.

She rose to international fame in 1948 after starring in her first film, as Victoria Page in the ballet
Ballet

Ballet is a formalized type of performative dance, the origins of which date lay in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form....
-themed film
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
 The Red Shoes
The Red Shoes (film)

The Red Shoes is a United Kingdom feature film about ballet, written, directed and produced by the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, known collectively as Powell and Pressburger....
, directed by Michael Powell
Michael Powell (director)

Michael Latham Powell was a British people film director, renowned for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger which produced a series of classic British films under the aegis of "Powell and Pressburger."...
 & Emeric Pressburger
Emeric Pressburger

Emeric Pressburger was an Academy Award-winning Hungarian people/British people screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is known for his series of Powell and Pressburger with Michael Powell ....
. With hair that matched the titular footwear, the role and film were so powerful that even though she went on to star in other films and worked as a dancer for many decades, she is primarily known only for playing "Vicky".

In 1972, she was chosen by the BBC to present the Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition....
 when it was staged at the Usher Hall
Usher Hall

The Usher Hall is a concert hall located in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland.It has hosted concerts and events since its construction in 1896....
 in Edinburgh
Edinburgh

Edinburgh ; is the Capital city of Scotland, a position it has held since 1437. It is the seventh largest city in the United Kingdom and the second largest Scottish City status in the United Kingdom after Glasgow....
. According to author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor's The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History, Moira accepted the role of hostess as her children wanted something to tease her with in the future. She wrote for The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in 1855. Excepting the Financial Times and The Herald , it is the only remaining national daily newspaper printed on traditional newsprint in the broadsheet format in the United Kingdom, as most other broadsheet publications have converted to the smaller tabloid/Compa...
 newspaper and gave talks on ballet worldwide.

The choreographer Gillian Lynne
Gillian Lynne

Gillian Barbara Lynne , CBE is a Great Britain ballerina, dancer, actor, theatre direction, television director and choreographer noted for her popular theatre choreography associated with the iconic musicals Cats and the longest running show in Broadway theatre history The Phantom of the Opera ....
 persuaded her to return to ballet in 1987 to play L. S. Lowry
L. S. Lowry

Laurence Stephen Lowry was an English artist born on Barrett Street, Stretford, Lancashire. Stretford is now in the borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester....
's mother in A Simple Man for the BBC.

Personal life

In 1950, Moira Shearer married Sir Ludovic Kennedy
Ludovic Kennedy

Sir Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy is a United Kingdom journalist, Presenter, and author. He was knighthood in 1994 for services to journalism....
. They were married at in the Chapel Royal in London's Hampton Court Palace. The couple had a son Alastair, and three daughters, Ailsa, Rachel and Fiona. Moira remained at Sadler's Wells until 1953, when she retired from ballet. She continued to act, appearing as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a romantic love Shakespearean comedies by William Shakespeare, suggested by "The Knight's Tale" from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, written around 1594 to 1596....
 at the 1954 Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival

Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for several simultaneous Arts festival festivals that take place during August each year in Edinburgh, Scotland....
 and working again for Powell on the controversial film Peeping Tom
Peeping Tom (film)

Peeping Tom is a psychological thriller film by the British film director Michael Powell . The title derives from 'Voyeurism', a slang expression for a voyeur....
, which damaged Powell's own career.

She died at the Radcliffe Infirmary
Radcliffe Infirmary

The Radcliffe Infirmary was a hospital in central Oxford, England, located at the southern end of Woodstock Road on the western side, backing onto Walton Street....
, Oxford
Oxford

Oxford is a City status in the United Kingdom, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. It has a population of 151,000. The rivers River Cherwell and River Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre....
, England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 at the age of 80.

Filmography

  • The Red Shoes
    The Red Shoes (film)

    The Red Shoes is a United Kingdom feature film about ballet, written, directed and produced by the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, known collectively as Powell and Pressburger....
     (1948)
  • The Tales of Hoffmann
    The Tales of Hoffmann (film)

    The Tales of Hoffmann is a Cinema of the United Kingdom adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's opera Les contes d'Hoffmann, written, produced and directed by the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger working under the umbrella of their production company, Powell and Pressburger....
     (1951)
  • The Story of Three Loves
    The Story of Three Loves

    The Story of Three Loves, also known as Equilibrium, is a 1953 in film romantic anthology film film made by MGM. It consists of three loosely linked separate stories, The Jealous Lover, Mademoiselle and Equilibrium....
     (1953)
  • The Man Who Loved Redheads (1955)
  • 1-2-3-4 ou Les Collants noirs (Black Tights) (1960)
  • Peeping Tom
    Peeping Tom (film)

    Peeping Tom is a psychological thriller film by the British film director Michael Powell . The title derives from 'Voyeurism', a slang expression for a voyeur....
     (1960)
  • A Simple Man (1987) (TV)


External links