Kathleen Byron

Kathleen Byron
Byron in Black Narcissus
Born	Kathleen Elizabeth Fell (1921-01-11)11 January 1921 Manor Park, Essex, England
Died	18 January 2009(2009-01-18) (aged 88) Northwood, London, England
Other names	Kathleen Jacob
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1938–2001
Spouses	Daniel Bowen ​ ​ (m. 1943; div. 1950)​ Alaric Jacob ​ ​ (m. 1953; died 1995)​
Children	2 (+ 1 stepdaughter)

Kathleen Elizabeth Fell (11 January 1921 – 18 January 2009), known professionally as Kathleen Byron, was an English actress.

Early life

Byron was born Kathleen Elizabeth Fell in Manor Park (then part of Essex) to what she described as "staunch working-class socialists", who later became Labour mayors of the County Borough of East Ham. She attended the local grammar school and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She had her first speaking film role in Carol Reed's The Young Mr. Pitt (1942), in which she had two lines as a maid opposite Robert Donat.

Career

Kathleen Byron as Ann Peters in Life in Her Hands

In 1943, Byron married a USAAF pilot, Lt. John Daniel Bowen, and moved to the United States. The director Michael Powell persuaded her to return to Britain where she made her best remembered films. She was cast in several films of the Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger partnership: as an angel in A Matter of Life and Death (1946), the disturbed Sister Ruth in Black Narcissus (1947, for which she was nominated for Best Actress by the New York Film Critics' Circle) and in The Small Back Room (1949). Byron was romantically linked with Michael Powell for a time; he was named as a co-respondent when her first marriage was dissolved in 1950. Her success in Black Narcissus eventually led her to Hollywood, which resulted in a supporting role in Young Bess (1953). She found the experience an unrewarding one and soon returned to Britain. Her subsequent roles of the time were mostly in B films. She had an occasional role in the 1957–67 soap Emergency Ward 10, playing the alcoholic wife of the consultant gynaecologist Harold de la Roux (John Barron).

In the 1960s and 1970s, Byron did extensive television work, including a 1961 appearance in a Danger Man episode entitled "Name, Date and Place" as Deidre; Crown Court (episode: "A Case of Murder"); a small role as Queen Louise of Denmark in Edward the Seventh (1975), Madame Celeste Lekeu in two episodes of the BBC drama Secret Army (1977), entitled "Bait" and "Good Friday", a brief stint on the soap opera Emmerdale Farm in 1979, and one of the leads in the daytime soap Together (1980–81, its second series broadcast live). Byron continued to act into the new millennium, her film, theatre and television work including Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap (1990), an adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma (1996), Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998), Midsomer Murders (1999) (as Dorothea Pike in S2:E2 “Strangler’s Wood”) and Stephen Poliakoff's series, Perfect Strangers (2001).

Personal life and death

In 1953, Byron married her second husband, the British journalist and writer Alaric Jacob (who predeceased her); Jacob was then working for the BBC. They had one son and daughter; with a child from Jacob's previous marriage.

Byron died on 18 January 2009, aged 88, at Denville Hall in Northwood, London. According to her stepdaughter, Byron had been suffering from cancer and Alzheimer's disease.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Note
1938	Climbing High	Model on Sofa	Uncredited
1942	The Young Mr. Pitt	Millicent Grey	Uncredited
1943	The Silver Fleet	Schoolmistress
1946	A Matter of Life and Death	An Angel
1947	Black Narcissus	Sister Ruth
1949	The Small Back Room	Susan
	Madness of the Heart	Verite Faimont
1950	The Reluctant Widow	Mme. Annette de Chevreaux
	Prelude to Fame	Signora Anne Bondini
1951	Scarlet Thread	Josephine
	Life in Her Hands	Ann Peters
	Hell Is Sold Out	Arlette de Balzamann
	I'll Never Forget You	Duchess of Devonshire
	Four Days	Lucienne Templar
	Tom Brown's Schooldays	Mrs. Brown
1952	My Death Is a Mockery	Helen Bradley
	The Gambler and the Lady	Pat
1953	Young Bess	Ann Seymour
1954	Star of My Night	Eve Malone
	Profile	Margot
	Night of the Silvery Moon	Jane
1955	Secret Venture	Renne L'Epine
	Handcuffs, London	Janet Tedford
1961	Hand in Hand	Mrs. O'Malley
	Design for Murder	Elizabeth Carr	TV movie
1962	Night of the Eagle	Evelyn Sawtelle
1967	Who Is Sylvia?	Mrs. Proudpiece	TV series
1968	Hammerhead	Lady Calvet
	The Portrait of a Lady	Countess Gemini	TV series
1969	The Confessions of Marian Evans		TV movie
	Wolfshead: The Legend of Robin Hood	Katherine of Locksley
1971	Private Road	Mrs. Halpern
	Twins of Evil	Katy Weil
1972	The Golden Bowl	Fanny Assingham	TV series
	The Moonstone	Lady Verinder	TV series
1973	Nothing But the Night	Dr. Rose
1974	Craze	Muriel Sharp
	The Abdication	Queen Mother
	The Little Mermaid	Queen	TV movie
1975	One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing	Colonel's Wife
1980	The Elephant Man	Lady Waddington
1981	Hedda Gabler	Juliana Tesman	TV movie
	From a Far Country	Tadek's Mother
1996	Emma	Mrs. Goddard
1998	Les Misérables	Mother Superior
	Saving Private Ryan	Old Mrs. Ryan
	Diary		Short
2010	Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff	Herself	Documentary

Sources

• McFarlane, Brian. An Autobiography of British Cinema. London: Methuen. 1997; ISBN 0-413-70520-X

External links

• Kathleen Byron at IMDb
• Kathleen Byron at the BFI's Screenonline
• Obituary in The Independent
• Kathleen Byron at the CinéArtistes (in French)