Anna Neagle


Actor
Anna Neagle

About

Also Known As
Florence Marjorie Robertson, Marjorie Robertson, Dame Anna Neagle
Birth Place
Forest Gate, England, GB
Born
October 20, 1904
Died
June 03, 1986

Biography

An aspiring ballerina who was molded into one of Britain's leading screen heroines of the 1930s and 40s by producer-director Herbert Wilcox, whom she married in 1943. Most typically in gentle but stiff-upper-lip roles, Neagle played in a variety of films but is perhaps best remembered for her gallery of historical figures, from Nell Gwyn (in the 1934 film of that name) to aviatrix Amy Jo...

Family & Companions

Herbert Wilcox
Husband
Producer, director. Married 1943 in London; between 1932-59 made 32 films with Neagle, beginning in the early 1930s; died in 1977 aged 87.

Bibliography

Notes

Created a Dame Commander of the British Empire (1969)

Biography

An aspiring ballerina who was molded into one of Britain's leading screen heroines of the 1930s and 40s by producer-director Herbert Wilcox, whom she married in 1943. Most typically in gentle but stiff-upper-lip roles, Neagle played in a variety of films but is perhaps best remembered for her gallery of historical figures, from Nell Gwyn (in the 1934 film of that name) to aviatrix Amy Johnson (in "They Flew Alone" 1942) to Florence Nightingale (in "The Lady with a Lamp" 1951) to her most famous role, Queen Victoria, in the immensely popular "Victoria the Great" (1937) and its sequel "Sixty Glorious Years" (1938). She also starred in occasional musicals, including "Irene" (1940) and sometimes also did romantic comedy, such as the highly popular "Spring in Park Lane" (1948). Neagle enjoyed a measure of success in films made in Hollywood from 1939 until the middle war years, and after her more than quarter century of film stardom petered out in the late 1950s, she returned with considerable success to the British stage.

Life Events

1919

Worked as a professional chorus girl at the age of 14 (date approximate)

1930

Film debut, "Should a Doctor Tell?"

1937

Played one of her most famous roles, Queen Victoria, in one of her most popular and best-remembered films, "Victoria the Great"

1939

Made first of several films in the US, "Nurse Edith Cavell"

1943

Played a cameo role in the all-star anthology drama, "Forever and a Day"

1956

Produced first of three films in the late 1950s (none of which she acted in), "These Dangerous Years"

1959

Last feature film, "The Lady Is a Square"

Companions

Herbert Wilcox
Husband
Producer, director. Married 1943 in London; between 1932-59 made 32 films with Neagle, beginning in the early 1930s; died in 1977 aged 87.

Bibliography

Notes

Created a Dame Commander of the British Empire (1969)