Adele Dixon

Adele Dixon (born Adela Helena Dixon; 3 June 1908 – 11 April 1992) was an English actress and singer.

After an early start as a child actress, and training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she became a member of the Old Vic, from 1928 to 1930, appearing in a wide range of roles, predominantly in Shakespeare's plays, but also those of Sheridan, Molière and Shaw. Her performance in her first singing role so impressed the composer Richard Addinsell, that he secured her the leading role in the West End adaptation of Priestley's The Good Companions in 1931.

After she left the Old Vic in 1930, Dixon played occasionally in non-musical plays, but in general her career was on the musical stage, starring in shows by Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Vivian Ellis and others. Later she became well known for her appearances in pantomime. Her last appearance before she retired was in the West End musical Belinda Fair in 1949.

Dixon was born in London, a Cockney, the daughter of a coach-maker, Frederick Dixon, and his wife Elizabeth (née Barrett) Dixon. She studied at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts as a child, and was cast in her first professional part as the First Elf in Where the Rainbow Ends in December 1921. After further roles as a child actress, she won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she studied for two years, under the direction of Kenneth Barnes. In her late teens she was already playing leading adult parts, and in 1927 she went on a tour to Egypt with Robert Atkins's company, playing Olivia in Twelfth Night, Jessica in The Merchant of Venice, Mariana in Measure for Measure and Bianca in Othello.

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