Kathleen Byron
| Kathleen Byron | |
|---|---|
Byron in a trailer for Black Narcissus
|
|
| Born |
Kathleen Elizabeth Fell 11 January 1921 West Ham, Essex (now London), England, United Kingdom |
| Died | 18 January 2009 (aged 88) Northwood, London, England |
| Other names | Kathleen Jacob |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1938–2001 |
| Spouse(s) |
Daniel Bowen (m. 1943–50) Alaric Jacob (m. 1953–95) |
Kathleen Byron (born Kathleen Elizabeth Fell, 11 January 1921 – 18 January 2009) was a British actress of stage, screen and television.
Byron was born in West Ham – now in the London Borough of Newham. Her father was a railway clerk who later became a Labour mayor 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.
In 1943, she 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) 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-movies. 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, she did extensive television work, including a small role as Queen Louise of Denmark in Edward the Seventh (1975), Mme Celeste Lekeu in two episodes of the BBC drama Secret Army (1977), a brief stint on the soap opera Emmerdale Farm in 1979.
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