Madeleine Carroll
| Madeleine Carroll | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Edith Madeleine Carroll 26 February 1906 West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England, UK |
| Died | 2 October 1987 (aged 81) Marbella, Spain |
| Resting place | Sant Antoni de Calonge |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1928–1955 |
| Spouse(s) | Captain Phillip Astley (1931–1939) Sterling Hayden (1942–1946) Henri Lavorel (1946–1949) Andrew Heiskell (1950–1965) |
Edith Madeleine Carroll (26 February 1906 – 2 October 1987) was an English actress, popular both in Britain and America in the 1930s and 1940s. At the peak of her success she was the highest paid actress in the world, earning a then staggering $250,000 in 1938.
Carroll is remembered for her role in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. She is also noted for abandoning her acting career after the death of her sister Marguerite in the London Blitz, to devote herself to helping wounded servicemen and children displaced and maimed by the war.
Carroll was born at 32 Herbert Street (now number 44) in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, daughter of John Carroll, an Irish professor of languages from Co. Limerick, and Helene, his French wife. She graduated from the University of Birmingham, with a B.A. degree. She once taught in a girls' public school.
Carroll made her stage debut with a touring company in The Lash. Widely recognised as one of the most beautiful women in films (she won a film beauty competition to start herself off in the business), Carroll's aristocratic blonde allure and sophisticated style were first glimpsed by film audiences in The Guns of Loos in 1928. Rapidly rising to stardom in Britain, she graced such popular films of the early 1930s as Young Woodley, Atlantic, The School for Scandal and I Was a Spy. She played the title role in the play Little Catherine. Abruptly, she announced plans to retire from films to devote herself to a private life with her husband, the first of four.
Carroll attracted the attention of Alfred Hitchcock and in 1935 starred as one of the director's earliest prototypical cool, glib, intelligent blondes in The 39 Steps. Based on the espionage novel by John Buchan, the film became a sensation and with it so did Carroll. Cited by the New York Times for a performance that was "charming and skillful", Carroll became very much in demand. The success of the film made Hitchcock a star in Britain and the US, and established the quintessential English 'Hitchcock blonde' Carroll as the template for his succession of ice cold and elegant leading ladies. Of Hitchcock heroines as exemplified by Carroll film critic Roger Ebert wrote:
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