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Dulcie Winifred Catherine Savage Denison ( née Bailey; 20 November 1915 – 15 November 2011), known professionally as Dulcie Gray, was a British actress, mystery writer and lepidopterist.
While at drama school in the late 1930s she met a fellow student, Michael Denison. They married in 1939 and were together for 59 years before his death in 1998. The couple's professional careers were intertwined; in their early years they appeared in several films together and throughout their careers they frequently acted on stage together. Although she was well known for her starring roles in films of the late 1940s and early 1950s, most of Gray's career was in the theatre. Her range was extensive, and she appeared in Shakespeare, farce, thrillers, classics by Sheridan, Oscar Wilde, Anton Chekhov, Shaw and Coward, absurdist drama, and numerous new plays. In the 1980s she became well known to British television viewers when she starred in a long-running soap opera, Howards' Way.
Alongside her acting career Gray was a prolific author, writing more than twenty books, mostly crime stories, but also non-crime novels, a volume of memoirs, a biography of J. B. Priestley and an award-winning book about butterflies, a lifelong interest of hers.
Gray's first professional performance was as Maria in The School for Scandal at a private theatre in Stansted Park in 1938. She became engaged to Denison in March the following year; they married in April and, as The Times put it, they "honeymooned in rep in Aberdeen". They joined A. R. Whatmore's repertory company at His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, alongside colleagues including Elspeth March and Stewart Granger.Herbert, pp. 710–711 and 853–855"Staged at H. M. Theatre", Aberdeen Press and Journal, 16 May 1939, p. 8 The couple appeared there together in plays including Coward's Hay Fever"Hay Fever", Aberdeen Evening Express, 8 May 1939, p. 11 and The Young Idea,"The Young Idea", Aberdeen Evening Express, 5 August 1939, p. 7 Shaw's Arms and the Man,"His Majesty's Theatre: Arms and the Man", Aberdeen Evening Express, 30 May 1939, p. 9 Priestley's Dangerous Corner"Dangerous Corner", Aberdeen Press and Journal, 4 July 1939, p. 7 and Gerald Savory's George and Margaret."George and Margaret", Aberdeen Evening Express, 19 July 1939, p. 11 In March 1940 Denison and Gray joined the H. M. Tennent Players, appearing in repertory in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Her performance as Rose in the original stage adaptation of Brighton Rock at the Garrick Theatre in 1944 gave her co-star billing with Attenborough and Hermione Baddeley. The critic of the Sunday Pictorial, having praised Attenborough's performance as the vicious Pinkie, wrote, "But I hadn't reckoned on an even more amazing youngster, Dulcie Gray. Dulcie's performance as the waitress whom he marries was the loveliest, most moving thing I've seen in years".Alexander, Norah. "Youth bows and wows", The Sunday Pictorial, 14 March 1943, p. 11 The reviewer in Punch considered that it was her "skilful and moving performance" that held the piece together."At the Play", Punch, 24 March 1943, p. 254 Her success in the role led to a contract with Gainsborough Pictures, for whom she made five films before the end of the war in 1945 and with them, and later other studios, she became established as a star. Among the films in which she made her name were Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945), Wanted for Murder (1946) and A Man About the House (1947)."At the Pictures", The Tatler, 26 January 1949, p. 108
After Denison was demobilised in 1946 Gray used her influence with the film studios to help him relaunch his acting career, and they co-starred in the 1947 film My Brother Jonathan."Obituary: Michael Denison", The Times, 23 July 1998, p. 25 They co-starred again in The Glass Mountain in 1948. When the stage version of Brighton Rock was adapted for a 1948 film, Gray was considered too old, at 32, to play the 15-year-old Rose on screen, and the part went to a younger actress. During 1948 Gray and Denison made their first West End appearance together, in Rain on the Just at the Aldwych Theatre. The play and its stars won good notices, but the piece had only a short run.Denison, p. 8 Their next West End production together, the farce Queen Elizabeth Slept Here, pleased the critics less but the public more and it ran for 349 performances.
At the St James's Theatre in December 1952 Gray and Denison co-starred as Robina and Clive Jevons in Sweet Peril. On film they appeared in There Was a Young Lady (1952).Denison, pp. 289–290 In Alice Through the Looking Glass at the Prince's Theatre in February 1954 Gray played the White Queen and Denison appeared as the White Knight, Tweedledee and Humpty Dumpty. They reprised these roles the following year. At the Westminster Theatre in June 1954 Gray played Toni and Denison played Francis Oberon, her would-be murderer, in the comedy We Must Kill Toni. The couple toured South Africa from December 1954 to February 1955, in The Fourposter and Coward's Private Lives.
In November 1955 Love Affair, Gray's first and last attempt as a dramatist, opened under Denison's direction at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham and transferred to the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in June 1956, with author and director in leading roles. It was not a great success.Denison, p. 67 Its author fared better as a novelist than as a playwright: her first novel, a crime mystery, Murder on the Stairs, was published in the same year. It received good notices and sold well."Dulcie Gray's Other Career", The Stage, 5 September 1963, p. 14 She followed it with Murder in Melbourne (1958) and Baby Face (1959).
In 1956–57 Gray toured South Africa and Australia as Lady Shotter in Coward's South Sea Bubble and Laura Reynolds in Robert Anderson's Tea and Sympathy − the latter regarded as daring in its day.Denison, p. 68 In 1958 Gray and Denison toured Britain in a two-hander thriller, Double Cross, but his heavy schedule of television work (starring in the series Boyd QC) prevented him from appearing in the piece when it opened in the West End, and Gray played opposite Terence Morgan.Denison, p. 82 Her last stage role of the 1950s was the Duchess of Hampshire, with Denison as the Duke, in a revival of Frederick Lonsdale's Let Them Eat Cake at the Cambridge Theatre in May 1959.
The couple went to Hong Kong, appearing at the opening of the City Centre Theatre in August 1962 in a double bill of A Village Wooing and A Marriage Has Been Arranged, and then to Berlin, where they gave a Shakespeare recital at the Berlin Drama Festival. Back in England they starred in the opening production of the Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon, The Royal Gambit, a play about Henry VIII and his wives, in November 1962. The stars received better notices than the play ( Punch remarked "Dulcie Gray leads a team which fights an uphill struggle bravely, and clearly deserved a wittier play").Keown, Eric. "At the Play", Punch, 14 November 1962, p. 725 In the West End they headed the cast in a 1963 adaptation of E. M. Forster's Where Angels Fear to Tread, which ran for 262 performances.Wearing, p. 154 From April to July 1964 the couple toured England and Continental Europe in a Shakespeare programme called Merely Players. Without Denison, Gray guested at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1964 as Arkadina in The Seagull. The critic J. C. Trewin wrote, "The study is precise in line and technique. Here are Arkadina's consuming vanity and possessiveness … a fine Chekhovian portrait".Trewin, J. C. "Chekhov as it should be played", Birmingham Post, 21 October 1964, p. 31
In London Denison and Gray appeared in Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband at the Strand (December 1965) as Sir Robert and Lady Chiltern. They played together at the St Martin's Theatre in December 1966 in On Approval and at the Strand in October 1968 in Out of the Question with Gladys Cooper.Herbert, pp. 658, 710–711 and 853–855
Between stage appearances Gray continued to write: Epitaph for a Bad Actor (1960), Murder on a Saturday (1961), Murder in Mind (1962), The Devil Wore Scarlet (1963), No Quarter for a Star (1964), The Murder of Love (1967), Died in the Red (1968) and Murder on Honeymoon (1969).Denison, pp. 291–293 The Stage commented:
In addition to her crime novels Gray collaborated with Denison on The Actor and His World (1964), aimed at young people and explaining aspects of life in the theatrical profession.
Together with John Mills the couple starred in William Douglas-Home's Downing Street comedy At the End of the Day at the Savoy Theatre in 1973. Gray played a thinly-disguised Mary Wilson to the equally fictitious versions of Harold Wilson and Edward Heath of Mills and Denison.Lewsen, Charles. "At the End of the Day", The Times, 4 October 1973, p. 20 It ran well into 1974; Gray and Denison then appeared in a comedy, The Sack Race, in 1974. They did not act together the following year, during a substantial portion of which Gray was appearing in a thriller, The Pay Off, with Nigel Patrick and Peter Sallis."Theatre", Illustrated London News, 1 June 1975, p. 5; and Denison, p. 296 Nor did the couple appear on stage together in 1976, although Denison directed a production of Priestley's Time and the Conways in which Gray starred as Mrs Conway.Denison, p. 296 On tour she appeared with Derek Nimmo in Carry On, Jeeves, adapted from stories by P. G. Wodehouse, and in Ladies in Retirement, with Evelyn Laye.
In 1977 Gray and Denison appeared together in a touring production of The Cabinet Minister, his adaptation of an 1890 comedy by Pinero, and in the West End Gray began a long-running appearance as Miss Marple in a stage version of Agatha Christie's A Murder Is Announced. After that, she was in the National Theatre's production of Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce (1978), joined in the cast by her husband later in the run.Denison, p. 297
Gray had been interested in butterflies since her childhood, and during the 1970s she researched the subject with a view to writing a book about it. Her researches took her overseas, and she became recognised as an expert on the topic. Her book Butterflies on My Mind (1978), won a Times Educational Supplement award. In addition to this book she continued to produce crime novels throughout the decade: For Richer, For Richer (1970), Deadly Lampshade (1971), Understudy to Murder (1972), Dead Give Away (1974), Ride on a Tiger (1975), Stage Door Fright (short stories, 1977), and Dark Calypso (1979).Denison, pp. 294–296
The couple played at Windsor in Fry's Venus Observed (1980) and the farce See How They Run (1986). In the West End they appeared in Ronald Millar's A Coat of Varnish, Shaw's Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1982), and Fry's Ring Round the Moon (1985 and 1988). " Denison, Dulcie Winifred Catherine, (Dulcie Gray)", Who's Who and Who Was Who, Oxford University Press, 2016 They toured in Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden (1989).
Without Denison, Gray toured in Douglas-Home's comedy Lloyd George Knew My Father, co-starring with Marius Goring. The Stage commented:
With her husband, Gray toured the Middle East in 1985 in Ray Cooney and John Chapman's comedy There Goes the Bride."There goes the bride – trotting round the globe", The Stage, 14 February 1985, p. 6 On her return to England, Gray began filming for her first regular role in a television series. She had made one-off television appearances in every decade from the 1940s onwards, with and without Denison, but the role of Kate Harvey in the BBC series Howards' Way brought her regularly to the notice of television viewers from 1985 to 1990.
By the 1980s Gray had turned away from writing murder stories. During the decade she published three novels: The Glanville Women (1982), described as "a panoramic saga" of the lives of three generations, drawing on the author's memories of Malaya and her theatrical experiences; Anna Starr (1984), the story of a Hollywood starlet; and Mirror Image (1987), depicting the traumatic effects of an actress's obsessive love for her drama tutor."A not so fine romance", Ealing Leader, 20 March 1987, p. 13
Gray's last stage tour alongside her husband was in 1995, with Eric Sykes in Two of a Kind, a comedy by Hugh Janes, set in a retirement home."Two of a Kind", The Stage, 17 August 1995, p. 24 Their final joint appearances on stage were in March and April 1998 in Curtain Up – An Evening with Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray at the Jermyn Street Theatre.
After Denison's death, in July 1998, Gray appeared in four touring productions. She played Mrs Wilberforce opposite Tim Brooke-Taylor as Professor Marcus in a 1999 stage adaptation of the 1955 Ealing Studios comedy The Ladykillers.Mullen, Liz. "The Ladykillers", The Stage, 11 March 1999, p. 16 The following year she toured as Madame de Rosemonde in Christopher Hampton's version of Les Liaisons dangereuses and Miss Froy in a stage adaptation of the 1938 film The Lady Vanishes. Shortly before Denison's death he had begun writing a biography of Priestley, which Gray completed;"Touching coda", The Daily Telegraph, 6 Oct 1999, p. 29 it was published in 2000. Gray made her final television appearance in 2000 in an episode of the BBC medical drama series Doctors. "Howards' Way star Dulcie Gray dies at 95", BBC, 16 November 2011 Her last stage appearances were in a tour of Chekhov's The Three Sisters in 2002.
In her last years Gray lived at the actors' residential care home, Denville Hall, in west London, where she died on 15 November 2011 of bronchial pneumonia, aged 95.
1940s
In June 1940 Denison was called up for military service in the Second World War. Gray joined a repertory company in Harrogate, appearing alongside Trevor Howard and Terence Alexander."Harrogate Opera House", The Yorkshire Post, 26 November 1940, p. 5; and Denison, p. 286 She began broadcasting for the BBC in 1941, making 395 broadcasts in the radio soap opera Front Line Family. Her first London appearances were at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in 1942, playing Maria in Twelfth Night, Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew and Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream. At the Piccadilly Theatre later in the year she appeared as Alexandra in The Little Foxes alongside Fay Compton and Richard Attenborough."The Little Foxes", The Stage, 15 October 1942, p. 4 Also in 1942 she made her first film appearance in an uncredited bit part in Banana Ridge.
1950s
After a seven-week pre-London tour, beginning in August 1950, Gray and Denison opened at the Ambassadors Theatre as Michael and Agnes in The Fourposter, a two-hander, charting the married life of a couple."New Theatre", Cambridge Independent Press, 11 August 1950, p. 12; "Chit Chat", The Stage, 17 August 1950, p. 8; and "The Ambassadors", The Stage, 19 October 1950, p. 9 A Broadway transfer was proposed, but the stars' commitments in Britain prevented it, and their roles were filled in the New York production by American performers. For the cinema Gray and Denison starred in The Franchise Affair (1951),"Fresh Start at ABP", Kinematograph Weekly, 30 March 1950, p. 25 and in December 1951 they headed the cast in a BBC television adaptation of Arnold Bennett and Edward Knoblock's play Milestones.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> "Milestones", BBC Genome. Retrieved 6 November 2022 Their penultimate film together in the 1950s was Angels One Five (1952).Denison, pp. 289–291
1960s
In 1960 Gray played the title role in Shaw's Candida, with Denison as the Rev James Morell, in a West End revival that broke box-office records for the play. At the Oxford Playhouse in April 1961 she ventured into absurdist drama, playing Mary in The Bald Prima Donna and the Old Woman in The Chairs in a double bill, joined by Denison in the second of the two plays. Later in the year they played in a West End revival of Shaw's Heartbreak House, she as Lady Utterword, he as Hector Hushabye.
1970s
In 1970 Gray and Denison appeared in the West End in Three – a trio of one-act plays by Shaw – and then in Henryk Ibsen The Wild Duck, and toured in a production of Pinero's farce Dandy Dick.Denison, p. 294 The following year they toured in two classic comedies – The Clandestine Marriage and The School for Scandal – as well as The Wild Duck. In 1972 Gray toured in Coward's Hay Fever. The Stage commented that audiences "were treated to a beautifully-timed and polished portrayal of Judith Bliss from Dulcie Gray"."Bath Royal", The Stage, 10 August 1972, p. 16
1980s
In the 1980s Gray and Denison toured extensively. They starred in a British tour of Douglas-Home's The Kingfisher (1980–81), and made a Middle- and Far-East tour in Ayckbourn's Relatively Speaking in 1981. Their other productions beyond the West End included The Cherry Orchard (1980) and The School for Scandal (several tours between 1982 and 1984, co-starring in one tour with Donald Sinden), in which Gray switched roles from Lady Sneerwell to Mrs Candour overnight. That production was given not only in Britain but in a ten-week tour for the British Council playing in 16 cities in nine countries.Denison, p. 297 Both Gray and her husband were made CBE in 1983.
Later years, 1990–2011
In 1990 and 1991, Gray and Denison toured with Frank Thornton in Hugh Whitemore's The Best of Friends, depicting the friendship between the nun Laurentia McLachlan (Gray), the antiquarian Sydney Cockerell (Denison), and the playwright Bernard Shaw (Thornton)."Preview", Kilmarnock Standard, 24 May 1991, p. 22 Later in 1991 Gray played the matriarch, Madame Pernelle, in Peter Hall's production of Tartuffe in the West End. On tour with Denison in The Importance of Being Earnest; she played Miss Prism and he doubled the roles of Lane and Dr Chasuble."Alive and agile Earnest", Aberdeen Press and Journal, 12 March 1991, p. 28 They again appeared together in a tour of Bedroom Farce in 1992, and in the same year she published her memoirs, Looking Forward, Looking Back. In that year the couple began a long association with Hall's production of An Ideal Husband, this time in the roles of Lady Markby and Lord Caversham. The production was revived intermittently over the next five years. It opened at the Gielgud Theatre in 1992, toured in 1993, returned to the West End at the Haymarket and played on Broadway in 1996 (their New York débuts), and later returned to the Haymarket and was finally staged at the Gielgud Theatre in 1997. At the Chichester Festival in 1994 the couple played Colonel Pickering and Mrs Higgins in Pygmalion and Admiral and Mrs Rankling in Pinero's The Schoolmistress. At the Thorndike Theatre in the same year Denison again played Dr Chasuble in The Importance of Being Earnest but Gray switched to the role of Lady Bracknell."Leatherhead", The Stage, 24 November 1994, p. 18
Cinema and television
Film
1942 Banana Ridge Bit part uncredited 1944 Two Thousand Women Nellie Skinner 1944 Victory Wedding Mary Clark Short 1945 Madonna of the Seven Moons Nesta Logan 1945 Sarah 1945 They Were Sisters Charlotte Lee 1946 Judy 1946 Wanted for Murder Anne Fielding AKA, A Voice in the Night 1947 A Man About the House Ellen Isit 1947 Mine Own Executioner Patricia Milne 1948 My Brother Jonathan Rachel Hammond 1949 Anne Wilder 1951 Marion Sharpe 1952 Angels One Five Nadine Clinton 1953 There Was a Young Lady Elizabeth Foster 1966 Mrs Mathieson
Television
1949 Mrs Ross with Denison 1949 Crime Passionel Jessica 1951 Milestones Rose Sibley with Denison 1953 Art and Opportunity Pauline Cheverelle 1953 Laura 1954 Douglas Fairbanks Presents Margaret Brown, Alice McBain Episodes: "A Lesson in Love", "The Happy McBains" 1954 Olympia with Denison 1955 September Revue 1956 The Sun Divorce with Denison 1956 Lesson in Love 1957 Boyd Q.C. one episode in long-running series starring Denison 1957 Miss Fry TV film 1958, 1965 ITV Play of the Week Gwendolen Fairfax, Mrs Borradaile Episodes: "The Importance of Being Earnest", "Beautiful Forever" 1959 Theatre Night Nancy (Duchess of Hampshire) Episode: "Let Them Eat Cake" 1959 Sunday Night Theatre Emily Vernon Episode: "What the Public Wants" 1960 Winter Cruise 1960 Somerset Maugham Hour Leslie Crosbie Episode: "The Letter" 1963 Where Angels Fear to Tread Caroline Abbott TV film 1964 East Lynne Barbara Hare TV film 1965 The Sullavan Brothers Rita Dunphie Episode: "The Outsider" 1970 ITV Playhouse Moira Tait Episode: "Unexpectantly Vacant" 1973 Crown Court Stella Pickford Episodes: "Just Good Friends: Parts 1–3" 1979 Play of the Month Mrs Voysey Episode: "The Voysey Inheritance" 1983 Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime Laura Barton Episode: "The Affair of the Pink Pearl" 1983 Rumpole of the Bailey Lorraine Lee Episode: "Rumpole and the Old Boy Net" 1984 Cold Warrior Cecily Broome Episode: "Hook, Line and Sinker" 1985–1990 Howards' Way Kate Harvey Main role 1987, 1989 Three Up, Two Down Nanny Parker Episodes: "Life and Death", "Cheltenham" 1996 Tales from the Crypt Mrs Wilder Episode: "Last Respects" 2000 Doctors Paddy Grey Episode: "On for Tonight"
See also
Notes, references and sources
Notes
Sources
(1972). 9780273315285, Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons. ISBN 9780273315285
External links
Categories: 1915 Births, 2011 Deaths, Alumni Of The Webber Douglas Academy Of Dramatic Art, British Mystery Writers, British Soap Opera Actresses, British Stage Actresses, British Television Actresses, Commanders Of The Order Of The British Empire, Deaths From Bronchopneumonia, Deaths From Pneumonia In England, Actresses From Kuala Lumpur, Writers From Kuala Lumpur, British Film Actresses, British Lepidopterists, British Women Entomologists, 20th-century British Novelists, Fellows Of The Linnean Society Of London, British People In British Malaya
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