Noël Coward
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Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 1899 – 26 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".
Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy in London as a child, making his professional stage début at the age of eleven. As a teenager he was introduced into the high society in which most of his plays would be set. Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter and Blithe Spirit, have remained in the regular theatre repertoire. He composed hundreds of songs, in addition to well over a dozen musical theatre works (including the operetta Bitter Sweet and comic revues), poetry, several volumes of short stories, the novel Pomp and Circumstance, and a three-volume autobiography. Coward's stage and film acting and directing career spanned six decades, during which he starred in many of his own works.
At the outbreak of World War II, Coward volunteered for war work, running the British propaganda office in Paris. He also worked with the Secret Service, seeking to use his influence to persuade the American public and government to help Britain. Coward won an Academy Honorary Award in 1943 for his naval film drama, In Which We Serve, and was knighted in 1969. In the 1950s he achieved fresh success as a cabaret performer, performing his own songs, such as "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", "London Pride" and "I Went to a Marvellous Party".
His plays and songs achieved new popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, and his work and style continue to influence popular culture. Coward did not publicly acknowledge his homosexuality, but it was discussed candidly after his death by biographers including Graham Payn, his long-time partner, and in Coward's diaries and letters, published posthumously. The former Albery Theatre (originally the New Theatre) in London was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in his honour in 2006.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Noël Coward, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 1899 – 26 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".
Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy in London as a child, making his professional stage début at the age of eleven. As a teenager he was introduced into the high society in which most of his plays would be set. Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter and Blithe Spirit, have remained in the regular theatre repertoire. He composed hundreds of songs, in addition to well over a dozen musical theatre works (including the operetta Bitter Sweet and comic revues), poetry, several volumes of short stories, the novel Pomp and Circumstance, and a three-volume autobiography. Coward's stage and film acting and directing career spanned six decades, during which he starred in many of his own works.
At the outbreak of World War II, Coward volunteered for war work, running the British propaganda office in Paris. He also worked with the Secret Service, seeking to use his influence to persuade the American public and government to help Britain. Coward won an Academy Honorary Award in 1943 for his naval film drama, In Which We Serve, and was knighted in 1969. In the 1950s he achieved fresh success as a cabaret performer, performing his own songs, such as "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", "London Pride" and "I Went to a Marvellous Party".
His plays and songs achieved new popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, and his work and style continue to influence popular culture. Coward did not publicly acknowledge his homosexuality, but it was discussed candidly after his death by biographers including Graham Payn, his long-time partner, and in Coward's diaries and letters, published posthumously. The former Albery Theatre (originally the New Theatre) in London was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in his honour in 2006.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Noël Coward, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known for
Mad About the Boy: The Noël Coward Story
Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit
National Theatre Live: Present Laughter
Noël Coward's Present Laughter
Private Lives
Burton and Taylor
Easy Virtue
Relative Values
I'm a Gigolo
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
Ken Russell's ABC of British Music
Sidste akt
Me and the Girls
Mrs. Capper's Birthday
Hay Fever
A Song At Twilight
Come Into The Garden Maud
Design for Living
Brief Encounter
Alta comedia
The Vortex
The Italian Job
The Dick Cavett Show
Boom!
Um Breve Encontro
Interlude
Androcles and the Lion
Pretty Polly
Blithe Spirit
Estudio Uno
Bunny Lake Is Missing
Geisterkomödie
A Choice of Coward: Design for Living
Paris When It Sizzles
The Caretaker
Surprise Package
Our Man in Havana
Witness for the Prosecution
Around the World in Eighty Days
Tony Awards
Blithe Spirit
Meet Me Tonight
The Astonished Heart
What's My Line?
The Ed Sullivan Show
Brief Encounter
Blithe Spirit
Le Journal de la Résistance
This Happy Breed
In Which We Serve
We Were Dancing
Bitter Sweet
Men Are Not Gods
The Scoundrel
Design for Living
Bitter Sweet
Cavalcade
Tonight Is Ours
Private Lives
Easy Virtue
The Queen Was in the Parlour
Hearts of the World
Acting
1991
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
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actor 'Bunny Lake Is Missing' (archive footage) (uncredited)