Jeanne de Casalis

British actress

Jeanne de Casalis
Picturegoer postcard
Born	22 May 1897 Basutoland
Died	19 August 1966 (age 69) London, United Kingdom
Occupation	Actress & comedian
Years active	1925–1953 (film & TV)

Jeanne de Casalis (22 May 1897 – 19 August 1966) was a Basutoland-born British actress of stage, radio, TV and film.^[1]

Born in Basutoland as Jeanne Casalis de Pury, she was educated in France, where her businessman father was the proprietor of one of that country's largest corset retailers, Charneaux.^[2] She initiated her career in music first, only later beginning to work onstage in London. She appeared on stage in The Mask of Virtue with Vivien Leigh (1935), and in Agatha Christie's The Hollow (1951).^[3]^[4] On radio, she created the popular comic character 'Mrs. Feather' and also authored Mrs Feather's Diary (1936) based on her monologues.^[5]^[6]^[7] Her best-known films were Cottage to Let (1941) and Jamaica Inn (1939).^[8]

She married English actor Colin Clive, best remembered for Frankenstein (1931), in June 1929, though they were estranged for several years before his death on 25 June 1937 from tuberculosis.^[9] Her second husband, whom she married around 1938, was RAF Wing Commander Cowan Douglas Stephenson; they lived at Hunger Hatch near Ashford, Kent.^[10] Jeanne de Casalis died on 19 August 1966, aged 69.^[2]

Partial filmography

Settled Out of Court (1925) .... The Wife
The Glad Eye (1927) .... Lucienne
The Arcadians (1927) .... Mrs. Smith
Zero (1928) .... Julia Norton
Knowing Men (1930) .... Delphine
Infatuation (1930, Short) .... Georgette
Nine Till Six (1932) .... Yvonne
Radio Parade (1933) .... Mrs. Feather
Mixed Doubles (1933) .... Betty Irvine
Nell Gwynn (1934) .... Duchess of Portsmouth
Just like a Woman (1938) .... Poppy Mayne
Jamaica Inn (1939) .... Sir Humphrey's friend
The Girl Who Forgot (1940) .... Mrs. Barradine
Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt (1940) .... Lady Lucy Blessington-Smythe (Aunt Lucy)
Sailors Three (1940) .... Mrs Pilkington
Cottage to Let (1941) .... Mrs. Barrington
Those Kids from Town (1942) .... Sheila
They Met in the Dark (1943) .... Lady with Dog
Medal for the General (1944) .... Lady Frome
This Man Is Mine (1946) .... Mrs. Ferguson
The Turners of Prospect Road (1947) .... Mrs. Webster
Woman Hater (1948) .... Clair

References

^ "Jeanne De Casalis". BFI. Archived from the original on 10 June 2018.
^ ^a ^b "Jeanne De Casalis – Broadway Cast & Staff | IBDB". www.ibdb.com.
^ Wearing, J. P. (15 May 2014). The London Stage 1930-1939: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780810893047 – via Google Books.
^ Wearing, J. P. (16 September 2014). The London Stage 1950-1959: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780810893085 – via Google Books.
^ "'Miss Jeanne de Casalis', Frank Dobson, 1934". Tate.
^ "A Charity Affair". 18 June 1934. p. 24 – via BBC Genome.
^ Purcell, Jennifer J. (14 May 2020). Mother of the BBC: Mabel Constanduros and the Development of Popular Entertainment on the BBC, 1925-57. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 9781501346538 – via Google Books.
^ "Jeanne de Casalis | Movies and Filmography". AllMovie.
^ McFarlane, Brian; Slide, Anthony (16 May 2016). The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526111968 – via Google Books.
^ "Three Photos of Jeanne De Casalis and Her Husband. Jeanne's husband | Lot #23093". Heritage Auctions.