Mary Merrall

Mary Merrall
Mary Merrall in The Saint (1963)
Born	Elsie Lloyd 5 January 1890(1890-01-05) Liverpool, England
Died	31 August 1973(1973-08-31) (aged 83) London, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1907 – 1973
Spouse	J.B. Hissey (1909-1914) Ion Swinley (???-1927) Franklin Dyall (1929-1950)

Mary Merrall (5 January 1890 – 31 August 1973), born Elsie Lloyd, was an English actress whose career of over 60 years encompassed stage, film and television work.

Stage career

Merrall's stage career started in her teens and for the rest of her life she remained a well-known and respected stage actress. Although she was based in London, she often appeared in other prestigious venues in the UK such as the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Theatre Royal, Glasgow.^[1] Among her most famous stage roles were Lady Macbeth in a controversial but influential 1928 modern-dress production by Barry Jackson which opened in Birmingham before transferring to London's Royal Court Theatre, and Mrs. Danvers in Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca at the Strand Theatre in 1940. Her stage career also took her to the United States, where she appeared in Canaries Sometimes Sing (Frederick Lonsdale) in New York and Chicago in 1930.^[2]

Film and television

With the exception of an appearance in a 1932 quota quickie Men of Steel, Merrall did not make the move into films until the 1940s. She was given leading roles in the 1940 Irish-set drama Dr. O'Dowd (now classed as a lost film) and the film adaptation of Walter Greenwood's Love on the Dole the following year. The 1940s then brought a steady stream of good film parts including her best-remembered roles as Mrs. Foley in the 1945 classic Dead of Night and Mrs. Nickleby in the Alberto Cavalcanti-directed 1947 screen version of Nicholas Nickleby. Into the 1950s Merrall also landed a string of diverse roles in films such as Encore (1951), prison drama The Weak and the Wicked (1954), comedy The Belles of St Trinian's (1954) and harrowing World War II drama The Camp on Blood Island (1958).

As film work began to dry up from the late 1950s, Merrall increasingly found work in television, appearing in several productions for the ITV drama strands Play of the Week and ITV Playhouse as well as guest appearances in popular series such as Sir Francis Drake, Dixon of Dock Green, The Saint, The Avengers, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and UFO.

Private life

Merrall married three times. Her first marriage to J.B. Hissey in 1909 ended acrimoniously in 1914 amid a great deal of public and media interest, after Hissey brought a highly-publicised divorce suit alleging infidelity on Merrall's part, naming several men including famous music hall star Albert Whelan.^[3] Merrall's second marriage, to noted Shakespearean actor Ion Swinley, was also dissolved in 1927.^[4] Her third marriage, to fellow actor Franklin Dyall, lasted until Dyall's death in 1950.

Merrall died in London on 31 August 1973, aged 83.

Partial filmography

1932: Men of Steel 1940: Dr. O'Dowd 1941: Love on the Dole 1943: Squadron Leader X 1945: Dead of Night 1945: Pink String and Sealing Wax 1946: This Man Is Mine 1947: Nicholas Nickleby 1947: They Made Me a Fugitive 1948: The Three Weird Sisters 1949: Badger's Green 1949: For Them That Trespass 1950: Trio 1951: The Late Edwina Black

1951: Out of True 1951: Encore 1952: Meet Me Tonight 1952: The Pickwick Papers 1954: The Weak and the Wicked 1954: The Belles of St Trinian's 1956: It's Great to Be Young 1957: Campbell's Kingdom 1958: The Camp on Blood Island 1961: Spare the Rod 1963: Bitter Harvest 1965: The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders 1970: Futtocks End

References

1. ^ "Comedy of Murders" The Glasgow Herald, 16-08-1944. Retrieved 05-09-2010
2. ^ "Lonsdale Comedy Coming" The New York Times, 08-09-1930
3. ^ "She loathed America" The New York Times, 16-07-1914. Retrieved 05-09-2010
4. ^ "Death of Mr. Ion Swinley" The Glasgow Herald, 17-09-1937. Retrieved 05-09-2010

External links

• Mary Merrall filmography at Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Merrall, Mary
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	5 January 1890
Place of birth	Liverpool, England
Date of death	31 August 1973
Place of death	London, England