Pamela Stanley
Encyclopedia
Pamela Margaret Stanley (6 September 1909 – 30 June 1991) was a British
actress who appeared in a number of stage and film roles in Britain and the United States; however, the role which she became most identified was that of Queen Victoria.
, Cheshire
. She was the daughter of Sir Arthur Lyulph Stanley, the fifth Baron Stanley of Alderley
and his wife Margaret Evans-Gordon, the daughter of Henry Evans-Gordon. She spent her early childhood in Australia, where her father was Governor of Victoria between 1914 - 1919. She was educated in France and Switzerland, later studying at the Webber Douglas School of Acting and Singing
. Her mother was a noted amateur actress, descended from the Kemble family of actors.
She made her stage début in Derby Day
in 1932 at the Lyric Theatre
in Hammersmith
. This was followed by six months at the Oxford Repertory Company in which she appeared as Mrs. Marwood in The Way of the World
.
She appeared with Martin Harvey
in Leopold Lewis
' The Bells (1933) at the Savoy Theatre, and also as Wendy in Peter Pan in 1934. In the same year she acted in two productions by Sir Robert Atkins
at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, where she played Titania in A Midsummer's Night Dream with Phyllis Neilson-Terry
, Leslie French, and Greer Garson
as an uncredited extra; in The Tempest
she was Miranda to John Drinkwater
's Prospero, with Leslie French as Ariel and Atkins as Caliban.
Pamela Stanley appeared as Queen Victoria in Victoria Regina by Laurence Housman
at the Gate Theatre in 1935, and in 1936 she played Ophelia in Hamlet
on Broadway
with Leslie Howard
. However, John Gielgud
had just ended a very successful Broadway run of the same play; the critics were not impressed and the show closed after 39 performances.
She was cast as Queen Victoria in the 1936 film David Livingstone
before returning to the Lyric for another season in Victoria Regina (1937–1938). The noted theatre critic James Agate
compared Stanley's performance with a New York production starring Helen Hayes
; unfortunately he found Hayes' portrayal of Queen Victoria like "a blazing sun, and I am so blinded by the dazzling performance of Helen Hayes that I literally cannot see Pamela Stanley." Nevertheless he found the audience very appreciative: "All around me on the first night the air hummed with pretty comments, and blasts of Isn't she sweet? blew down my neck." But he thought that Stanley had "moments of real emotion which, being genuinely her own, genuinely move her audience." Contemporary photographs show that her resemblance to the queen was remarkable.
She appeared yet again as Victoria in the 1938 film Marigold.
(eleventh baronet) in 1941, becoming Lady Cunynghame. They had three sons, Andrew, John and Arthur; Andrew succeeded his father as the twelfth baronet in 1978.
David Cunynghame was a film production manager, and amongst other films he worked on: Things to Come
with Ralph Richardson
; three films starring Robert Donat
(The Private Life of Henry VIII
, The Ghost Goes West
and Knight Without Armour
with Marlene Dietrich
); and two films by Michael Powell
, The Lion Has Wings
and The Thief of Bagdad
.
at the Savoy Theatre in London. According to the author's memoirs, this was his favourite play.
She made a final appearance in a small, uncredited part in The Last Hand Grenade as the Governor's Wife. The film, directed by Gordon Flemyng starred Stanley Baker
, Honor Blackman
and Richard Attenborough
.
Pamela survived her husband (as the Dowager Lady Cunynghame) and died on June 30, 1991 aged eighty-one.
was Leighton's patron. Her brother married Nellie Grant
, the daughter of Ulysses S. Grant
. May's mother was the opera singer Adelaide Kemble
(whose cousin, Gertrude Kemble, married Charles Santley
); her aunt was Fanny Kemble
and her great-aunt was Sarah Siddons
.
Pamela Stanley's aunt (her father's sister) was Venetia Stanley
who was the recipient of a great many letters from the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith.
The Barons Stanley of Alderley and the Earls of Derby (the Stanleys of Bickerstaffe) are descended from Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley
.
The Derby Stakes
were named after the 12th Earl of Derby
, Edward Smith-Stanley, thus giving rise to the play in which Pamela Stanley made her stage début.
actress who appeared in a number of stage and film roles in Britain and the United States; however, the role which she became most identified was that of Queen Victoria.
Career
The Hon. Miss Pamela Stanley was born in Nether AlderleyNether Alderley
Nether Alderley is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies on the A34 road about a mile and a half south of Alderley Edge....
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
. She was the daughter of Sir Arthur Lyulph Stanley, the fifth Baron Stanley of Alderley
Baron Stanley of Alderley
Baron Stanley of Alderley, in the County of Chester, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1839 for the politician and landowner Sir John Stanley, 7th Baronet....
and his wife Margaret Evans-Gordon, the daughter of Henry Evans-Gordon. She spent her early childhood in Australia, where her father was Governor of Victoria between 1914 - 1919. She was educated in France and Switzerland, later studying at the Webber Douglas School of Acting and Singing
Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, formerly the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art, was a drama school, and originally a singing school, in London. It was one of the leading drama schools in Britain, and offered comprehensive training for those intending to pursue a...
. Her mother was a noted amateur actress, descended from the Kemble family of actors.
She made her stage début in Derby Day
Derby Day (light opera)
Derby Day is a 1932 three-act light opera, with music composed by Alfred Reynolds to a libretto by A. P. Herbert. Herbert wrote his text between March and May 1931, whilst on a trip to Australia, during the first run of his successful Tantivy Towers....
in 1932 at the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Hammersmith
The Lyric Theatre, also known as the Lyric Hammersmith, is a theatre on King Street, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, which takes pride in its original, "groundbreaking" productions....
in Hammersmith
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...
. This was followed by six months at the Oxford Repertory Company in which she appeared as Mrs. Marwood in The Way of the World
The Way of the World
The Way of the World is a play written by British playwright William Congreve. It premiered in 1700 in the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London...
.
She appeared with Martin Harvey
John Martin-Harvey
John Martin Harvey , known after his knighthood in 1921 as Sir John Martin-Harvey, was a romantic actor of the English theatre....
in Leopold Lewis
Leopold Davis Lewis
Leopold Davis Lewis , was an English dramatist.Lewis was born in London and educated at the King's College School, and upon graduation became a solicitor, practising as such from 1850 to 1875...
' The Bells (1933) at the Savoy Theatre, and also as Wendy in Peter Pan in 1934. In the same year she acted in two productions by Sir Robert Atkins
Robert Atkins (actor)
Sir Robert Atkins, CBE was an English actor, producer and director.Born in Dulwich, London, England, Atkins was most famous for his participation in the theatre. An early graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he also appeared many times on film and in television, though not with the...
at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, where she played Titania in A Midsummer's Night Dream with Phyllis Neilson-Terry
Phyllis Neilson-Terry
Phyllis Neilson-Terry was an English actress. She was born in London, daughter of Julia Neilson and Fred Terry; her younger brother was actor Dennis Neilson-Terry. She made her first stage appearance in Henry of Navarre , and played Viola in Twelfth Night at the Haymarket in 1910...
, Leslie French, and Greer Garson
Greer Garson
Greer Garson, CBE was a British-born actress who was very popular during World War II, being listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top ten box office draws in 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, and 1946. As one of MGM's major stars of the 1940s, Garson received seven Academy Award...
as an uncredited extra; in The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
she was Miranda to John Drinkwater
John Drinkwater
John Drinkwater was an English poet and dramatist.He was born in Leytonstone, London, and worked as an insurance clerk...
's Prospero, with Leslie French as Ariel and Atkins as Caliban.
Pamela Stanley appeared as Queen Victoria in Victoria Regina by Laurence Housman
Laurence Housman
Laurence Housman was an English playwright, writer and illustrator.-Early life:Laurence Housman was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, one of seven children who included the poet A. E. Housman and writer Clemence Housman. In 1871 his mother died, and his father remarried, to a cousin...
at the Gate Theatre in 1935, and in 1936 she played Ophelia in Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
with Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard (actor)
Leslie Howard was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer. Among his best-known roles was Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind and roles in Berkeley Square , Of Human Bondage , The Scarlet Pimpernel , The Petrified Forest , Pygmalion , Intermezzo , Pimpernel Smith...
. However, John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
had just ended a very successful Broadway run of the same play; the critics were not impressed and the show closed after 39 performances.
She was cast as Queen Victoria in the 1936 film David Livingstone
David Livingstone (film)
David Livingstone is a 1936 British historical adventure film directed by James A. FitzPatrick and starring Percy Marmont, Marian Spencer, James Carew, Hugh McDermott and Pamela Stanley. It portrays the expedition of the British explorer David Livingstone to Africa to discover the source of the...
before returning to the Lyric for another season in Victoria Regina (1937–1938). The noted theatre critic James Agate
James Agate
James Evershed Agate was a British diarist and critic. In the period between the wars, he was one of Britain's most influential theatre critics...
compared Stanley's performance with a New York production starring Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...
; unfortunately he found Hayes' portrayal of Queen Victoria like "a blazing sun, and I am so blinded by the dazzling performance of Helen Hayes that I literally cannot see Pamela Stanley." Nevertheless he found the audience very appreciative: "All around me on the first night the air hummed with pretty comments, and blasts of Isn't she sweet? blew down my neck." But he thought that Stanley had "moments of real emotion which, being genuinely her own, genuinely move her audience." Contemporary photographs show that her resemblance to the queen was remarkable.
She appeared yet again as Victoria in the 1938 film Marigold.
Family life
Pamela Stanley married Sir David CunynghameCunynghame Baronets
The Cunynghame Baronetcy, of Milncraig in the County of Ayr, is a title in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia. It was created on 3 February 1702 for the Scottish lawyer and politician David Cunynghame, with remainder to his "'heirs male in perpetuum'". He was the member of a family that claimed descent...
(eleventh baronet) in 1941, becoming Lady Cunynghame. They had three sons, Andrew, John and Arthur; Andrew succeeded his father as the twelfth baronet in 1978.
David Cunynghame was a film production manager, and amongst other films he worked on: Things to Come
Things to Come
Things to Come is a British science fiction film produced by Alexander Korda and directed by William Cameron Menzies. The screenplay was written by H. G. Wells and is a loose adaptation of his own 1933 novel The Shape of Things to Come and his 1931 non-fiction work, The Work, Wealth and Happiness...
with Ralph Richardson
Ralph Richardson
Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
; three films starring Robert Donat
Robert Donat
Robert Donat was an English film and stage actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr...
(The Private Life of Henry VIII
The Private Life of Henry VIII
The Private Life of Henry VIII is a 1933 film about Henry VIII, King of England. It was written by Lajos Biró and Arthur Wimperis, and directed by Sir Alexander Korda.Charles Laughton won the 1933 Academy Award as Best Actor for his performance as Henry...
, The Ghost Goes West
The Ghost Goes West
The Ghost Goes West is a British romantic comedy/fantasy film starring Robert Donat, Jean Parker, and Eugene Pallette, and directed by René Clair, his first English-language film...
and Knight Without Armour
Knight Without Armour
Knight Without Armour is a 1937 British historical drama film made by London Films and distributed by United Artists. It was directed by Jacques Feyder and produced by Alexander Korda from a screenplay by Lajos Biró adapted by Frances Marion from the novel by James Hilton. The music score was by...
with Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
); and two films by Michael Powell
Michael Powell (director)
Michael Latham Powell was a renowned English film director, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger...
, The Lion Has Wings
The Lion Has Wings
The Lion Has Wings is a 1939 British, black-and-white, documentary-style, propaganda, war film. The film was directed by Adrian Brunel, Brian Desmond Hurst, Alexander Korda and Michael Powell...
and The Thief of Bagdad
The Thief of Bagdad (1940 film)
The Thief of Bagdad is a 1940 British fantasy film produced by Alexander Korda, and directed by Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, and Tim Whelan, with contributions by Korda's brothers Vincent and Zoltán, and William Cameron Menzies...
.
Later career
Pamela made a brief return to the stage in 1968 when she appeared for the last time as Queen Victoria in The Queen’s Highland Servant by William Douglas-HomeWilliam Douglas-Home
William Douglas Home was court-martialled in World War II for his refusal to obey orders as a British army officer and later became a successful British dramatist.-Early life:...
at the Savoy Theatre in London. According to the author's memoirs, this was his favourite play.
She made a final appearance in a small, uncredited part in The Last Hand Grenade as the Governor's Wife. The film, directed by Gordon Flemyng starred Stanley Baker
Stanley Baker
Sir Stanley Baker was a Welsh actor and film producer.-Early career:William Stanley Baker was born in Ferndale, Rhondda Valley, Wales. In the mid-1930s his parents moved to London, where Baker spent most of his formative years...
, Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman is an English actress, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in The Avengers and Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger .-Early life:...
and Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
.
Pamela survived her husband (as the Dowager Lady Cunynghame) and died on June 30, 1991 aged eighty-one.
Family tree
Her grandmother (Mrs. Henry Evans-Gordon) was born Mary Theodosia (May) Sartoris, and was painted several times by Frederic Leighton. May Sartoris' father Edward John SartorisEdward John Sartoris
Edward John Sartoris was a British landowner and Liberal politician of French ancestry. -Early life:The eldest son of Urban Sartoris of Sceaux, near Paris and his wife Matilda née Tunno, Edward was born in London and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1842 he married the opera singer...
was Leighton's patron. Her brother married Nellie Grant
Nellie Grant
Nellie Grant was the third child and only daughter of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant and First Lady Julia Grant.- Life :Born near St...
, the daughter of Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
. May's mother was the opera singer Adelaide Kemble
Adelaide Kemble
Adelaide Kemble was an English opera singer of the Victorian era, and a member of the Kemble family of actors. She was the younger sister of Fanny Kemble, the famous actress and anti-slavery activist...
(whose cousin, Gertrude Kemble, married Charles Santley
Charles Santley
Sir Charles Santley was an English-born opera and oratorio star with a bravuraFrom the Italian verb bravare, to show off. A florid, ostentatious style or a passage of music requiring technical skill technique who became the most eminent English baritone and male concert singer of the Victorian era...
); her aunt was Fanny Kemble
Fanny Kemble
Frances Anne Kemble , was a famous British actress and author in the early and mid nineteenth century.-Youth and acting career:...
and her great-aunt was Sarah Siddons
Sarah Siddons
Sarah Siddons was a Welsh actress, the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century. She was the elder sister of John Philip Kemble, Charles Kemble, Stephen Kemble, Ann Hatton and Elizabeth Whitlock, and the aunt of Fanny Kemble. She was most famous for her portrayal of the Shakespearean character,...
.
Pamela Stanley's aunt (her father's sister) was Venetia Stanley
Venetia Stanley (1887–1948)
Beatrice Venetia Stanley Montagu was a British aristocrat and socialite best known for the many letters that Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith wrote to her between 1910 and 1915...
who was the recipient of a great many letters from the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith.
The Barons Stanley of Alderley and the Earls of Derby (the Stanleys of Bickerstaffe) are descended from Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley
Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley
Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley, titular King of Mann, KG , was an English politician.-Life:Stanley was the son of Sir John Stanley and Isabell Harington, daughter of Robert de Harington and Isabel Loring...
.
The Derby Stakes
Epsom Derby
The Derby Stakes, popularly known as The Derby, internationally as the Epsom Derby, and under its present sponsor as the Investec Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies...
were named after the 12th Earl of Derby
Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby
Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby PC , styled Lord Strange between 1771 and 1776, was a British peer and politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries...
, Edward Smith-Stanley, thus giving rise to the play in which Pamela Stanley made her stage début.
Sources
- The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1961-1970. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997 ISBN 0-520-20970-2 Google Books preview, accessed 25 June 2010
- Agate, James: Amazing Theatre. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1939. Reissued Ayer Publishing, 1972 ISBN 0-405-08181-2 Google Books preview, accessed 25 June 2010
- Cham, Elizabeth: Stanley, Sir Arthur Lyulph (1875–1931), in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 12. Melbourne University Press, 1990 http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120059b.htm
- Chapman, Don, Society for Theatre Research: Oxford Playhouse: high and low drama in a university city. University of Hertfordshire Press, 2009. ISBN 1-902806-87-5 Google Books preview, accessed 25 June 2010
- Croall, Jonathan: Gielgud: A Theatrical Life 1904-2000. Continuum, 2001. ISBN 978-0-8264-1333-8.
- Dymkowski, Christine (ed): The Tempest: Shakespeare in production. Cambridge University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-521-44407-1 Google Books preview, accessed 26 June 2010
- Elliot, William Gerald: In My Anecdotage. London: Philip Allan & Co., 1925
- Kidd, Charles & Williamson, David (eds). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, (1990 edition). London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-04640-5
- Douglas-Home, William: Old Men Remember. Collins & Brown, 1991. ISBN 1-85585-002-8
- Low, Rachael: The history of British film. London: Routledge, 1997 Google Books preview, accessed 25 June 2010
- Mitford, Nancy: The Stanleys of Alderley: their letters between the years 1851-1865. London: Chapman & Hall, 1939
- The National and English Review, Vol. 108. (July-December 1937) London, 1937.
- Parker, John: Who's who in the theatre, Volume 17, Part 1. Pitman, 1952 Google Books limited view, accessed 25 June 2010
- The Stage Year Book, 1969. Carson & Comerford, Ltd., 1969.
- Troyan, Michael: A Rose for Mrs. Miniver: The Life of Greer Garson. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2005 ISBN 813191505 Google Books preview, accessed 26 June 2010
External links
- Photographs of Pamela Stanley as Queen Victoria at the National Portrait Gallery
- Kemble Family Tree
- British Film Institute listing of David Cunynghame
- David Livingstone at IMDb
- Marigold at IMDb
- The Last Hand Grenade at IMDb