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Kay Walsh

Kay Walsh

Birthday: 1911-11-15 | Place of Birth: Chelsea, London, England, UK

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Kay Walsh  (born Kathleen Walsh, 15 November 1911,Chelsea, London, England; died 16 April 2005, Chelsea, London) was an English actress and dancer. She grew up in Pimlico, brought up by her grandmother. She began her career as a dancer in West End music halls. Walsh made her film debut in How's Chances? (1934) in a small part, and had a larger role in another 1934 film, Get Your Man. She continued to act in "quota quickies" films for several years. Walsh first met David Lean, then a film editor, in 1936, during the filming of Secret Of Stamboul. They began a relationship and Walsh broke off her engagement to Pownell Pellew. Walsh and Lean married on 23 November 1940. She moved on to higher-prestige films with appearances in two Noel Coward-scripted films, In Which We Serve (1942) and This Happy Breed (1944), both directed by Lean. Walsh had campaigned for Lean to receive co-director credit on In Which We Serve. Walsh contributed dialogue to the 1938 film of Pygmalion, and also devised the scenario for the closing sequence of Lean's film adaptation of Great Expectations (1946), for which she received a writing credit on the latter film. She also devised the opening sequence of Lean's adaptation of Oliver Twist (1948), as well as performing the role of Nancy. Walsh and Lean divorced in 1949, on grounds of infidelity based on Lean's relationship with Ann Todd. Walsh continued to work as a character actress in films through the 1950s, including films with Alfred Hitchcock and Ronald Neame. Her own favourite film role was that of the barmaid Miss D. Coker in Neame's 1958 film of The Horse's Mouth, with Alec Guinness. Between films, she appeared regularly in plays and farces at the Strand and Aldwych Theatres, directed by Basil Dean. She was a semi-regular on the 1979 Anglo-Polish TV series Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. She remained active in films until her retirement in 1981, after the film Night Crossing. Walsh later lived in retirement in London. She died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital from multiple burns, following an accident, aged 93. Her second marriage was to the Canadian psychologist Elliott Jaques, and they adopted a daughter, Gemma, in 1956. This marriage also ended in divorce. Description above from the Wikipedia article Kay Walsh, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1979
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson

as    Mrs. Watson

1970
The Virgin and the Gypsy

as    Aunt Cissie

1970
Taste of Excitement

as    Miss Barrow

1966
The Witches

as    Stephanie Bax

1965
He Who Rides a Tiger

as    Mrs. Woodley

1963
Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow

as    Mrs. Waggett

1958
The Horse's Mouth

as    Dee Coker

1958
Now and Forever

as    Miss Muir

1957
Cast a Dark Shadow

as    Charlotte Young

1953
Young Bess

as    Mrs. Ashley

1952
Hunted

as    Mrs. Sykes

1951
Oliver Twist

as    Nancy

1950
Stage Fright

as    Nellie Goode

1947
The October Man

as    Molly Newman

1947
This Happy Breed

as    Queenie Gibbons

1942
In Which We Serve

as    Freda Lewis / Freda

1939
Sons of the Sea

as    Alison Devar

1939
The Missing People

as    Peggy Gillette