Her contract with Rank was dissolved in 1950 and a film deal with Herbert Wilcox, who was married to her principal cinema rival, Anna Neagle, resulted in three disappointing flops. "I like moles. Listed on 2023-02-26. Was a committed teetotaller all her life and detested the taste of She enjoyed a steady flow of work in films and on television but gained her greatest fulfilment in the theatre. Size: 46 Pages, Transcript. Possibly up to halfof all melanomas start as benign moles. MARGARET LOCKWOOD Margaret Lockwood, CBE, film, stage and television actress, who became Britain's leading box-office star in the 1940s, died in London on July 15 aged 73. She [54] She lived her final years in seclusion in Kingston upon Thames, dying on 15 July 1990 at the Cromwell Hospital, Kensington, London, from cirrhosis of the liver, aged 73. Her gentle beauty was heightened by different degrees of melancholy inBank Holiday(1938) andThe Lady Vanishes(1938), undimmed by her playing an indolent, pouting trollop inThe Stars Look Down(1939), and coarsened by the twisted thoughts of her Regency-era social climber Hesther in The Man in Grey (1943), her highwaywoman Barbara Worth inThe Wicked Lady(1945), her psychopathic title characterinBedelia(1946). This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Margaret-Lockwood, Margaret Lockwood - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Organize, control, distribute and measure all of your digital content. "Her mole is not part of any formal perfection, but it is also not an ornament," Greenblatt explained. [49], She then appeared in a thriller, Cast a Dark Shadow (1955) with Dirk Bogarde for director Lewis Gilbert. She had the lead in a TV series The Royalty (19571958) and appeared regularly on TV anthology series. While its hard to imagine Carey Mulligan or Keira Knightley being asked to offer up a Romantic paean to life within a few minutes, the demand on Lockwood made sense during the live for now atmosphere of World War II and she pulled off the flow with sustainedintensity. "[8] Gaumont increased her contract from three years to six.[10]. Collect, curate and comment on your files. Lockwood gained custody of her daughter, but not before Mrs Lockwood had sided with her son-in-law to allege that Margaret was "an unfit mother.". She began studying for the stage at an early age at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, and made her debut in 1928, at the age of 12, at the Holborn Empire where she played a fairy in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1933, Lockwood enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where she was seen by a talent scout and signed to a contract. So much so that, in 1650, they created a bill to prevent "the vice of painting, wearing black patches, and immodest dresses of women.". Lady barrister Harriet Peterson tackles cases in London. "[48], Lockwood returned to the stage in Spider's Web (1954) by Agatha Christie, expressly written for her. ", The Times (17/Jul/1990) - Obituary: Margaret Lockwood, http://the.hitchcock.zone/w/index.php?title=The_Times_(17/Jul/1990)_-_Obituary:_Margaret_Lockwood&oldid=145800. She was born on September 15, 1916. [47], Her next two films for Wilcox were commercial disappointments: Laughing Anne (1953) and Trouble in the Glen (1954). Her first moment on stage came at the age of 12, when she played a fairy in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1928. [28] It was the last of "official" Gainsborough melodramas the studio had come under the control of J. Arthur Rank who disliked the genre. She returned with relief to Britain to star in two of Carol Reed's best films, "The Stars Look Down", again with Redgrave, and "Night Train to Munich", opposite Rex Harrison. She is survived by her children with Clark, Nick, Lucy and Katharine, and her son, Tim, from a previous relationship. In 1933, she enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she was seen in Leontine Sagan's production of "Hannele" by a leading London agent, Herbert de Leon, who at once signed her as a client and arranged a screen test which impressed the director, Basil Dean, into giving her the second lead in his film, "Lorna Doone" when Dorothy Hyson fell ill. 17th-century beauty Barbara Worth starts her career of crime by stealing her best friend's bridegroom. Instead, she calls it her"forever moving mole" and sometimes draws it on to cover a blemish. Kate Upton and Blake Lively have certainly helped the spot stay en vogue today. sachets at a time and calling it "my tipple". Miss Lockwood's family would not disclose the . Shakespearean expert and literary historian Stephen Greenblatt lectured students at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma on "Shakespearean Beauty Marks." Margaret Lockwood was a famous British actress and the leading lady of the late 1940s. A three-time winner of the Daily Mail Film Award, her iconic films 'The Lady Vanishes', 'The Man in Grey' and 'The Wicked Lady' gained her legions of fans and the nickname Queen of the Screen. Imagine the awkwardness of having a real beauty mark during this period in history? A vivacious brunette with a beauty spot on her left cheek, she starred in a wide variety of films, notably the wartime thriller Night Train to Munich (1940), the romantic comedy Quiet Wedding (1941), as the husband-stealing murderess in the period melodrama The Man in Grey (1943), Trents Last Case (1952), Cast a Dark Shadow (1955), and as Cinderellas stepmother in The Slipper and the Rose (1976). Lockwood attended drama school from the age of five and following her parents divorce was just 12 when cast as the star of Heidi for a 1953 childrens TV serial. Actress: The Lady Vanishes. For the remaining years of her life, she was a complete recluse at her home in Kingston upon Thames, rejecting all invitations and offers of work. It also helps other women with beauty marks to have an ally with which to identify. She was 73 years old. These films have not worn particularly well, but. The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. Her body was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium. The amount of cleavage exposed by Lockwood's Restoration gowns caused consternation to the film censors, and apprehension was in the air before the premiere, attended by Queen Mary, who astounded everyone by thoroughly enjoying it. In June 1939, Lockwood returned to the United Kingdom. Margaret Lockwood, an actress who became one of the most popular figures in British films of the late 1940's, died on Sunday. As you now know, the 18th century was thetime for magnificent moles. In 1933, she enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she was seen in Leontine Sagans production of Hannele by a leading London agent, Herbert de Leon, who at once signed her as a client and arranged a screen test which impressed the director, Basil Dean, into giving her the second lead in his film, Lorna Doone when Dorothy Hyson fell ill. In between playing femmes fatales, she had a popular hit in the 1944 melodrama A Lady Surrenders (1944) as a brilliant but fatally ill pianist and was sympathetic enough as a young girl who is possessed by a ghost in A Place of One's Own (1945). We celebrate one of the Britains biggest film stars of the 1940s. In your lifetime, beauty marks have likely been seen as a sign of, well, beauty. One of Britain's most popular film stars of the 1930s and 1940s, her film appearances included The Lady Vanishes (1938), Night Train to Munich (1940), The Man in Grey (1943), and The Wicked Lady (1945). This inspired the Yorkshire Television series Justice, which ran for three seasons (39 episodes) from 1971 to 1974, and featured her real-life partner, John Stone, as fictional boyfriend Dr Ian Moody. If you have a real beauty mark, however, you should be aware of what the SkinCancer Foundation calls the "ABCDE" signs of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. But what better way to hide one of those "disfiguring scars" than with a cleverly placed beauty mark? She is commemorated with a blue plaque at her childhood home, 14 Highland Road in Upper Norwood. While much of the world in Shakespeare's time was focused on "spotless beauty," the poet and playwright found imperfection to be rather stunning. The film's worldwide success put Lockwood at the top of Britain's cinema polls for the next five years. I like consistency when it comes to getting my hair done. The pianist is Harriet Cohen, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Why Stars Stop Being Stars: Margaret Lockwood", "Margaret Lockwood's fame brings problems", "Hollywood Invades The Festival (From London)", "Agatha Christie To Have Three Plays In London", "BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Margaret Lockwood", "Crosby and Hope Try their Luck in Alaska", "Australia's Favorite Stars And Movies of the Year", Stage performances in University of Bristol Theatre Archive, Photos of Margaret Lockwood at Silver Sirens, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Margaret_Lockwood&oldid=1141479007, People educated at the Arts Educational Schools, Commanders of the Order of the British Empire, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from August 2022, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 1943 7th most popular British star in Britain, 1944 6th most popular British star in Britain, 1945 3rd most popular British star in Britain (. Barbara insouciantly dons the costume and pistols of a villainous male archetype associated with sexual conquests: the assumption of a highwaymans costume connotes both womens assumption of dangerous jobs formerly done by men and their liberation as sexually independent beings, both products of the war. Even though British Parliament wanted to put an end to the faux mole craze, some members eventually came around. Cindy Crawford, for example, is notorious for her iconic "blemish." In 1955, she gave one of her best performances, as a blowsy ex-barmaid in "Cast a Dark Shadow", opposite Dirk Bogarde, but her box office appeal had waned and the British cinema suddenly lost interest in her. The couple had a daughter, Julia Lockwood. A year later, she married a man of whom her mother disapproved strongly, so much so that for six months Margaret Lockwood did not live with her husband and was afraid to tell her mother that the marriage had taken place. For British Lion she was in The Case of Gabriel Perry (1935), then was in Honours Easy (1935) with Greta Nissen and Man of the Moment (1935) with Douglas Fairbanks Jnr. While vascular birthmarks like stork bites and strawberry marks are always something a person is born with, and therefore a real-deal birthmark, pigmented spots like moles are a bit more nuanced. As a result, Margaret took refuge in a world of make-believe and dreamed of becoming a great star of musical comedy. When peace came, her mother was keen for her daughter to follow in her footsteps. Simply put, if a person is born with a mole, it is then also considered a birthmark. Who knew the social science behind moles could be so complicated? The Leons separated soon after her birth and were divorced in 1950. Your email address will not be published. It was one of the cycle of Gainsborough Melodramas . Instead she was a murderess in Bedelia (1946), which did not perform as well, although it was popular in Britain.[27]. Her final stage appearance, as Queen Alexandra in "Motherdear", ran for only six weeks at the Ambassadors' Theatre in 1980. Her RADA-trained voice was posh, of course, but not supercilious.Her gentle beauty was heightened by different degrees of melancholy in Bank Holiday (1938) and The Lady Vanishes (1938), undimmed by her playing an indolent, pouting trollop in The Stars Look Down (1939), and coarsened . She had one last film role, as the stepmother with the sobriquet, wicked, omitted but implied, in Bryan Forbess Cinderella musical The Slipper and the Rose in 1976. Various polls of exhibitors consistently listed Lockwood among the most popular stars of her era: On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Margaret Lockwood lived at 34 Upper Park Rd, Kingston upon Thames KT2 5LD between 1960 and 1990. The Wicked Lady: Directed by Leslie Arliss. You canbe born with one, or you can develop one at a later point in your life. In the 1969 television production Justice is a Woman, she played barrister Julia Stanford. She was known for her stunning looks, artistry and versatility. Beauty marks may very wellalwaysbe beautiful, but the truth behind them is often less glamorous. However, her best-remembered performances came in two classic Gainsborough period dramas. It was an uphill battle even for those who survived. In an interview withRedbook, Ranella Hirsch, a dermatologist and senior medical advisor to Vichy Laboratoires, further warned,"New things on your skin tend to be bad." It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas, a sequence of very popular films made during the 1940s. She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress for the 1955 film Cast a Dark Shadow. Her childhood was repressed and unhappy, largely due to the character of her mother, a dominant and possessive woman who was often cruelly discouraging to her shy, sensitive daughter. The actor Julia Lockwood, who has died of pneumonia aged 77, began life in the shadow of her famous mother, Margaret Lockwood, who was confirmed as one of Britain's biggest box-office stars. Her likeable core personality made her characters, whether good or evil, easy for women to identify with. Madeleine Marshtold BBC that it wasn't untilHollywood came to be that moles transformed from something to be abhorred to something to be admired. Before long, mouches made their way into politics. Lockwood discusses her upbringing in a Boston area Irish family and her early . ", Even by the mid-1800s, not everyone had opened their minds likePepys. The Leons separated soon after her birth and were divorced in 1950. Speaking candidly with the magazine, Crawford did admit that she's still not sure if she'd have added a beauty mark if "designing [her] face from scratch." This film was a success, launching Lockwoods career, and Gaumont extended her contract from three to six years. [35], That same year, Lockwood was announced to play Becky Sharp in a film adaptation of Vanity Fair but it was not made. Hey Friend, Before You Go.. Access the best of Getty Images with our simple subscription plan. Long live the mouches! [42] She turned down the female lead in The Browning Version, and a proposed sequel to The Wicked Lady, The Wicked Lady's Daughter, was never made. Lockwood never remarried, declaring: "I would never stick my head into that noose again," but she lived for many years with the actor, John Stone, whom she met when they appeared together in the 1959 stage comedy, "And Suddenly It's Spring". Summary: An interview of Margaret Lockwood conducted 1992 Aug. 27 and Sept. 15, by Robert Brown, for the Archives of American Art. [citation needed], She was the subject on an episode of This Is Your Life in December 1963. "[46], The association began well with Trent's Last Case (1952) with Michael Wilding and Orson Welles which was popular. Leigh was a great classical actress and a member of Hollywood and West End royalty, but Lockwood was one of us. Margaret Lockwood lived at 18a Highland Rd, London. Karachi-born Margaret Lockwood, daughter of a British colonial railway clerk, was educated in London and studied to be an actress at the Italia Conti Drama School. Omissions? Margaret Lockwood as Lydia Garth Paul Dupuis as Paul de Vandiere Kathleen Byron as Verite Faimont Maxwell Reed as Joseph Rondolet Thora Hird as Rosa Raymond Lovell as Comte de Vandiere Maurice Denham as Doctor Simon Blake David Hutcheson as Max Ffoliott Cathleen Nesbitt as Mother Superior Peter Illing as Doctor Matthieu Jack McNaughton as Attendant Karachi-born Margaret Lockwood, daughter of a British colonial railway Lockwood so impressed the studio with her performance particularly Black, who became a champion of hers she signed a three-year contract with Gainsborough Pictures in June 1937. Her final stage appearance, as Queen Alexandra in Motherdear, ran for only six weeks at the Ambassadors Theatre in 1980. The Wicked Lady is a 1945 British costume drama film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who becomes a highwayman for the excitement. That year, she was created CBE, but her appearance at her investiture at Buckingham Palace accompanied by her three grandchildren was her last public appearance. The perception of beauty marks has come a long way since the 1800s, though, that's not to say it happened overnight. Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Reception Lockwood entered films in 1934, and in 1935 she appeared in the film version of Lorna Doone. He hopes one day "moles and other individual qualities" will be embraced. Ifyou just so happen to wake up one morning and find a brand new beauty mark staring back at you in the mirror, take note. She made no more films with Wilcox who called her "a director's joy who can shade a performance or a character with computer accuracy" but admitted their collaboration "did not come off. She taught at her old drama school in the early 1990s and, after the death of her husband in 1994, retired to Spain. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Whether or not your beauty mark is also a birthmark, romanticist William Shakespeare would've so been into it. Millions of high-quality images, video, and music options are waiting for you. She also had another half-brother, John, from her father's first marriage, brought up by his mother in Britain. When the author Hilton Tims, was preparing his recent biography, "Once a Wicked Lady", a stall holder from whom he was buying some flowers for her, snatched up a second bunch and said, "Give her these from me. Even more popular was her next movie, The Lady Vanishes, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, produced by Black and co-starring Michael Redgrave. [34] then went off suspension when she made a comedy for Corfield and Huth, Look Before You Love (1948). Listing for: Sport Clips - Stylist - CA519. The film was the most popular movie at the British box office in 1946. "[50], As her popularity waned in the post war years, she returned to occasional performances on the West End stage and appeared on television; her television debut was in 1948 when she played Eliza Doolittle.[51]. [21] Her return to acting was Alibi (1942), a thriller which she called "anything but a success a bad film. As a result, Margaret took refuge in a world of make believe and dreamed of becoming a great star of musical comedy. Julia Lockwood during filming for the BBC science fiction series Out of the Unknown in 1968. Italia Conti Drama School. This started filming in November 1939. Lockwoods lips and upper chin tense Joan Crawford-style when her more heinous characters covers are blown, but not at the cost of audience empathy. Lockwood's role as the feisty Harriet Peterson won her Best Actress Awards from the TV Times (1971) and The Sun (1973). Jennifer Lawrence, for instance, has been dubbed the"mole-iest" not most beauty-marked sex symbol of all time by Slate because her pigmented spots happened to land not just on her face, but on her neck and chest as well. Yet much more than Leigh, especially after Scarlett OHara, Lockwood was the kind of girl youd want to walk home from the pictures in the blackout, or, if you yourself were a girl, walk home with arm-in-arm, dodging puddles and drunkenconscripts. Tap into Getty Images' global scale, data-driven insights, and network of more than 340,000 creators to create content exclusively for your brand. The turning point in her career came in 1943, when she was cast opposite James Mason in The Man in Grey, as an amoral schemer who steals the husband of her best friend, played by Phyllis Calvert, and then ruthlessly murders her. While a real mole's shape is fixed, a mouche could be designed in a variety of styles. Quiet Wedding (1941) was a comedy directed by Anthony Asquith. This film also included the final appearance of Edith Evans and one of the later appearances of Kenneth More. Job specializations: Beauty/Hairdressing. Your email address will not be published. Then, in 1972, she married the actor Ernest Clark, best known as the irascible Geoffrey Loftus in Doctor in the House and its TV sequels, and her fellow star in the Ray Cooney farce The Mating Game (Apollo theatre, 1972). This was the first of her "bad girl" roles that would effectively redefine her career in the 1940s. [1] In June 1934 she played Myrtle in House on Fire at the Queen's Theatre, and on 22 August 1934 appeared as Margaret Hamilton in Gertrude Jenning's play Family Affairs when it premiered at the Ambassadors Theatre; Helene Ferber in Repayment at the Arts Theatre in January 1936; Trixie Drew in Henry Bernard's play Miss Smith at the Duke of York's Theatre in July 1936; and back at the Queen's in July 1937 as Ann Harlow in Ann's Lapse.