[2] Lockwood attended Sydenham High School for girls, and a ladies' school in Kensington, London.[1]. Access the best of Getty Images with our simple subscription plan. 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 American supermodel isn't the only one with an iconic beauty mark. This was even more daring in its depiction of immorality, and the controversy surrounding the film did no harm at the box office. 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. She is commemorated with a blue plaque at her childhood home, 14 Highland Road in Upper Norwood. By Brittany Brolley / Updated: Feb. 2, 2021 6:14 pm EST. Search instead in. It's all Marilyn Monroe's fault," singer Kelly Rowland told People. The first of these was Hungry Hill (1947), an expensive adaptation of the novel by Daphne du Maurier which was not the expected success at the box office. The latter title, a gothic melodrama, had been a hit for Gainsborough Pictures . Her last professional appearance was as Queen Alexandra in Royce Ryton's stage play Motherdear (Ambassadors Theatre, 1980). 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. When asked about this, he referred to the foul grimace her character Julia Stanford readily expressed in the TV play Justice Is a Woman. 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 Britains biggest box-office stars with her appearance in the 1945 film classic The Wicked Lady, four years after her daughters birth. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. And why do people love them or hate them? We celebrate one of the Britains biggest film stars of the 1940s. 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. She also doesn't apply the spot in the same place. It is not too much to expect that, in Margaret Lockwood, the British picture industry has a possibility of developing a star of hitherto un-anticipated possibilities. She was meant to appear in Hatter's Castle but fell pregnant and had to drop out. InBernard KnowlessThe White Unicorn(1947), she andJoan Greenwoodwere cast as women of different social backgrounds a warden at a home for delinquent girls and a troubled teenage mother whose reminiscences reveal that female suffering isendemic. 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. Margaret Mary Lockwood, the daughter of an English administrator of an Indian railway company, by his Scottish third wife, was born in Karachi, where she lived for the first three and a half years of her life. However, after being given an initial leg-up by her mother famous for the trademark beauty spot painted high on her left cheek the young Lockwood forged her own career, navigating the difficult transition from child to adult actor. Italia Conti Drama School. 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. Sign up for BFI news, features, videos and podcasts. [26] In 1946, Lockwood gained the Daily Mail National Film Awards First Prize for most popular British film actress. "[11] Hitchcock was greatly impressed by Lockwood, telling the press: She has an undoubted gift in expressing her beauty in terms of emotion, which is exceptionally well suited to the camera. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Julia was born in Ringwood, Hampshire, when her father, Rupert Leon, a commodities clerk, was serving in the army while her mother continued her film career. So much so that, in 1650, they created a bill to prevent "the vice of painting, wearing black patches, and immodest dresses of women.". Margaret Lockwood visits Luton on February 16, 1948 to see the town at work and is greeted at the Town Hall by the mayor, Cllr W.J. They did. She returned with relief to Britain to star in two of Carol Reeds best films, The Stars Look Down, again with Redgrave, and Night Train to Munich, opposite Rex Harrison. Margaret Lockwood lived at 18a Highland Rd, London. An unpretentious woman, who disliked the trappings of stardom and dealt brusquely with adulation, she accepted this change in her fortunes with unconcern, and turned to the stage where she had a success in "Peter Pan", "Pygmalion", "Private Lives", and Agatha Christie's thriller "Spider's Web", which ran for over a year. 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). 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. Julia Lockwood with her mother, Margaret, in 1980. Your email address will not be published. Her body was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium. [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. 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. Lee dropped out and was replaced by Lockwood. If a woman were to wear the appliqud beauty mark on the left side of her face, this would mean she supported the Tory political party. In the 1960s and 70s she appeared on British television, including a 1965 series The Flying Swan with her daughter Julia. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. She was 73 years old. What Austin, Texas looked like in the 1970s Through These Fascinating Photos, Rare Historical Photos Of old Mobile, Alabama From Early 20th Century, What El Paso, Texas, looked like at the Turn of the 20th Century, Fascinating Historical Photos of Portland from the 1900s, Stunning Historical Photos Of Old Memphis From 20th Century. I like having familiar faces that recognize me. In 1920, she and her brother, Lyn, came to England with their mother to settle in the south London suburb of Upper Norwood, and Margaret enrolled as a pupil at Sydenham High School. [49], She then appeared in a thriller, Cast a Dark Shadow (1955) with Dirk Bogarde for director Lewis Gilbert. In spite of this, she was warmly remembered by the public. ]died July 15, 1990, London, Eng. Trained on the stage, Lockwood made her film debut in 1935 and distinguished herself as the ingenue lead of Hitchcock's delightful suspenser "The Lady Vanishes" (1938) and as the vain wife of Michael Redgrave in Carol Reed's fine mining-town drama "The Stars Look Down" (1939). The sadomasochistic elements ofLeslie Arlisss film in which Lockwoods character is sexually commandeered and eventually raped by Masons lord were 50 shades stronger than 2015s most ballyhooed eroticdrama. I think they're the cutest thing. "I was terribly distressed when I read the press notices of the film", wrote Lockwood. Samuel Pepys, who originally prohibited his wife from wearing one, had a change of heart. ), British actress noted for her versatility and craftsmanship, who became Britain's most popular leading lady in the late 1940s. CURRENT NEEDS: Part time 1-2 days a week 9 AM-3 PM. Lockwood was well established as a middle-tier name. Instead, she played the role of Jenny Sunley, the self-centred, frivolous wife of Michael Redgrave's character in The Stars Look Down for Carol Reed. had a bit part in the Drury Lane production of "Cavalcade" in 1932, [30] "I was sick of getting mediocre parts and poor scripts," she later wrote. Shakespearean expert and literary historian Stephen Greenblatt lectured students at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma on "Shakespearean Beauty Marks." She travelled to Los Angeles and was put to work supporting Shirley Temple in Susannah of the Mounties (1939), set in Canada, opposite Randolph Scott. [13] According to Filmink Lockwood's "speciality [now] was playing a bright young thing who got up to mischief, usually by accident rather than design, and she often got to drive the action. The promise of a screen test with Columbia Pictures came to nothing apart from the nose operation and filed teeth that she had in preparation for it. ", 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. To use social login you have to agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website. The title of The Lady Vanishes is thought to refer to the kidnapped British spy Miss Froy (May Whitty), but it is the prim lady in Lockwoods Iris Henderson that vanishes under the influence ofMichael Redgraves charming musicologist with his battery of phallic symbols. Ceramic. In 1954 she also took the title role in a BBC production of Alice in Wonderland, which she had performed at Q theatre in Kew, south-west London, on her stage debut the previous Christmas. Ive been pretty lonely at times.. This is the ITV DVD Region 2 DVD release of the Margaret Lockwood films - The Wicked Lady from 1945 and Bank Holiday from 1938. . Vascular birthmarks, on the other hand, are formed when "extra blood vessels clump together." Possibly up to halfof all melanomas start as benign moles. As both parents were rarely around at that point, Julia spent the war years with her grandmother and a nanny. Lockwood then had her best chance to-date, being given the lead in Bank Holiday, directed by Carol Reed and produced by Black. 2023 Getty Images. Who knew the social science behind moles could be so complicated? Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password. She had a bit part in the Drury Lane production of "Cavalcade" in 1932 . Enjoying our content? Size: 46 Pages, Transcript. The Truth About Beauty Marks. In 1920, she and her brother, Lyn, came to England with their mother to settle in the south London suburb of Upper Norwood, and Margaret enrolled as a pupil at Sydenham High School. An atmospheric ghost story based on the 1940 novel of the same title by Osbert Sitwell, it stars James Mason, Barbara Mullen, Margaret Lockwood, Dennis Price and Dulcie Gray. The Leons separated soon after her birth and were divorced in 1950. Salmon patches (sometimes known as "stork bites"), hemangioma (what some people call "strawberry marks"), and port wine stains, are some common forms of vascular birthmarks. 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 It was nerve wracking to have to find that now that I live in Fullerton. [28] It was the last of "official" Gainsborough melodramas the studio had come under the control of J. Arthur Rank who disliked the genre. Quiet Wedding (1941) was a comedy directed by Anthony Asquith. These days, Rowland doesn't like to leave home without her trusty appliqud beauty mark. If you've ever heard of a beauty mark being labeled a birthmark, that's not exactly fake news. In your lifetime, beauty marks have likely been seen as a sign of, well, beauty. When the author Hilton Tims was preparing his 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. The film inaugurated a series of hothouse melodramas that came to be known as Gainsborough Gothic and had film fans queuing outside cinemas all over Britain. After what she regarded as her mothers painful betrayal at the custody hearing, the two women never met again, and when a friend complimented Mrs Lockwood on her daughters performance in The Wicked Lady, she snapped: That wasnt acting. Getty Images. 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 flow of performances by Lockwood in the 1940s meanwhile amount to a consistent grappling and overcoming of victimhood. British Parliament wasn't a fan of this tomfoolery, though. 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. Named her after Gaio Giulio Cesare to commemorate her birth by Caesarian operation. Several kings and queens even succumbed to the disease and, according to History.com, it is thought that 400,000 commoners died each year as a result. In the postwar years, Lockwoods popularity fell out of favor. Karen Hearn, an honorary professor of English at University College London, told BBC, "He found them worrying." In the 17th and 18th centuries, smallpox was running rampant in Europe. A Margaret Lockwood performance was apparently the inspiration for Sean Pertwee's death scene in the 2002 film Dog Soldiers. The film inaugurated a series of hothouse melodramas that came to be known as Gainsborough Gothic and had film fans queueing outside cinemas all over Britain. 2023 BygonelyPrivacy policyTerms of ServiceContact us. Gaumont British were making a film version of the novel Doctor Syn, starring George Arliss and Anna Lee with director Roy William Neill and producer Edward Black. Hear, hear! [12], She followed this with A Girl Must Live, a musical comedy about chorus girls for Black and Reed. Simply put, if a person is born with a mole, it is then also considered a birthmark. Seven ingenue screen roles followed before she played opposite Maurice Chevalier in the 1936 remake of The Beloved Vagabond. Her final stage appearance, as Queen Alexandra in Motherdear, ran for only six weeks at the Ambassadors Theatre in 1980. The immense popularity of womens melodramas produced byGainsborough Picturesmade Lime Grove Studios (which became the companys wartime berth after production at Islington Studios was suspended) stardoms epicentre: it was the workplace ofPhyllis Calvert,Stewart Granger,Jean Kent,Margaret Lockwood,James Mason,Michael RennieandPatriciaRoc. A year later, she played another fairy, for 30 shillings a week, in "Babes in the Wood" at the Scala Theatre. Below are some glamorous photos of young Margaret Lockwood from her early life and career. She also performed in a pantomime of Cinderella for the Royal Film performance with Jean Simmons; Lockwood called this "the jolliest show in which I have ever taken part. As if that weren't cringe-worthy and problematic enough, the use of makeup was reserved for "prostitutes and actresses.". MICHAEL REDGRAVE & MARGARET LOCKWOOD Character (s): Gilbert & Iris Henderson Film 'THE LADY VANISHES' (1938) Directed By ALFRED HITCHCOCK (Allstar/GAINSBOROUGH) SHE was the Queen Of The Silver . "Her mole is not part of any formal perfection, but it is also not an ornament," Greenblatt explained. When a proposed film about Elisabeth of Austria was cancelled,[37] she returned to the stage in a record-breaking national tour of Nol Coward's Private Lives (1949)[38] and then played the title role in productions of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan in 1949 and 1950. From the books you read to the clothes you wear, there are plenty of ways to make a political statement. Before long, mouches made their way into politics. Under Queen Victoria's reign,beauty standards left little room for anything but smooth, white skin. 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. [24] She was featured alongside Phyllis Calvert, James Mason and Stewart Granger for director Leslie Arliss. Her first moment on stage came at the age of 12, when she played a fairy in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1928. 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. It became her trade mark and the impudent ornament of her most outrageous film, The Wicked Lady, again opposite Mason, in which she played the ultimate in murderous husband-stealers, Lady Skelton, who amuses herself at night with highway robbery. 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. Her RADA-trained voice was posh, of course, but not supercilious. They appeared together again in the romantic melodrama The White Unicorn (1947). 2023 British Film Institute. Her first moment on stage came at the age of 12, when she played a fairy in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1928. But as the film progressed I found myself working with Carol Reed and Michael Redgrave again and gradually I was fascinated to see what I could put into the part. 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. She had the lead in a TV series The Royalty (19571958) and appeared regularly on TV anthology series. "I would get teased by the other kids in school, so I definitely wanted to get it removed," the supermodel told Vogue. [1] She returned to England in 1920 with her mother, brother 'Lyn' and half-brother Frank, and a further half-sister 'Fay' joined them the following year, but her father remained in Karachi, visiting them infrequently. Her first moment on stage came at the age of Hes a boy with so many emotions. The couple had a daughter, Julia Lockwood. The last flickers of virginal sweetness in Lockwoods persona were extinguished by her portrayals of Hesther and Barbara Worth in morally ambivalent films based on novels bywomen. She was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1980. Likewise, if she were to wear one on the right side, she would be showing her support for the Whigs. Organize, control, distribute and measure all of your digital content. Collect, curate and comment on your files. Showing Editorial results for margaret lockwood. Tap into Getty Images' global scale, data-driven insights, and network of more than 340,000 creators to create content exclusively for your brand. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Ive never been able to figure out what would i write about myself. Back at Gainsborough, producer Edward Black had planned to pair Lockwood and Redgrave much the same way William Powell and Myrna Loy had been teamed up in the "Thin Man" films in America, but the war intervened and the two were only to appear together in the Carol Reed-directed The Stars Look Down (1940). Madeleine Marshtold BBC that it wasn't untilHollywood came to be that moles transformed from something to be abhorred to something to be admired. 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. Lockwood studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Englands leading drama school, and made her film debut in Lorna Doone (1935). They were going to look after me as no one else had done before. Production Company: Gainsborough Pictures. Switch to the light mode that's kinder on your eyes at day time. Her likeable core personality made her characters, whether good or evil, easy for women to identify with. - makes her the epitome of the British noblewoman. All rights reserved. The perception of beauty marks has come a long way since the 1800s, though, that's not to say it happened overnight. "It is a mark of all that Shakespeare found indelibly beautiful in singularity and all that we identify as indelibly singular and beautiful in his work," the historian further added. These films have not worn particularly well, but. [17][18], Lockwood returned to Britain in June 1939. Built in clientele. After becoming a dance pupil at the Italia Conti school. Streamline your workflow with our best-in-class digital asset management system. After poisoning several husbands in Bedelia (1946), Lockwood became less wicked in Hungry Hill, Jassy and The White Unicorn, all opposite Dennis Price. Moles, Mongolian spots, and cafe-au-lait spots are all considered types of pigmented birthmarks. Whereas the vulnerability and sentimentalism exuded by Calvert and the hard-edged sexuality or selfishness of the Roc persona were discrete qualities, Lockwood demonstrated a capacity to range through conflicting emotions, especially in Gainsborough films, which explored and exploited womens needs anddesires. Long live the mouches! [40][41] It was not popular. Edwards, before she visits Skefko, Vauxhall and Electrolux and two cinemas - the Odeon in Dunstable Road and the Palace in Mill Street, whose manager, Mr S. Davey, had arranged the tour. Privacy Policy. Registered charity 287780, Watch Margaret Lockwood films on BFI Player, In praise of 1940s icon and Lady Vanishes star Margaret Lockwood. Instead, she calls it her"forever moving mole" and sometimes draws it on to cover a blemish. "[10], She did another with Reed, Night Train to Munich (1940), an attempt to repeat the success of The Lady Vanishes with the same screenwriters (Launder and Gilliat) and characters of Charters and Caldicott. I used to love her films. Margaret Lockwood was born (as Margaret Mary Lockwood Day) in Karachi, Pakistan on 15th September, 1916. She was best known for her roles in The Lady Vanishes (1938) and The Wicked Lady (1945) but also enjoyed a successful stage and television career. The music was written by Hubert Bath. Her other small-screen roles included the bargees daughter Julia Dean in the sitcom Dont Tell Father (1959), Martha Barlow in the suspense serial The Six Proud Walkers (1962), the marriage-breaking secretary Anthea Keane in the magazine soap Compact during 1963, and Samantha in the TV sitcom version of Birds on the Wing (1971), alongside Richard Briers, with whom she starred in the radio comedy Brothers in Law (1971-72). Rank was to put her in an adaptation of Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells but the film was postponed. Even though British Parliament wanted to put an end to the faux mole craze, some members eventually came around. A year later she married Rupert Leon, 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. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Popular British leading lady of the late 1930s who became England's biggest female star of the WWII era. 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. 12, when she played a fairy in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1928. She likes what she likes, okay? I like consistency when it comes to getting my hair done. Hey Friend, Before You Go.. This is partially dictated by Hollywood's elite. Your email address will not be published. Aged four, Julia made her screen debut playing her daughter in Hungry Hill (released in 1947), based on Daphne du Mauriers novel about a feud between two Irish families. For Black and director Robert Stevenson she supported Will Fyffe in Owd Bob (1938), opposite John Loder. An unpretentious woman, who disliked the trappings of stardom and dealt brusquely with adulation, she accepted this change in her fortunes with unconcern, and turned to the stage, where she had successes in Peter Pan, Pygmalion, Private Lives and Agatha Christies thriller, Spiders Web, which ran for over a year. Lockwood had a small role in The Amateur Gentleman (1936), another with Fairbanks. In addition to her role in a wide variety of films, she was a vibrant brunette with a beauty spot on her left cheek. She also starred in the television series Justice (197174). Margaret Lockwood, an actress who became one of the most popular figures in British films of the late 1940's, died on Sunday. Even still, the trend took off and transformed intodecorative patchesormouches("flies" in French), in which faux moles made of colorful silk, taffeta, and leather were applied to the face. In spite of this, she was warmly remembered by the public. No weekends or evenings required. [29] She refused to appear in Roses for Her Pillow (which became Once Upon a Dream) and was put on suspension.