Dulcie Gray

Dulcie Gray

Born: November 20, 1919
Died: November 15, 2011
in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dulcie Gray, CBE (born Dulcie Winifred Catherine Bailey, 20 November 1915 – 15 November 2011) was a British singer and actress of stage, screen and television, a mystery writer and lepidopterist.

Gray was born in Kuala Lumpur, British Malaya (now Malaysia) in 1915, although she would later shave four years off her age, and attended school in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, later returning to Malaya to teach. After her father's death, she came back to Britain. Following a brief period at art school, she enrolled at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, where she met fellow actor Michael Denison, whom she married in 1939. The couple were together for 59 years before his death from cancer in 1998. They had no children. The couple's professional careers were intertwined and they frequently appeared on stage together. Between them they starred in more than 100 West End plays and in the 1940s and 1950s, were familiar figures in British films. Onscreen they co-starred in My Brother Jonathan and The Glass Mountain in 1948, The Franchise Affair in 1950 and the Battle of Britain movie Angels One Five in 1952.

Her performance as the luckless waitress Rose in the original stage production of Brighton Rock at the Garrick Theatre in 1944 led to Gray being offered a contract with Gainsborough Pictures. However, she was passed over for the role of Rose in the 1947 film version of Brighton Rock, in favour of Carol Marsh.

During the 1940s, Gray appeared in Gainsborough melodramas such as They Were Sisters. She was known to television viewers as Kate Harvey in the 1980s BBC drama series Howards' Way (1985–90). Gray and Denison made their joint Broadway debut in the first New York production of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband, appearing as Lady Markby and the Earl of Caversham from 1 May 1996 until 26 January 1997. Their wedding anniversary was feted by cast and crew at Tavern on the Green.

In 1999, the year after her husband's death, she played Mrs Wilberforce in an 18-city tour of UK theatres in a stage adaptation of the 1955 Ealing classic film, The Ladykillers.

She last appeared on screen in 2000 in an episode of the BBC drama series Doctors.

Dulcie Gray died from bronchial pneumonia in the actors' residential care home, Denville Hall, Northwood, Middlesex, on 15 November 2011, five days before her 96th birthday.

Movies for Dulcie Gray...

A Profile of The Importance of Being Earnest
Title: A Profile of The Importance of Being Earnest
Released: January 1, 1999
Type: Movie
An engaging profile of the classic film; featuring interviews with Stephen Fry, Dulcie Gray and Dorothy Tutin.
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Title: Tales from the Crypt
Character: Mrs. Wilder
Released: June 10, 1989
Type: TV
Cadaverous scream legend the Crypt Keeper is your macabre host for these forays of fright and fun based on the classic E.C. Comics tales from back in the day. So shamble up to the bar and pick your poison. Will it be an insane Santa on a personal slay ride? Honeymooners out to fulfill the "til death do we part" vow ASAP?
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Title: Howards' Way
Released: September 1, 1985
Type: TV
The BBC's answer to Dynasty, Howards' Way was launched in 1985 with an enormous 1 million pound budget. The main characters in the show were 'best boat designer in the world' Tom Howard, his boutique running wife Jan Howard, 'I'll have a drink' Jack Rolfe and a nasty man called Ken Masters. It starred Maurice Colbourne.
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Title: Howards' Way
Character: Kate Harvey
Released: September 1, 1985
Type: TV
The BBC's answer to Dynasty, Howards' Way was launched in 1985 with an enormous 1 million pound budget. The main characters in the show were 'best boat designer in the world' Tom Howard, his boutique running wife Jan Howard, 'I'll have a drink' Jack Rolfe and a nasty man called Ken Masters. It starred Maurice Colbourne.
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Title: Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime
Released: October 9, 1983
Type: TV
Spirited dialogue, posh Roaring '20s style, and devious mysteries abound as Tommy and Tuppence Beresford mix marriage and mystery solving.
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Life After Death
Title: Life After Death
Character: Sales Assistant
Released: February 2, 1982
Type: Movie
"We were so close, we loved each other, we made a whole together. I feel cut in half." Meg struggles with the sudden death of her husband.
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Title: Rumpole of the Bailey
Released: December 17, 1975
Type: TV
Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It stars Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients, and has been spun off into a series of short stories, novels, and radio programmes.
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Title: Crown Court
Character: Stella Pickford
Released: October 11, 1972
Type: TV
Crown Court is an afternoon television courtroom drama produced by Granada Television for the ITV network that ran from 1972, when the Crown Court system replaced Assize courts and Quarter sessions in the legal system of England and Wales, to 1984.
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Unexpectedly Vacant
Title: Unexpectedly Vacant
Character: Moira Tait
Released: March 9, 1970
Type: Movie
A husband and wife acting team face the growing realisation that they will never be better than mediocre during a summer spent in rep.
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A Man Could Get Killed
Title: A Man Could Get Killed
Character: Mrs. Mathieson
Released: March 25, 1966
Type: Movie
An American businessman visiting Lisbon gets mistaken for a British secret agent who stole some diamonds. As a result, he has everybody in Lisbon after him.
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There Was a Young Lady
Title: There Was a Young Lady
Character: Elizabeth Foster
Released: January 1, 1953
Type: Movie
A super-efficient secretary circumvents the schemes of smash-and grab gangsters.
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Angels One Five
Title: Angels One Five
Character: Nadine Clinton
Released: March 19, 1952
Type: Movie
The year is 1940 and Pilot Officer T.B. Baird arrives straight out of flight school to join a front line RAF squadron at the height of the Battle of Britain. After an unfortunate start and a drumming down from his commanding officer, Baird must balance the struggle to impress his Group Captain, regain his pride, fit in with his fellow pilots, and survive one of the most intense air battles in history.
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The Franchise Affair
Title: The Franchise Affair
Character: Marion Sharpe
Released: February 19, 1951
Type: Movie
An English country lawyer weighs the case of a schoolgirl who claims she was kidnapped by two women.
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The Glass Mountain
Title: The Glass Mountain
Character: Anne Wilder
Released: March 9, 1949
Type: Movie
An aspiring composer, in the British Air Force for WWII, is downed in Italy and rescued by an Italian girl. He returns home to his wife, inspired to write an opera and aware that he's fallen in love with his rescuer.
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My Brother Jonathan
Title: My Brother Jonathan
Character: Rachel Hammond
Released: February 5, 1948
Type: Movie
Jonathan Dakers' early ambition was to become a great surgeon and to marry Edie Martyn. But, on the death of his father, he is obliged to start work as a partner in a poor general practice in the Black Country. Edie falls in love with Jonathan's brother, Harold, who is killed in the Great War, and Jonathan marries her as planned. It is only afterwards that he realises he now loves another.
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Mine Own Executioner
Title: Mine Own Executioner
Character: Patricia Milne
Released: November 22, 1947
Type: Movie
Fearing her husband could become a killer, a woman seeks a psychiatrist's help.
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A Man About the House
Title: A Man About the House
Character: Ellen Isit
Released: October 3, 1947
Type: Movie
Handsome Italian laborer Kieron Moore works as caretaker of the Neopolitan villa inherited by plain-Jane Englishwomen Margaret Johnston and Dulcie Gray. Johnston is swept off her feet by the raffishly charming Moore, and before long they are wed.
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The Years Between
Title: The Years Between
Character: Judy
Released: July 8, 1946
Type: Movie
Michael Redgrave, Valerie Hobson, Flora Robson and Felix Aylmer star in this moving and sophisticated story of love and loss set against the backdrop of the Second World War and based on the play by Daphne du Maurier. After hearing news that her officer husband has been killed in battle, Diana Wentworth forges a new life for herself, becoming an MP and learning to love again. Then, out of the blue comes the shattering news that her husband is not dead after all.
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Wanted for Murder
Title: Wanted for Murder
Character: Anne Fielding
Released: June 17, 1946
Type: Movie
The son of a notorious hangman is gradually becoming insane and he finds himself unable to resist the urge to strangle women to death.
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They Were Sisters
Title: They Were Sisters
Character: Charlotte Lee
Released: July 2, 1945
Type: Movie
The story of three sisters and the men they marry: one is happily married but childless, the second promiscuously escapes an unhappy, loveless marriage, and the third is tortured by the mental cruelties inflicted by a domineering husband.
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A Place of One's Own
Title: A Place of One's Own
Character: Sarah
Released: March 20, 1945
Type: Movie
An elderly couple move into an old, supposedly haunted abandoned house. A young girl comes to live with the pair as a companion for the wife. However, soon the girl is possessed by the spirit of another girl, a wealthy woman who had once lived in the house but who had been murdered there.
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Madonna of the Seven Moons
Title: Madonna of the Seven Moons
Character: Nesta Logan
Released: January 22, 1945
Type: Movie
In the early part of this century, Maddelena a teenage Italian girl, is attacked whilst walking in the woods. The attack leaves her mentally scarred and our story flashes forward to the 1940s where Maddelena is still troubled. She disappears one day and her daughter vows to find her.
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Two Thousand Women
Title: Two Thousand Women
Character: Nellie Skinner
Released: November 6, 1944
Type: Movie
During the Second World War, three downed English airmen hide out with women's internment camp in France.
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Victory Wedding
Title: Victory Wedding
Character: Mary
Released: January 1, 1944
Type: Movie
A young couple prepare for post-war marriage. Propaganda short encouraging women to contribute to the war effort by investing in war loans through National Savings.