Who is noël coward

His formal education consisted of a few years at the Chapel Royal Choir School which he despised and some dance lessons which he enjoyed. A lifetime of voracious reading and a keen sense of observation made up for his lack of schooling.

Coward excelled in amateur talent shows. With his mother's encouragement, he launched his professional acting career at the age of 12, making his London debut as Prince Mussel in a children's show called The Goldfish. He appeared in several West End productions with the popular comic actor-manager Charles Hawtrey , and played the "lost boy" Slightly in two West End editions of Peter Pan. The precocious Coward later admitted to having his first sexual experience at age 13 with fellow child actor Philip Tonge.

However, his closest adolescent friendship was with aspiring actress and author Esme Wynne. They shared such intense conversations that they sometimes bathed together so as not to interrupt a line of thought.

Coward and Wynne exchanged clothes on occasion, strolling through London in reversed gender. In time, their friendship faded, but their pranks and witty banter would inspire material in many of Coward's future plays. In the early s, England was a very class-conscious society. A boy actor born to poor parents would have have been snubbed by the upper classes.

However, Coward's extraordinary determination and charm won him an entree into the chicest circles. His professional and social ambitions were insatiable. Noel's social ascendancy began thanks to his teenage friendship with adult artist Philip Streatfield.

Before wartime illness drove Streatfield to an early death, he asked wealthy socialite Mrs. Astley Cooper to take Coward under her wing. In he developed his first musical review, "London Calling! Coward wrote his play "Private Lives" specifically for her. He subsequently told Mary Martin about the proposed role; she in turn suggested her former co-star in the Broadway musical "Lute Song", Yul Brynner , to Rodgers and Hammerstein. The rest, as they say, is history. His nickname for Gertrude Lawrence was "Gertie".

On Sunday April 29, , news that Italian dictator Benito Mussolini had been captured by Italian partisans, executed, hung upside down from a street lamp and spat upon caused Coward to remark, "The Italians are a lovable race". On September 13, , the discovery of Adolf Hitler 's secret plan for the extermination of certain prominent British figures once England was taken over was made public.

West, learning that she and Coward were on the list of those to be executed, sent Coward a postcard, saying "Just think who we'd have been seen dead with! Coward had done occasional troop concerts with French actor and singer Maurice Chevalier. Chevalier had been accused of collaboration with the Vichy French government and the German occupiers, and, his allegiance had been questionable. On 27 July he told Coward that he had appeared once in Germany, the only payment for which was the release of ten prisoners; that he had sung twice over the radio because he couldn't get out of it without getting into trouble with the Gestapo.

Coward believed him. Coward was not a great admirer of the Duke of Windsor , suggesting at the time of his abdication that statues of the Duchess of Windsor be erected throughout England for the blessing she had bestowed on the country. Jules C. He visualized British newspaper headlines back in England: "Coward signs up to American film company--another rat leaving the sinking ship". His instincts told him to refuse. He did and they were astounded.

Coward valued his freedom more than the money they were going to pay him. Jerome Kern was a close friend of Coward's and the two agreed to collaborate on a musical play project, but Kern's death on November 11, , put an end to those plans.

Coward was author, composer, lyricist, producer and director of the project, the first post-war pleasant and old fashioned lavish musical produced by Coward. The operetta involves a romantic and sentimental story about a visiting prima donna and her conflict between love and her career.

There is also the theme of snobbishness from the island's establishment. Coward, who had the very successful--and profitable--production "Calvacade" at the Drury Lane in the s, paid for the ambitious restoration of the theatre after the war's end. Building permits to repair bomb damage at the Lane were remarkably hard to come by and much of his year was spent cutting through reams of red tape before rehearsals could start in late autumn.

Sets and costumes were designed by Coward's friend and regular designer G. The show, unfortunately, was not a success and ran for only four months, closing on 12 April Martin and Halliday departed London April 18, Coward's initial reaction to Martin's singing was favorable, citing her projection technique with stage personality.

During rehearsals she and Halliday presented problems, however. She approached the role of Elena with great earnestness, and Coward instructing her to lighten her character with more comedy.

After the closing of the operetta he came to the sad conclusion that the fundamental problem with "Pacific" is that Martin, sweet and charming as she was, knew nothing about Elena, never had and never would. He noted that although she has a delicious personality, she could not sing. He believed her to be "crammed" with talent but was too "little" to play sophisticated parts.

He and Marlene Dietrich had become, and remained, close friends since their first conversation--by transatlantic telephone--in The Theatre Guild, on 28 July , offered Coward the dubious task of doing the music, book and lyrics for "Pygmalion" with Mary Martin. The cabaret concert engagement, honed during his wartime tour entertaining the troops, was a triumphant supreme success--"tore the place up.

Glittering audience headed by Princess Margaret and the Duchess of Kent. Subsequent bookings because of his popularity became special cabaret appearances with his audience.

On 26 May a third four-week concert engagement opened with Coward performing night. It was again a major success, with Coward controlling his nerves and his material.

During the engagement he appeared on 11 June at 'Stars at Midnight at the Palladium" charity event, going on at a. During the engagement he appeared on 1 November for an Orphanage Charity Gala. The offer proved irresistible. A second Paramount film with Danny Kaye was also part of the film deal. In early May of , while in New York prior to his Las Vegas concert engagement, he learned that his English piano accompanist, Norman Hackforth , had been refused a work permit to work in the US.

Matz gained a job as rehearsal pianist for Harold Arlen 's Broadway musical "House of Flowers", based on the celebrated Truman Capote novella about love in a brothel in the West Indies, opening 30 December and running performances.

Matz provided the vocal and dance arrangements for the musical. His varied musical skills were obvious, as the job expanded to writing orchestrations and vocal arrangements for Arlen's next musical, "Jamaica", starring Lena Horne. It was Arlen who introduced Matz to Marlene Dietrich , who needed someone to help construct and accompany her cabaret concert act. Frantic, running out of prep time for the Las Vegas casino engagement, Coward confided to Dietrich about his long time collaborator-pianist's work permit denial by the State Department.

Matz had been introduced to Coward by Marlene. She urged him to grab Matz at all costs. At Idlewild Airport renamed John F. Kennedy Airport in , after seeing Dietrich off, Coward was desperate to find a replacement for Hackforth. Coward called Matz from the airport and went to his apartment to audition him. The test came when Coward asked Matz to play the "Trolley Song". Coward asked, "Can you be in Los Angeles tomorrow? By age 11, Noel was already on the stage acting in minor roles.

He worked with actor Claude Hawtrey who Noel would later say had an enormous effect upon his grasp of acting. In , he met and worked with Gertrude Lawrence and in , he appeared in his first adult role in Charley's Aunt. This same year, Coward also composed his first song "Forbidden Fruit". I could sense his nervousness recalling a time when gay men had to watch their backs.

I also spoke to Carey, the fragile English actor whose pale skin is luminously rendered in these photographs. Famously, she played Myrtle Baggot, the much-parodied keeper of the station buffet in Brief Encounter. Katharine Hepburn, who spoke to me in her New York brownstone, loved Coward.

She visited him often, she said, in her wonderful quivering voice, along with her girlfriend Irene Selznick. But she complained that he and his guests spent all their time lying naked in the sun.

She thought they ought to be playing tennis, she told Selznick, as the two women drove away in their red, open-topped sports car. But there is a shadow that falls across these images.