Vivienne Chatterton
Vivienne Cynthia Chatterton | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 1 January 1974 | (aged 77)
Occupation(s) | Singer and radio actor |
Years active | 1919-1974 |
Vivienne Chatterton (8 June 1896 - 1 January 1974) was a British singer and noted radio actress of the 20th-century.
Biography
Vivienne Chatterton was born in Paddington, London, to mixed-nationality parents; her father was English, her mother French. She was educated at the Royal College of Music, for which she won an open scholarship in 1919.[1][2]
Her early career was as a singer of lieder, oratorio and opera, with roles in a number of London shows.[1] She opened a long BBC career in 1924, appearing in The Rose of Persia[3] and from the early 1930s she appeared as an actor in radio plays, and schools programmes. She appeared in several films during the 1930s including a lead role in the comedy Love Up the Pole (1936) and supporting roles in Mayfair Melody (1936) and Annie Laurie (1939). She appeared a number of times in singing roles in the first full year of regular BBC Television broadcasting.[4][5] She was engaged throughout the Second World War on children's programmes, and in her post-war career she became noted as radio actor, voicing the character of Mrs Mountford in the popular Mrs Dale's Diary,[6] and appearing in several hundred radio plays.[7] She was said to have an 'unusual talent for every type of dialect'.[1]
Vivienne Chatterton married L. Stanton Jefferies, the BBC's director of music.[8][9] She died in London on 1 January 1974.[2]
Selected filmography
- Squibs (1935)
- Love Up the Pole (1936)
- Mayfair Melody (1936)
- Annie Laurie (1936)
- Dinner at the Ritz (1937)
- Father Steps Out (1937)
- Little Miss Somebody (1937)
- Down Our Alley (1939)
References
- ^ a b c Andrews, Cyrus (1947). Radio Who's Who. Pendulum Publications Ltd. p. 66.
- ^ a b "Vivienne Chatterton". BFI Films, TV and People. British Film Institute. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
- ^ "The Rose of Persia". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
- ^ "Hansel and Gretal". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
- ^ "Thomas and Sally". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
- ^ MacNeice p.144
- ^ "Search - Vivienne Chatterton". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
- ^ Lowry, Michael (2003). Fighting Through to Kohima: A Memoir of War in India and Burma. Pen and Sword Books Ltd. p. XXV.
- ^ Doctor, Jennifer Ruth (1999). The BBC and Ultra-Modern Music, 1922-1936: Shaping a Nation's Tastes. Cambridge University Press. p. 334.
Bibliography
- MacNeice, Louis. Louis MacNeice: The Classical Radio Plays. Oxford University Press, 2013.