Dulcie Gray

Dulcie Gray
With husband Michael Denison
Born	Dulcie Winifred Catherine Bailey 20 November 1915 Kuala Lumpur, Malaya
Died	15 November 2011(2011-11-15) (aged 95) Denville Hall, Northwood, Middlesex, England
Occupation(s)	Actress, singer, mystery writer
Years active	1942–2000
Spouse	Michael Denison ​ ​ (m. 1939; died 1998)​

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

Early life and career

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.

She was the subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions, in March 1973 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the Richmond Theatre; and in April 1995, when Michael Aspel surprised her and her husband Michael Denison, on board the Sir Thomas More motorboat at Teddington Lock, for a joint tribute.

In 1997, she gave an impromptu public performance of her song "You Tickle Me Spitless, Baby" as part of an interview with her and her husband on UK Channel 5's Five's Company. Before singing it on this daytime show, Gray had only sung this ditty to friends at dinner parties. It was never officially released as a record.

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.

Writing

She wrote some two dozen murder mysteries, which found wide popularity (including seventeen detective stories featuring Inspector Cardiff, a character she created), eight radio plays, several volumes of short stories—one of which included "A Feast of Blood", which was turned into a Night Gallery episode—and an autobiography, Looking Forward, Looking Back. With her husband, she wrote some thoughts on her craft for young children, An Actor and His World. She also published Butterflies on My Mind, a work on the conservation and life of butterflies in Great Britain, illustrated by Brian Hargreaves (she was Vice President of the British Butterfly Conservation Society). She was also a patron of the Chiltern Shakespeare Company.

Death

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. Her ashes were buried with her husband's in the graveyard of the Church of St John the Baptist in Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire.

Bibliography

• 1957 Murder on the Stairs
• 1958 Murder in Melbourne
• 1959 Baby Face
• 1960 Epitaph for a Dead Actor
• 1961 Murder on a Saturday
• 1963 Murder in Mind
• 1964 The Devil Wore Scarlet
• 1964 No Quarter for a Star
• 1967 The Murder of Love
• 1968 Died in the Red
• 1969 Murder on Honeymoon
• 1970 For Richer For Richer
• 1971 Deadly Lampshade
• 1972 Understudy to Murder
• 1974 Dead Giveaway
• 1975 Ride on a Tiger
• 1977 Stage Fright
• 1979 Dark Calypso

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1944	Two Thousand Women	Nellie Skinner
1944	Victory Wedding	Mary Clark	Short
1945	Madonna of the Seven Moons	Nesta Logan
1945	A Place of One's Own	Sarah
1945	They Were Sisters	Charlotte Lee
1946	The Years Between	Judy
1946	Wanted for Murder	Anne Fielding	AKA, A Voice in the Night
1947	A Man About the House	Ellen Isit
1947	Mine Own Executioner	Patricia Milne
1948	My Brother Jonathan	Rachel Hammond
1949	The Glass Mountain	Anne Wilder
1951	The Franchise Affair	Marion Sharpe
1952	Angels One Five	Nadine Clinton
1953	There Was a Young Lady	Elizabeth Foster
1966	A Man Could Get Killed	Mrs. Mathieson

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1949	The Will	Mrs. Ross	TV film
1949	Crime Passionel	Jessica	TV film
1951	Milestones	Rose Sibley	TV film
1953	Art and Opportunity	Pauline Cheverelle	TV film
1953	A Fish in the Family	Laura	TV film
1954	Douglas Fairbanks Presents	Margaret Brown, Alice McBain	Episodes: "A Lesson in Love", "The Happy McBains"
1957	The Governess	Miss Fry	TV film
1958, 1965	ITV Play of the Week	Gwendolen Fairfax, Mrs. Borradaile	Episodes: "The Importance of Being Earnest", "Beautiful Forever"
1959	Theatre Night	Nancy (Duchess of Hampshire)	Episode: "Let Them Eat Cake"
1959	Sunday Night Theatre	Emily Vernon	Episode: "What the Public Wants"
1960	Somerset Maugham Hour	Leslie Crosbie	Episode: "The Letter"
1963	Where Angels Fear to Tread	Caroline Abbott	TV film
1964	East Lynne	Barbara Hare	TV film
1965	The Sullavan Brothers	Rita Dunphie	Episode: "The Outsider"
1970	ITV Playhouse	Moira Tait	Episode: "Unexpectantly Vacant"
1973	Crown Court	Stella Pickford	Episodes: "Just Good Friends: Parts 1-3"
1979	Play of the Month	Mrs. Voysey	Episode: "The Voysey Inheritance"
1983	Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime	Laura Barton	Episode: "The Affair of the Pink Pearl"
1983	Rumpole of the Bailey	Lorraine Lee	Episode: "Rumpole and the Old Boy Net"
1984	Cold Warrior	Cecily Broome	Episode: "Hook, Line and Sinker"
1985–1990	Howards' Way	Kate Harvey	Main role
1987, 1989	Three Up, Two Down	Nanny Parker	Episodes: "Life and Death", "Cheltenham"
1996	Tales from the Crypt	Mrs. Wilder	Episode: "Last Respects"
2000	Doctors	Paddy Grey	Episode: "On for Tonight"

See also

• Michael Denison

External links

• Dulcie Gray at IMDb
• "Dulcie Gray". The Big Red Book. 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
• Barker, Dennis (16 November 2011). "Dulcie Gray obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
• "Dulcie Gray: Actress whose celebrated career stretched across eight decades". The Independent. 17 November 2011. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
• Dulcie Gray on findagrave.com