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Edana Romney

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Edana Romney
Born15 March 1919
Johannesburg, South Africa
Died17 December 2002
Santa Maria, California, United States
Other namesEdna Rubenstein
Occupation(s)Actress, Writer

Edana Romney (15 March 1919 – 17 December 2002) was a South African actress, writer, and television presenter, based in London and later in Southern California.

Early life & career

Born as Edna Rubenstein in Johannesburg, Edana Romney's was of Jewish ancestry, her grandfather being an Irish Jew who had emigrated to South Africa. Romney trained as a dancer from an early age and made her performing debut in Johannesburg in 1930 the year she turned eleven. Relocating to London, Romney - than age 14 - successfully auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) - claiming to be the elgigiblity age of 16 - winning a shcolarhsip to study at RADA in 1935 and 1936.[1] After leaving RADA, Romney acted mostly in UK regional theatre productions including the Prince’s Theatre (Bristol) production of the Matheson Lang play The Matador in 1936: she did appear in the West End production of James Bridie's Tobias and the Angel at St Martin's Theatre in 1938, which year she had performed in the Regent's Park Open Air productions of Tobias and the Angel and - as Titania - in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The first of Romney's occasional screen acting roles would be a reprise of her theatrical role in a 1939 BBC-TV filmation of Tobias and the Angel and in 1941 she made her feature film debut in East of Piccadilly playing the small but pivotal role of the victim murdered in the film's opening sequence: however her second film role: in Alibi, was only incidental.

Corridor of Mirrors and subsequent career

Although her role in the 1942 film Alibi was only incidental Romney and the film's screenwriter Rudolph Cartier became well acquainted on the set leading to their forming their own film production company and acquired the rights to the 1941 Chris Massey novel Corridor of Mirrors for which Cartier and Romney co-wrote a screenplay which they sought to have filmed with Romney as lead actress - a project which would take almost seven years to come to fruition: according to Romney several film studios wished to purchase the screenplay but were not interested in Romney as star.[2] It was also the intent of the Cartier/ Romney partnership that Cartier be director of the film.

Corridor of Mirrors was eventually shot in 1947 after Cartier and Romney financed a showreel of Romney in scenes planned for the film, which lured top matinee idol Eric Portman onboard the production to act as Romney's leading man.[3] Corridor of Mirrors would mark the directorial debut of Terence Young - Cartier being disqualified as director due to trade union objections - and the film was released in 1948 to reasonable critical and commercial success.

In November 1949 it was announced that Romney would again star in a film for which she wrote the screenplay, Romney being set to play French tragedienne Rachel in a biopic entitled The Magnificent Upstart to be directed by William Dieterle who had helmed the 1945 box office hit Love Letters adapted from the Chris Massey novel Pity My Simplicity. However the Rachel biopic failed to eventuate, with Romney's acting résumé subsequent to Corridor of Mirrors in fact comprising only four television roles in the 1950's, two of which were BBC-TV Sunday Night Theatre episodes directed by Rudolph Cartier, Romney playing the leads in the series' versions of both That Lady and Dark Victory in respectively 1954 and 1956.

Romney did however appear regularly as a television personality: she presented Is This Your Problem? (1955-1957),[4] a BBC panel discussion program about "delicate" women's issues, such as unexpected pregnancy, and unhappiness as housewives.[5] She also wrote a weekly newspaper advice column as a tie-in to the television show. She also hosted a radio show, "Edana Romney's World" and gave talks at women's groups based on her role as a "lovelorn counselor".[6]

Personal life

In 1946 Romney became the second wife of the film producer John Woolf;[7] the couple divorced in 1955. By the 1960s Romney had relocated to California and was established as a high-profile Beverly Hills hostess living at John Barrymore's one-time mansion "The Hacienda", where Romney's "Twelfth Night" parties were of especial note.[8] Edana Romney died in 2002, aged 83 years, in Santa Maria, California. There is a collection of Edana Romney's papers archived at the University of Southern California.[1]

Selected filmography

References

  1. ^ a b Sue Luftschein, "Finding aid for the Edana Romney papers" USC Libraries Special Collections.
  2. ^ Bluefield [West Virginia] Daily Telegraph 8 June 1948 p. 4
  3. ^ Tom Johnson and Mark A. Miller, The Christopher Lee Filmography (McFarland 2004): 5-7. ISBN 9780786446919
  4. ^ "Is This Your Problem?" BBC Television (26 April 1956).
  5. ^ Su Holmes, Entertaining Television: The BBC and Popular Television Culture in the 1950s (Oxford University Press 2008): 128. ISBN 9780719077913
  6. ^ "Lovelorn Counselor to Address Officers' Wives" San Bernardino County Sun (6 November 1966): 52. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  7. ^ Tom Vallance, "Obituary: Sir John Woolf" Independent (30 June 1999)
  8. ^ "Dorothy Manners' Hollywood" Evening Herald (17 January 1977): 10. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
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