1. Joyce Irene Grenfell was an English diseuse, singer, actress and writer.
18 Facts About Joyce Grenfell
1. 2.
Joyce Grenfell was known for the songs and monologues she wrote and performed, at first in revues and later in her solo shows.
3.
Joyce Grenfell never appeared as a stage actress, but had roles, mostly comic, in many films, including Miss Gossage in The Happiest Days of Your Life and Police Sergeant Ruby Gates in the St Trinian's series.
4.
Joyce Grenfell was a well-known broadcaster on radio and television.
5.
Nancy Astor was one of her maternal aunts; Joyce Grenfell often visited her at the Astors' home of Cliveden and lived in a cottage on the estate, a mile from the main house, in the early years of her marriage.
6.
Joyce Grenfell attended the Francis Holland School in central London, and the Claremont Fan Court School, in Esher, Surrey.
7.
Joyce Grenfell then went to a finishing school in Paris at the age of 17.
8.
Joyce Grenfell supposed at the time that this "was the finish of my dreams of becoming an actress".
9.
In 1941 Joyce Grenfell appeared in her first film role, as the American mother in Carol Reed's short documentary A Letter from Home.
10.
Addinsell's health was too fragile to permit him to accept, and Joyce Grenfell recruited Viola Tunnard, later better known as a close colleague of Benjamin Britten.
11.
Back in London Joyce Grenfell wrote the song "Du Maurier" and the monologue "Travelling Broadens the Mind", both of which she performed in Noel Coward's first post-war revue, Sigh No More.
12.
Coward had been a family friend since Joyce Grenfell was a girl.
13.
The Stage commented that any doubts that Joyce Grenfell could sustain a solo evening were quickly dispelled:.
14.
In later shows Joyce Grenfell simplified the format further, dispensing with dancers and band, and being accompanied only by Blezard at the piano.
15.
Away from the theatre, Joyce Grenfell served as a member of the influential Pilkington Committee on Broadcasting from 1960 to 1962, and was president of the Society of Women Broadcasters and Writers.
16.
Joyce Grenfell's husband did not share her beliefs and prevailed on her to undergo treatment.
17.
Joyce Grenfell was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1946 for her war work.
18.
Lipman presented the radio programme Choice Joyce Grenfell, compiled from Joyce Grenfell's writings.