22 Facts About Noele Gordon

Joan Noele Gordon was an English actress and television presenter, of Scottish descent.

Noele Gordon played the role of Meg Mortimer in the long-running British soap opera Crossroads from 1964 to 1981, with a brief return in 1983.

Noele Gordon's father, who was from Scotland, was an engineer in the Merchant Navy when she was born.

Noele Gordon was given the middle name of Noele because she was born on Christmas Day.

Noele Gordon made her first public appearance at the East Ham Palace and shortly afterwards, sang "Dear Little Jammy Face" at a restaurant in London.

Noele Gordon was credited as the first woman to be seen on colour television sets, as she took part, as a teenager, in John Logie Baird's colour transmission tests in 1938.

Noele Gordon attended RADA, appearing in repertory theatres and the West End stage.

Noele Gordon returned to that theatre later that year as Louise Panache in the musical The Lisbon Story from June 1943 to July 1944.

Noele Gordon stayed with the show for a national tour.

Noele Gordon appeared in two British films, 29 Acacia Avenue and Lisbon Story in minor parts.

In 1954, Noele Gordon spent a year in New York City learning American television production at New York University.

Noele Gordon worked behind the scenes as Head of Lifestyle programmes.

Noele Gordon helped Reg Watson and Ned Sherrin launch ATV Midlands in 1956.

Noele Gordon then moved on to present a daily live entertainment show, Lunchbox, an early daytime programme.

Noele Gordon was the only member of the Crossroads cast who had a permanent contract; all other cast members were booked on an ad hoc basis.

Noele Gordon stayed with the programme until she was sacked in 1981, when ATV was in the process of being re-constituted into a new company, Central Independent Television.

Noele Gordon, who had already appeared in 3,521 episodes, was too ill to make the planned return.

Noele Gordon became ill during the run and had to be replaced.

Noele Gordon had been engaged to Captain Robertson Crichton in 1941, but he broke off the engagement shortly before the wedding was due to take place.

For many years, in the 1960s and early 1970s, she stayed in a large white-washed Georgian manor house at Weir End, near Ross-on-Wye, beside the A40 road to Monmouth; her mother Joan lived in the house and Noele Gordon joined her at weekends.

Noele Gordon retired to her home in Birmingham, where she died in 1985 of stomach cancer, at the age of 65.

Noele Gordon was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's parish church in Ross-on-Wye, next to her mother.