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Coral Browne — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Career

She studied at the National Gallery Art School. Her amateur debut was as Gloria in Shaw's You Never Can Tell, directed by Frank Clewlow.

Gregan McMahon snapped her up for her professional debut as "Margaret Orme" in Loyalties at Melbourne's Comedy Theatre on 2 May 1931, aged 17. She was still billed as "Brown", the "e" being added in 1936.

At the age of 21, with just £50 on her and a letter of introduction to famed actress Marie Tempest from Gregan McMahon, she emigrated to England where she became established as a stage actress, notably as leading lady to Jack Buchanan in Frederick Lonsdale's The Last of Mrs Cheyney, W. Somerset Maugham's Lady Frederick and Alan Melville's Castle in the Air. She was a regular performer in productions at the Savoy Theatre in London and was resident in the hotel for many years, including throughout World War II. When the original British touring production of The Man Who Came to Dinner ran into financial difficulty and could not be produced in London, Browne borrowed money from her dentist and bought the rights to the play, successfully staging it at the Savoy. She received royalties from the play from all future productions.

She began film acting in 1936, with her more famous roles being Vera Charles in Auntie Mame (1958), Mercy Croft in The Killing of Sister George (1968), and Lady Claire Gurney in The Ruling Class (1972). Her television debut came in January 1938, when she appeared in a BBC Television production of The Billiard Room Mystery. Throughout her career, she was a regular performer on BBC Radio and appeared in numerous radio dramas, including Dinner at Eight, The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, The Caspary Affair, The Tragedy of Othello, Oedipus The King, Hamlet, The Infernal Machine, Two Mothers, Captain Brassbound's Conversion, The Eyes of Youth and Waters of the Moon amongst many others. In 1961, Browne was the featured castaway on Desert Island Discs, hosted by Roy Plomley. Television plays for the BBC included Charley's Aunt in 1969, Lady Windermere's Fan in 1972, Mrs. Warren's Profession also in 1972 and The Importance of Being Earnest in 1974.

In 1969, Browne appeared in the poorly received original production of Joe Orton's controversial farce What the Butler Saw in the West End at the Queen's Theatre with Sir Ralph Richardson, Stanley Baxter, and Hayward Morse.

While touring the Soviet Union in a Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (later the Royal Shakespeare Company) production of Hamlet in 1958, she met the spy Guy Burgess. This meeting became the basis of Alan Bennett's script for the television movie An Englishman Abroad (1983) in which Browne played herself, apparently including some of her conversations with Burgess. Burgess, who had found solace in his exile by continually playing the music of Jack Buchanan, asked Browne if she had known Buchanan. "I suppose so", the actress replied, "we nearly got married". On the BFI TV 100, a list compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute (BFI), chosen by a poll of industry professionals, to determine what were the greatest British television programmes of any genre ever to have been screened, An Englishman Abroad was listed at No. 30.

Her other notable film of this period, Dreamchild (1986) concerned the author Lewis Carroll. In the film, Browne gave an affecting account of the later life of Alice Liddell who had inspired the tale Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Browne was portrayed by Prunella Scales on stage in Alan Bennett's adaptation of his play An Englishman Abroad entitled Single Spies. Penelope Wilton took the role of Browne in the BBC radio adaptation of the original film. In a televised documentary Caviar to the General broadcast on UK Channel 4 in 1990, shortly before her death, Coral Browne humorously described her reaction to seeing the stage version of An Englishman Abroad, particularly expressing her irritation at the costumes. She recalled that when she made the film version, the costume designer went to great lengths to find out what she wore at the time the story is set, but when she saw the stage costumes she exclaimed: "I fainted. The prospect of my appearing in a fake fur whatever it was, and hats that wouldn't have come out of a grab bag after Christmas at the Salvation Army... I was incensed... and I mean... and if the play ever comes to New York I shall go there with three lawyers... because I consider it a defamation." In 2018, an Australian stage play Coral Browne - This F***ing Lady was staged by Maureen Sherlock starring Genevieve Mooy as Browne. Amanda Muggleton took on the part of Browne in later productions of the play.

Notable stage

A Warm Corner Comedy Theatre, Melbourne c. 1930

The Roof Comedy Theatre, Melbourne 1931

Loyalties Comedy Theatre, Melbourne May 1931

Hay Fever

The Quaker Girl

The Apple Cart

Dear Brutus

Hedda Gabler

Children in Uniform Melbourne

Command to Love Melbourne

Mated 1934 or 1935

Lover's Leap, Vaudeville Theatre London 1935

Basalik, London Arts Theatre Club 1935

Desirable Residence, Embassy Theatre London 1935

Heroes Don't Care, St. Martin's Theatre, London 10 June 1936

The Taming of the Shrew, New London Theatre 1936–1937

The Great Romancer, New London Theatre 1937

The Gusher, Prince's Theatre, London 1937

Believe It Or Not, New Theatre, London March 1940

The Man Who Came to Dinner, Theatre Royal, Birmingham, England, 17 November 1941

The Man Who Came to Dinner, Savoy Theatre, London, 4 December 1941–42

My Sister Eileen, Savoy Theatre, London, 1943

The Last of Mrs. Cheyney, Savoy Theatre, London 1943–44

Lady Frederick, Savoy Theatre, London, November 1946

Lady Frederick, Grand Theatre, Blackpool, 21 April 1947

Lady Frederick, Theatre Royal, Brighton, 16 June 1947

Canaries Sometimes Sing, Grand Theatre, Blackpool, 3 November 1947

Castle in the Air, Adelphi Theatre, London, 1949–50

Othello, Old Vic Theatre, London, 31 October 1951

King Lear, Old Vic, London, 3 March 1952

Affairs of State, Theatre Royal, Brighton, 28 July 1952

Affairs of State, Cambridge Theatre, Cambridge Circus, 21 August 1952

Affairs of State, Hippodrome, Bristol, 1953–54

Simon And Laura, Strand Theatre, London, 1954

Nina, Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, 27 July 1955

Macbeth, Old Vic, London, 1955–56

Macbeth, Hippodrome, Bristol, 1955–56

Tamburlaine the Great, Playbill Winter Garden Theatre, New York, 19 January – 4 February 1956

Tamburlaine the Great, Stratford, Ontario, Canada

Macbeth, Winter Garden Theatre, New York, 29 October 1956 – 12 January 1957

Troilus and Cressida, Winter Garden Theatre, New York, 26 December 1956 – 12 January 1957

Hamlet, Old Vic, London, 1957–58

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Old Vic, London, 1957–58

The Pleasure of His Company, Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, 1957–58

Toys in the Attic, Piccadilly Theatre, London, 10 November 1960

Bonne Soupe, The Comedy Theatre London, 1960

Bonne Soupe, New Theatre, Oxford, 26 September 1961

Bonne Soupe, Wyndham's Theatre London, 13 February 1962

The Rehearsal, Royale Theatre, New York, 23 September – 28 December 1963

The Right Honourable Gentleman, Billy Rose Theatre, New York, 19 October 1965 – 22 January 1966

Lady Windermere's Fan, Phoenix Theatre, London, 1966

Lady Windermere's Fan, Theatre Royal, Brighton, 23 August 1966

What the Butler Saw, Queen's Theatre, London, 1969

My Darling Daisy, Lyric Theatre, London, 1970

Mrs. Warren's Profession, Old Vic, London, 1970–71

The Sea, Royal Court, London, 1973–74

The Waltz of the Toreadors, Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, 1974

Ardèle, Queen's Theatre, London, 1975

Charley's Aunt, Cirque Dinner Theatre, Seattle, 12 August 1975

Charley's Aunt, Granny's Dinner Theatre, Dallas, 16 March – 10 April 1976

Charley's Aunt, National U.S. tour, 10 May – 26 June 1976

The Importance of Being Earnest, Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, 1976

Travesties, Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, 1976

Coral Browne

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Coral Browne

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