Jill Esmond Moore (26 January 1908 – 28 July 1990) was an English stage and screen actress.
Early life
Esmond was born in London, the daughter of stage actors Henry V. Esmond and Eva Moore. Dramatist W.S. Gilbert and actress Maxine Elliott were her godparents. One of her maternal aunts was Decima Moore.
She had a brother Jack (an actor) and a sister, Lynette, who did not survive infancy.
While her parents toured with theatre companies, Esmond spent her childhood in boarding schools until she decided at the age of 14 to become an actress. She made her stage debut playing Wendy to Gladys Cooper's Peter Pan, but her success was short-lived. When her father died suddenly in 1922, in Paris, due to pneumonia, Esmond returned to school and at the time considered abandoning her ambition to act.
