Jeanne de Casalis

Jeanne de Casalis
Picturegoer postcard
Born22 May 1891
Hlotse Heights, Basutoland, currently Leribe, Lesotho
Died19 August 1966 (age 75)
London, United Kingdom
OccupationActress & comedian
Years active1925–1953 (film & TV)

Jeanne de Casalis (22 May 1891 – 19 August 1966) was a Basutoland-born British actress of stage, radio, TV and film.[1]

Born in Basutoland as Jeanne Casalis de Pury in 1891, not 1897 as frequently reported (see the Age Fabrication paragraph below), she was educated in France, where her businessman father was the proprietor of one of that country's largest corset retailers, Charneaux.[2] She initiated her career in music first, only later beginning to work onstage in London. She appeared on stage in The Mask of Virtue with Vivien Leigh (1935), and in Agatha Christie's The Hollow (1951).[3][4] On radio, she created the popular comic character 'Mrs. Feather' and also authored Mrs Feather's Diary (1936) based on her monologues.[5][6][7] Her best-known films were Cottage to Let (1941) and Jamaica Inn (1939).[8]

She married English actor Colin Clive, best remembered for Frankenstein (1931), in June 1929, though they were estranged for several years before his death on 25 June 1937 from tuberculosis.[9] Her second husband, whom she married around 1938, was RAF Wing Commander Cowan Douglas Stephenson; they lived at Hunger Hatch near Ashford, Kent.[10] Jeanne de Casalis died on 19 August 1966, aged 69.[2]

Age fabrication

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As confirmed by her death record[11], Jeanne de Casalis forged her real birth date 22 May 1891, into 22 May 1897, gaining 6 years in the process. The practice of age fabrication is common place in the entertainment industry.[12] This forgery was made easy by the similarity between the French writing of "1", which is very close to the British writing of "7".[13]

Partial filmography

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References

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  1. ^ "Jeanne De Casalis". BFI. Archived from the original on 10 June 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Jeanne De Casalis – Broadway Cast & Staff | IBDB". www.ibdb.com.
  3. ^ Wearing, J. P. (15 May 2014). The London Stage 1930-1939: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780810893047 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ Wearing, J. P. (16 September 2014). The London Stage 1950-1959: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780810893085 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ "'Miss Jeanne de Casalis', Frank Dobson, 1934". Tate.
  6. ^ "A Charity Affair". 18 June 1934. p. 24 – via BBC Genome.
  7. ^ Purcell, Jennifer J. (14 May 2020). Mother of the BBC: Mabel Constanduros and the Development of Popular Entertainment on the BBC, 1925-57. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 9781501346538 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ "Jeanne de Casalis | Movies and Filmography". AllMovie.
  9. ^ McFarlane, Brian; Slide, Anthony (16 May 2016). The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526111968 – via Google Books.
  10. ^ "Three Photos of Jeanne De Casalis and Her Husband. Jeanne's husband | Lot #23093". Heritage Auctions.
  11. ^ Index of death records of Paddington, September 1966, where Jeanne de Casalis is listed under her last married name, Stephenson, with Jeanne de C as a first name, and where her age is quoted as 74 years, not 69 as would result from her public birth date. She actually had turned 75 three months before.
  12. ^ "In Hollywood, Actors Still Lie About Their Age". ABC News. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  13. ^ Example of French way of writing numbers
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