Glamorous, willowy South African-born actress Moira Lister was a
star of screen and stage, but the theatre remained her preferred medium.
Born in Cape Town in 1923, and educated at Parktown Convent, she first
appeared on stage at the age of six in Ibsen's play The Vikings at
Helgeland for the University Players in Johannesburg. She subsequently
appeared with Seymour Hicks in Johannesburg in 1929, and made her
London stage bow in 1937 aged 14.
She began her film career in 1944 and rose to prominence as Ray Milland's
mistress in So Evil My Love (1948). Lister subsequently appeared in
the Ealing films A
Run for Your Money (1949), Pool
of London (1950) and The
Cruel Sea (1953), also the Norman Wisdom comedy Trouble
in Store (1953). In the 60s her aristocratic persona led to titled
roles in The
Yellow Rolls Royce (1964) and Joey
Boy (1965).
Lister also acted in such West End plays as Terence Rattigan's French
Without Tears (1949), Peter Ustinov's The Love of Four Colonels (1951)
and the Ray Cooney farce Move Over, Mrs Markham (1971). For the latter
she won the Variety Club of Great Britain's award for Best Stage Actress.
She published her autobiography, called The Very Merry Moira, in 1969.
