Pamela Brown (1917-1975)

[julian_craster]

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Pamela Mary Brown (1917-1975), actress, was born at 45 Howitt Road, Hampstead, London, on 8 July 1917, the daughter of George Edward Brown, a journalist, and his wife, Helen Blanche Ellerton. She was educated at St Mary's Convent, Ascot, and subsequently studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1935-6). Pamela Brown made her stage debut at Stratford upon Avon, in the 1936 season, playing Juliet, The Widow in The Taming of the Shrew, and 'a delicious' Cressida, which she played lisping, drawing critical attention to herself (Trewin, 112). Her London debut came in November 1936 at the Little Theatre, in The King and Mistress Shore. Between 1937 and 1941 she played seasons in repertory in Oxford with occasional forays into the West End. Her work in Oxford established her as an actress to be reckoned with-in such parts as Hedda Gabler, Lady Teazle, Bella Manningham in Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton, Sadie Thompson in Rain by J. Cotton and C. Randolph, and Nina in The Seagull by Anton Chekhov. An early marriage to the actor Peter Copley ended in divorce in February 1953.



The intelligence of Pamela Brown's work and her remarkable incandescent personality and striking good looks began to be recognized during the early years of the Second World War. Michael Powell, the film director, recalled how at that time she was 'a spectacular young actress with resplendent chestnut hair to her shoulders, and great liquid eyes full of disdain, that could dart a glance backward like a nervous thoroughbred. She was tall, with a long back and lovely legs' (Powell, 478). She played Ophelia in 1944 to Robert Helpmann's Hamlet and in 1946 she was Cordelia to Laurence Olivier's King Lear. She was by then an accepted star actress, the favourite of James Agate, the most influential critic of his time. He praised her 'superb performance' in the eponymous role in Jean-Jacques Bernard's Madeleine (1944), adding that 'I shall be content to echo a colleague's "She stands higher than any of her generation for flashes of revealing fire"' (Agate, 92).



Pamela Brown made her New York debut at the Royale Theater in 1947 as Gwendolen Fairfax in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of being Earnest, and in 1949 had an outstanding success in the play with which she has been closely associated, The Lady's not for Burning, in the role of Jennet Jourdemayne, specially written for her by Christopher Fry. 'Miss Pamela Brown glides, sidles, darts and twists with a wonderful grace and flash, and she matches Mr Gielgud's delivery. Technically, it is all dazzling' (Worsley, 83). After London, the play was taken to New York and Washington, and Pamela Brown continued her alternation of West End hits and the major classic roles. For John Gielgud's season at the Lyric, Hammersmith, she played Mrs Millamant in The Way of the World by William Congreve and Aquilina in Venice Preserv'd by Thomas Otway.



From the early 1950s illness was beginning to make playing on the stage difficult: owing to an arthritic condition, which began when Pamela Brown was aged only fifteen, her mobility was restricted and she was in great pain, kept at bay by drugs. Nevertheless, in December 1953, she appeared in Wynyard Browne's A Question of Fact, opposite Paul Scofield. According to one reviewer, 'Pam Brown brought to a part that didn't have all the character that it might have had, enormous character' (Duff, 86). Despite her health problems, Brown continued to appear in films down to the early 1970s. These included appearances in Lust for Life (1956) with Kirk Douglas, the Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor Cleopatra (1963), and remakes of Wuthering Heights (1970) and Dracula (1974) with Jack Palance as Dracula. By and large her films were not as distinctive as her stage work, but her physical presence had a luminous quality which drew attention to her, enabling her stillness to leave impressions which lasted well after the film had run its course. Of her appearance as Jane Shore in Olivier's film of Richard III (1955), an obituarist noted that although this was a non-speaking part, 'in her hands [it was] an eloquent symbol of clandestine love and conspiracy' (The Times, 20 Sept 1975). Her appearance as Nicklaus, in The Tales of Hoffman (1951), a silent, mocking smile playing around her lips, her eyes eloquently commenting on the folly and rashness of her master, lingers in the memory.



Pamela Brown lived for many years with the film director, Michael Latham Powell (1905-1990). She died from cancer on 19 September 1975 at 4 Lee Cottages, Avening, Gloucestershire, and was buried in Holy Cross churchyard, Avening. Because of the fading away of her career, Pamela Brown's passing received scant notice in obituaries. Her memorial remains in The Tales of Hoffman, the masterpiece of Michael Powell, whose great love and muse she was. As Amy Greenfield has written, 'Allusions to Brown's situation and Powell's relationship to her are scattered throughout the film' (Greenfield).



Clive Barker



Sources The Times (20 Sept 1975) + F. Gaye, ed., Who's who in the theatre, 14th edn (1967) + A. Greenfield, 'The tales of Hoffman', Film Comment (13 March 1995) + C. Duff, The lost summer (1995) + T. C. Worsley, The fugitive art (1952) + S. Morley, The great stage stars (1986) + J. Agate, The contemporary theatre, 1944-45 (1946) + A. Williamson, Theatre of two decades (1951) + M. Powell, A life in movies (2000) + CGPLA Eng. & Wales (1976) + b. cert. + d. cert. + J. C. Trewin, The turbulent thirties (1960)

Archives FILM BFI NFTVA, documentary and performance footage SOUND BL NSA, performance recordings

Likenesses A. Buckley, photograph, 1949, NPG [see illus.]

Wealth at death £19,595: probate, 26 Feb 1976, CGPLA Eng. & Wales

[theuofc]

http://www.oxforddnb...lotw/2010-09-19



Pamela Mary Brown (1917-1975), actress, was born at 45 Howitt Road, Hampstead, London, on 8 July 1917, ...made her stage debut at Stratford upon Avon, in the 1936 season....



The intelligence of Pamela Brown's work and her remarkable incandescent personality and striking good looks began to be recognized during the early years of the Second World War. Michael Powell, the film director, recalled how at that time she was 'a spectacular young actress with resplendent chestnut hair to her shoulders, and great liquid eyes full of disdain, that could dart a glance backward like a nervous thoroughbred. (Powell, 478). James Agate..."She stands higher than any of her generation for flashes of revealing fire"' (92).



Pamela Brown...in 1949 had an outstanding success in the play with which she has been closely associated, The Lady's not for Burning, in the role of Jennet Jourdemayne, specially written for her by Christopher Fry. 'Miss Pamela Brown glides, sidles, darts and twists with a wonderful grace and flash, and she matches Mr. Gielgud's delivery. Technically, it is all dazzling' (Worsley, 83).

Among my favourite scenes in I Know Where I'm Going is watching the fiery Pamela Brown stride in with her dogs and through sheer presence and commanding voice take over. She's simply wonderful.















I would have given much to have seen her in The Lady's Not For Burning (1949) with Gielgud although that was decades too early for me:













As some solace, I have a recording of Macbeth, superbly read by Brown and Alec Guinness:







R.I.P. Pamela Brown.



Barbara

[cornershop15]

I was pleased to find this earlier - a publicity still from 1956. Always niice to see Pamela:

(John Springer Collection)

[didi-5]

One of the actresses for which the only word is 'magnificent'.

[Steve Crook]

Pamela is resting now, in Avening churchyard. Michael Powell lies next to her, they lived together until she died



Steve

[julian_craster]

Where is Michael Powell's wife Frankie buried ?

Next to Pamela perhaps.....

[Steve Crook]

Where is Michael Powell's wife Frankie buried ?

Next to Pamela perhaps.....

3 in a bed?

I don't know actually. I'll ask Columba next time I see him

Steve