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Madeleine Carroll

Carroll in [[Secret Agent]] (1936)

Biography

Madeleine Carroll (1906–1987) was a British actress, who achieved considerable fame in the 1930s and 1940s.

Born Edith Madeleine Carroll in West Bromwich, Carroll graduated with a B.A. in French from from the University of Birmingham in the mid-1920s and, for a brief period, taught French at a girls' school in Hove, Brighton.

Following a move to London, she became a stage actress in 1927 and quickly moved into films, taking a role in The Guns of Loos 1928. By the end of 1928, she had starred alongside Miles Mander in The First Born, written by Alma Reville, and had become acquainted with Reville's husband, Alfred Hitchcock.

Carroll successfully transitioned into talking films and, at the start of 1931, her syndicated "Health and Beauty Talks" column appeared in several British newspapers.[1]

She married Captain Philip Astley of the Kings Guard's in August 1931 at a ceremony by Lake Como and spent much of 1932 in away from acting before returning to the screen the following year. By the end of the decade, she was reportedly the highest paid British actress.

She appeared in two Alfred Hitchcock films, The 39 Steps (1935) and Secret Agent (1936), as well as The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), One Night in Lisbon (1941) and My Favourite Blonde (1942) alongside Bob Hope.

Following the divorce of her fourth husband in 1965, she retired from acting and spent the rest of her life living in Paris and then Spain.

Carroll died from pancreatic cancer, aged 81.

Filmography

With Hitchcock...

Radio Adapations

See Also...

Film Frames

Selection of film frames: Madeleine Carroll (click image to view larger version or refresh thumbnails)...

Image Gallery

Images from the Hitchcock Gallery (click to view larger versions or search for all relevant images)...

Genealogy

  • born Edith Madeleine Carroll on 26/Feb/1906 at 32 Herbert Street, West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England[2]
  • daughter of Irish-born teacher John Carroll (b. 1873)[3] and his French wife Helene Tuaillon (b. 1880)[4], who married in Paris in 1904
  • sister of Marguerite Maria Carroll (b. 1907)[5]
  • married 26/Aug/1931 to Captain Philip Reginald Astley at Lake Como, Italy (divorced 1940)
  • married 14/Feb/1942 to American actor Stirling Walter Hayden in New Hampshire[6] (divorced 1946)
  • married 1946 to Henri Lavorel (divorced 1949)
  • married 1950 to Andrew Heiskell (divorced 1965)
  • died 02/Oct/1987 aged 81 from pancreatic cancer in Marbella, Spain

Links

Notes & References

  1. It's uncertain if Carroll actually wrote the column, which ran for 2 years, or if it was ghost-written by a writer employed by Gainsborough Pictures.
  2. Birth registered Q1 1906 West Bromich.
  3. Born in Limerick, Ireland. Died 05/Aug/1953 at Farnborough Hospital.
  4. Born 03/May/1880. Died 07/May/1980 in Malaga, Spain, aged 100.
  5. Died 07/Oct/1940 aged 33 during a German air raid on London.
  6. Mother's named given as Halve De Roziere Tuaillon.