Fenella Fielding
Encyclopedia
Fenella Fielding — "England's first lady of the double entendre" — is an English actress, popular in the 1950s and 1960s. She is known for her seductive image and distinctively husky voice.
n/Russia
n Jewish descent, the daughter of Tilly (née Katz; 1902–1977) and Philip Feldman. She is the younger sister of Lord Feldman of Frognal
. She grew up in Lower Clapton
and later Edgware
where she attended North London Collegiate School
. Her father at one time owned a cinema in Silvertown
, east London
. She was not related to the late actor Marty Feldman
, as has been misreported. Fenella Fielding has never married.
, who had met her in an amateur production at the London School of Economics
. Her performance in Sandy Wilson
's musical version of Valmouth
made her a star in the late 1950s. By 1959 she was appearing with Kenneth Williams
in the comedy revue Pieces of Eight, written by Harold Pinter
and Peter Cook
.
She had occasional guest appearances in television programmes such as The Avengers
(after being passed over as Patrick Macnee
's regular partner in favour of Honor Blackman
) and in Danger Man
. She appeared in two of the Carry On
films and three of the Doctor films (e.g. Doctor in Clover
). She interspersed these with performances in plays by Ibsen, Shakespeare and Henry James
, reputedly keeping an edition of Plato
's writings by her bed.
Fielding was the uncredited voice of The Villages announcements in The Prisoner
, and co-starred with Tom Poston
and Robert Morley
in the 1963 version of The Old Dark House
. In Dougal and the Blue Cat
, based on The Magic Roundabout
, she voiced the character of the Blue Voice — referred to as "Madam" by both Buxton (the blue cat of the title) and Dougal at various stages throughout the film. In the late 1960s, she was approached by Federico Fellini
to work on one of his movies, but turned it down because she was already booked to perform on stage at Chichester
Theatre.
She starred as a guest on The Morecambe and Wise Show four times between 1969 and 1972. In the theatre, she was in, among other things, Alan Ayckbourn
's Absurd Person Singular
at the Criterion Theatre
, London
, directed by Sam Walters
, in 1974, and Fallen Angels
at Watford
, directed by Kim Grant
.
As at 9 January 2011, Fielding is due to appear, from 14 to 19 February 2011, at the Jermyn Street Theatre
, London
in an English Chamber Theatre presentation of Jane McCulloch's Dearest Nancy, Darling Evelyn, the dramatised letters of Nancy Mitford
and Evelyn Waugh
.
Late in life, Fielding worked with writer-performer Graham Roos
performing the role of Sandalphon in Roos' verse cabaret Apocalypse Calypso at King's Place. and most recently provided a substantial cameo in his film about Byron - Darkness.
She is a patron of the theatre charity The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America
.
Fielding wrote the foreword to
Carry On Actors (The Complete Who's Who of the Carry On Film Series) by Andrew Ross in 2011.
in a script written by science fiction author Stephen Marley
. Since 2000 she has been recording with Savoy, a book publishing and recording company. Her work with them includes readings of Colette
, J.G. Ballard's Crash and T. S. Eliot
's Four Quartets. She made an album of cover songs including Robbie Williams
's Angels, Kylie Minogue
's Can't Get You Out Of My Head, New Order
's Blue Monday and the White Stripes' Passive Manipulation. In 2006, she toured Ireland
in The Vagina Monologues
. She has also provided the voice to two tracks on Graham Roos
album Quest.
, Noël Coward
and Federico Fellini
, should have drifted into obscurity rather than being celebrated", and the same article quotes The Times as saying that Fielding's performance as Hedda Gabler was "one of the experiences of a lifetime".
Family
She was born in 1927 as Fenella Feldman in London, of RomaniaRomania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n/Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Jewish descent, the daughter of Tilly (née Katz; 1902–1977) and Philip Feldman. She is the younger sister of Lord Feldman of Frognal
Basil Feldman, Baron Feldman
Basil Feldman, Baron Feldman is a Conservative member of the House of Lords.- Early life :Born to Tilly and Philip Feldman, he was educated at the Grocers' School.- Business career :...
. She grew up in Lower Clapton
Lower Clapton
Lower Clapton is a district within the London Borough of Hackney.It is immediately adjacent to central Hackney - bounded, roughly, by the western side of Hackney Downs , the Lea Valley , Clifden Road and the Lea Bridge Road...
and later Edgware
Edgware
Edgware is an area in London, situated north-northwest of Charing Cross. It forms part of both the London Borough of Barnet and the London Borough of Harrow. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
where she attended North London Collegiate School
North London Collegiate School
North London Collegiate School is an independent day school for girls founded in 1850 in Camden Town, and now in the London Borough of Harrow.The Good Schools Guide called the school an "Academically stunning outer London school in a glorious setting which, in 2003, demonstrated its refusal to rest...
. Her father at one time owned a cinema in Silvertown
Silvertown
Silvertown is an industrialised district on the north bank of the Thames in the London Borough of Newham. It was named after Samuel Winkworth Silver's former rubber factory which opened in 1852, and is now dominated by the Tate & Lyle sugar refinery and the John Knight ABP animal rendering...
, east London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. She was not related to the late actor Marty Feldman
Marty Feldman
Martin Alan "Marty" Feldman was an English comedy writer, comedian and actor who starred in a series of British television comedy shows, including At Last the 1948 Show, and Marty, which won two BAFTA awards and was the first Saturn Award winner for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Young...
, as has been misreported. Fenella Fielding has never married.
Career
Fielding began her acting career in 1954, concentrating on stage theatrical productions. She was given her first break by the actor Ron MoodyRon Moody
Ron Moody is an English actor.- Personal life :Moody was born in Tottenham, North London, England, the son of Kate and Bernard Moodnick, a studio executive. His father was of Russian Jewish descent and his mother was a Lithuanian Jew. He is a cousin of director Laurence Moody and actress Clare...
, who had met her in an amateur production at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
. Her performance in Sandy Wilson
Sandy Wilson
Sandy Wilson is an English composer and lyricist, best known for his musical The Boy Friend .-Biography:Wilson was born Alexander Galbraith Wilson in Sale, Greater Manchester, and was educated at Harrow School and Oriel College, Oxford. During the war he served in the Royal Ordnance Corps in Great...
's musical version of Valmouth
Valmouth
thumb|1st edition Cover by [[Augustus John]] Valmouth is a 1919 novel by British author Ronald Firbank. Valmouth is an imaginary English spa resort that attracts centenarians owing to its famed pure air...
made her a star in the late 1950s. By 1959 she was appearing with Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Charles Williams was an English comic actor and comedian. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the Carry On films, and appeared in numerous British television shows, and radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne.-Life and career:Kenneth Charles Williams was born on 22 February...
in the comedy revue Pieces of Eight, written by Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
and Peter Cook
Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
.
She had occasional guest appearances in television programmes such as The Avengers
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
(after being passed over as Patrick Macnee
Patrick Macnee
Patrick Macnee is an English actor, best known for his role as the secret agent John Steed in the series The Avengers.-Early life:...
's regular partner in favour of Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman is an English actress, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in The Avengers and Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger .-Early life:...
) and in Danger Man
Danger Man
Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the program and wrote many of the scripts...
. She appeared in two of the Carry On
Carry On films
The Carry On films are a series of low-budget British comedy films, directed by Gerald Thomas and produced by Peter Rogers. They are an energetic mix of parody, farce, slapstick and double entendres....
films and three of the Doctor films (e.g. Doctor in Clover
Doctor in Clover
Doctor in Clover is a British comedy film released in 1966, starring Leslie Phillips. The film is based on the novel by Richard Gordon.The film was shot in Carnaby Street, Wormwood Scrubs and Pinewood Studios.-Synopsis:...
). She interspersed these with performances in plays by Ibsen, Shakespeare and Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
, reputedly keeping an edition of Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
's writings by her bed.
Fielding was the uncredited voice of The Villages announcements in The Prisoner
The Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
, and co-starred with Tom Poston
Tom Poston
Thomas Gordon "Tom" Poston was an American television and film actor. He starred on television in a career that began in 1950...
and Robert Morley
Robert Morley
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment...
in the 1963 version of The Old Dark House
The Old Dark House
The Old Dark House is an American comedy horror film directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff, produced just one year after their success with Frankenstein, also released by Universal Studios.-Background:...
. In Dougal and the Blue Cat
Dougal and the Blue Cat
Dougal and the Blue Cat, called Pollux et le Chat Bleu in France, is a 1972 film based on The Magic Roundabout.-Plot:One morning in the magic garden, Dougal the dog is yelling at his cuckoo clock for dropping its pendulum on his bed. He suddenly realises that something strange happened last night,...
, based on The Magic Roundabout
The Magic Roundabout
The Magic Roundabout was a children's television programme created in France in 1963 by Serge Danot...
, she voiced the character of the Blue Voice — referred to as "Madam" by both Buxton (the blue cat of the title) and Dougal at various stages throughout the film. In the late 1960s, she was approached by Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
to work on one of his movies, but turned it down because she was already booked to perform on stage at Chichester
Chichester
Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...
Theatre.
She starred as a guest on The Morecambe and Wise Show four times between 1969 and 1972. In the theatre, she was in, among other things, Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their...
's Absurd Person Singular
Absurd Person Singular
Absurd Person Singular is a 1972 play by Alan Ayckbourn. Divided into three acts, it documents the changing fortunes of three married couples...
at the Criterion Theatre
Criterion Theatre
The Criterion Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Piccadilly Circus in the City of Westminster, and is a Grade II* listed building. It has an official capacity of 588.-Building the theatre:...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, directed by Sam Walters
Sam Walters
Sam Walters MBE is a British theatre director and Artistic Director of the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London, specialising in theatre-in-the-round productions...
, in 1974, and Fallen Angels
Fallen Angels (play)
Fallen Angels is a play by British actor and playwright Noel Coward that opened at the Globe Theatre in 1925, starring Tallulah Bankhead.Cast of the original 1927 Broadway production included:...
at Watford
Watford
Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated northwest of central London and within the bounds of the M25 motorway. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District.Watford was created as an urban...
, directed by Kim Grant
Kim Grant
Kim Grant may refer to:*Kim Grant , Ghanaian footballer*Kim Grant , South African tennis player...
.
As at 9 January 2011, Fielding is due to appear, from 14 to 19 February 2011, at the Jermyn Street Theatre
Jermyn Street Theatre
Jermyn Street Theatre is a performance venue situated in Jermyn Street, London.Formerly a restaurant, under the leadership of Howard Jameson, it was transformed into a 70-seat studio theatre right in the heart of London's West End...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in an English Chamber Theatre presentation of Jane McCulloch's Dearest Nancy, Darling Evelyn, the dramatised letters of Nancy Mitford
Nancy Mitford
Nancy Freeman-Mitford, CBE , styled The Hon. Nancy Mitford before her marriage and The Hon. Mrs Peter Rodd thereafter, was an English novelist and biographer, one of the Bright Young People on the London social scene in the inter-war years...
and Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
.
Late in life, Fielding worked with writer-performer Graham Roos
Graham Roos
Graham Roos is a producer, writer and performer. His work has appeared in print, on stage, television and radio. Since 2011 he has been appointed the first Creative Artist in Residence at Buckingham University.-Career:...
performing the role of Sandalphon in Roos' verse cabaret Apocalypse Calypso at King's Place. and most recently provided a substantial cameo in his film about Byron - Darkness.
She is a patron of the theatre charity The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America
The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America
The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America is a registered theatre charity and non-profit making theatre organisation based in London and was founded by Adrian Barry in 1992...
.
Fielding wrote the foreword to
Carry On Actors (The Complete Who's Who of the Carry On Film Series) by Andrew Ross in 2011.
Voice work
She voiced 'MOOD', the quirky supercomputer in the video game Martian GothicMartian Gothic: Unification
Martian Gothic: Unification is a survival horror game for the PlayStation and PC. It was developed by Creative Reality and published by Take-Two Interactive. Programmers Neil Dodwell and Martin Wong, designer Stephen Marley, animator David Dew, modelers Julian Holtom and Paul Oglesby, and music &...
in a script written by science fiction author Stephen Marley
Stephen Marley (writer)
Stephen Marley is a British author and video game designer, best known for his Chia Black Dragon series. He was born in Derby of Irish parents and was educated in Bemrose School in Derby and at Nottingham. He graduated in Social Anthropology in 1971 in London, gained an M.Sc in the Sociology of...
. Since 2000 she has been recording with Savoy, a book publishing and recording company. Her work with them includes readings of Colette
Colette
Colette was the surname of the French novelist and performer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette . She is best known for her novel Gigi, upon which Lerner and Loewe based the stage and film musical comedies of the same title.-Early life and marriage:Colette was born to retired military officer Jules-Joseph...
, J.G. Ballard's Crash and T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
's Four Quartets. She made an album of cover songs including Robbie Williams
Robbie Williams
Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That. Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams...
's Angels, Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
's Can't Get You Out Of My Head, New Order
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...
's Blue Monday and the White Stripes' Passive Manipulation. In 2006, she toured Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
in The Vagina Monologues
The Vagina Monologues
The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play written by Eve Ensler which ran at the Off Broadway Westside Theatre after a limited run at AFRICA in 1996. Ensler originally starred in the production which was produced by David Stone, Nina Essman, Dan Markley, The Araca Group, Willa Shalit, Mike Skipper...
. She has also provided the voice to two tracks on Graham Roos
Graham Roos
Graham Roos is a producer, writer and performer. His work has appeared in print, on stage, television and radio. Since 2011 he has been appointed the first Creative Artist in Residence at Buckingham University.-Career:...
album Quest.
Critical reception
A 2007 article in The Independent remarked that it was "one of the mysteries of British life that Fenella Fielding, whose wit and distinctive stage presence captivated figures such as Kenneth TynanKenneth Tynan
Kenneth Peacock Tynan was an influential and often controversial English theatre critic and writer.-Early life:...
, Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
and Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
, should have drifted into obscurity rather than being celebrated", and the same article quotes The Times as saying that Fielding's performance as Hedda Gabler was "one of the experiences of a lifetime".
Year of birth
Most sources formerly cited 1934 as her year of birth, but findmypast.co.uk shows that the birth of Fenella M. Feldman was registered in the first quarter of 1928 and that the actress was in fact born in 1927.- Name: FELDMAN, Fenella M
- Registration District: Stepney
- County: London
- Year of Registration: 1928
- Quarter of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar
- Mother's Maiden Name: Katz
- Volume No: 1C
- Page No: 210
Selected filmography
- Follow a StarFollow a StarFollow a Star is a 1959 British comedy film directed by Robert Asher and starring Norman Wisdom.-Plot:The story is rather similar to the ending of Singin' in the Rain, where a singer fraudulently "borrows" the voice of Norman Wisdom's character....
(1959) - Foxhole in CairoFoxhole in CairoFoxhole in Cairo is a 1960 British war film directed by John Llewellyn Moxey and based on a novel by Leonard Mosley itself based upon the real-life Operation Salaam. It starred James Robertson Justice, Adrian Hoven, Fenella Fielding and Henry Oscar...
(1960) - No Love for JohnnieNo Love for JohnnieNo Love for Johnnie is a 1961 British drama film directed by Ralph Thomas. It was based on the book of the same title by the Member of Parliament Wilfred Fienburgh and stars Peter Finch....
(1961) - Carry On RegardlessCarry On RegardlessCarry on Regardless was the fifth in the series of Carry On films to be made. It was released in 1961. By now a fairly regular team was established with Sid James, Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims and Kenneth Williams all having appeared in previous entries. Hattie Jacques - who was...
(1961) - Doctor in DistressDoctor in Distress (film)Doctor in Distress is a 1963 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Dirk Bogarde, James Robertson Justice, and Samantha Eggar. It was the fifth film in the Doctor Series...
(1963) - The Old Dark HouseThe Old Dark HouseThe Old Dark House is an American comedy horror film directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff, produced just one year after their success with Frankenstein, also released by Universal Studios.-Background:...
(1963) - Carry On ScreamingCarry On ScreamingCarry On Screaming! is the twelfth Carry On film and was released in 1966. It was the last of the series to be distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated before the series moved to The Rank Organisation. It was originally rated in the UK as an 'A' , it is currently rated 'PG'...
(1966) - Doctor in CloverDoctor in CloverDoctor in Clover is a British comedy film released in 1966, starring Leslie Phillips. The film is based on the novel by Richard Gordon.The film was shot in Carnaby Street, Wormwood Scrubs and Pinewood Studios.-Synopsis:...
(1966) - Lock Up Your DaughtersLock Up Your DaughtersLock Up Your Daughters is a musical based on an 18th century comedy, Rape Upon Rape, by Henry Fielding and adapted by Bernard Miles. The lyrics were written by Lionel Bart and the music by Laurie Johnson...
(1969) - The Zany Adventures of Robin HoodThe Zany Adventures of Robin HoodThe Zany Adventures of Robin Hood is a parody film of the story of Robin Hood.-Plot:In not-so-merry-old-England during the 13th Century, the neurotic Prince John sits on the throne, supported by his evil henchman, Sir Guy of Gisbourne and constantly ridiculed by his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine...
(1984) - Guest House ParadisoGuest House ParadisoGuest House Paradiso is a 1999 British slapstick comedy film written by and starring comic duo Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson, and directed by Edmondson his directorial debut. The film is semi-officially based on their comedy television series Bottom...
(1999) - The All TogetherThe All TogetherThe All Together is a 2007 comedy feature film starring Martin Freeman, Corey Johnson, Velibor Topic and Danny Dyer. It is written and directed by Gavin Claxton.-Plot:...
(2007) - Radio Mania (2009)