Graham Payn
Encyclopedia
Graham Payn was a South Africa
n-born English actor and singer, also known for being the life partner of the playwright Noël Coward
. Beginning as a boy soprano
, Payn later made a career as a singer and actor in the works of Coward and others. After Coward's death, Payn ran the Coward Estate for 25 years.
, South Africa, the son of Francis Dawnay Payn and his wife, Sybil, née Graham. He was educated in South Africa and, after his parents divorced, in England, where he made his first stage appearance, aged 13, at the London Palladium
, as Curly in Peter Pan
. In October 1931 he broadcast as a boy soprano on the BBC
in a programme featuring Derek Oldham
and Mabel Constanduros
, and made further broadcasts in 1932 and 1933. At the age of 14, he auditioned for the Noël Coward
and Charles B. Cochran
revue Words and Music
(1932). His audition piece, singing "Nearer My God to Thee" while executing a tap dance, was so striking that Payn won two tiny parts in the revue. For 163 performances, he played a busker entertaining a cinema queue as a lead-in to the ballad "Mad About the Boy
", and announced, in top hat, white jacket and shorts, the show's other hit song "Mad Dogs and Englishmen
". He first appeared in films as a boy soprano in the same year. When the revue closed, Payn signed a nine-week contract to sing in cinemas around Britain, but the tour was cancelled when his voice suddenly broke. Unemployable as a boy soprano, he returned with his mother to South Africa. During the run of Words and Music, Payn had studied tap dancing with the show's choreographer, Buddy Bradley. To make a living in South Africa he taught at dancing schools in Durban and Johannesburg, reproducing Bradley's routines.
on radio as well as on the new television service in variety shows in 1938 and 1939; he was also cast in radio plays. His first adult role in the West End came a fortnight before the outbreak of World War II
, in Douglas Furber
's song and dance show, Sitting Pretty, after which all the theatres were closed. Payn volunteered for the army but was discharged on health grounds because of a hernia after a few weeks.
In 1941 and 1942, he appeared in Up and Doing, a revue, with Leslie Henson
, Binnie Hale
, Cyril Ritchard
and Stanley Holloway
, and its successor Fine and Dandy, with the cast unchanged except for Dorothy Dickson
replacing Binnie Hale. In the latter show Payn and Patricia Burke sang Rodgers and Hart
's "This Can't Be Love
" and later, Coward's "London Pride
". One night, Coward came backstage after the performance. Payn later wrote, "I remember being very nervous, not having seen him for the best part of 10 years, though I was pleased as punch to be recognised in my own right." Coward's verdict was, "Very good. Splendid." In 1943, Payn announced his engagement to marry Sheila Ascoli, but the wedding did not take place.
In Magic Carpet, Payn appeared with Sydney Howard
and then, after The Lilac Domino
(1944), he played Lewis Carroll
, the Mock Turtle and Tweedledum in Clemence Dane
and Richard Addinsell
's musical version of Alice in Wonderland (1944). In the Leslie Henson show Gaieties (1945) Payn and Walter Crisham sang and danced "White Tie and Tails". Coward came backstage after a performance and offered Payn a leading part in his forthcoming show, Sigh No More
, which, Payn wrote in his memoirs, "marked the beginning of a personal and professional relationship between Noël and myself that would last until his death."
In 1951 Payn returned to revue at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. The Lyric Revue had material by several contributors, including Coward, Flanders and Swann
and Payn himself; he and Cole Lesley, Coward's assistant, contributed the song "This Seems to be the Moment". The show was such a success at Hammersmith that it transferred to the West End. The following year there was a second edition, The Globe Revue, which ran for six months. Coward cast Payn in an American revival of some of his Tonight at 8:30
plays, with Gertrude Lawrence
. They were well received on tour but failed on Broadway
. In London, Payn appeared in Coward's new works, Pacific 1860
, Ace of Clubs
, After the Ball
, and Waiting in the Wings
. Payn's performances were well reviewed, but the shows were unsuccessful. In the 1960s, he played the supporting role of Morris Dixon in Present Laughter
.
Payn also did some film work. In 1949 he was in the Borstal
drama Boys in Brown
, with Dirk Bogarde
and Richard Attenborough
. He appeared in two films with Coward: The Astonished Heart
(1950) and The Italian Job
(1968), in which Coward played a criminal mastermind with Payn as his obsequious assistant.
After Coward died in 1973, Payn's career for the rest of his life became the administration of the Coward Estate. The Coward authority Barry Day wrote, "It was not a job he ever wanted or expected but he brought to it a dedication and focus that Noël would have been surprised and pleased to see. [He] was thrust into his biggest role and played it as he knew Noël would have wanted him to. It was a fitting farewell performance." Coward's biographer, Philip Hoare
, wrote, "Graham disproved his partner's assessment of himself as 'an illiterate little sod' by publishing his memoir and by managing the Coward estate. He was a generous, uncomplicated man, and he will be missed by his many friends."
In 1988, 15 years after Coward's death, Payn, who "hadn't the heart to use it again", gave their Jamaican home, the Firefly Estate
, to the Jamaica National Heritage Trust
. He retained their other home in Switzerland, where he died in 2005, aged 87.
and Cole Lesley, and, with Morley, was co-editor of The Noël Coward Diaries, which they dedicated to Lesley. Payn wrote his autobiography, My Life With Noël Coward, in 1994.
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n-born English actor and singer, also known for being the life partner of the playwright 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...
. Beginning as a boy soprano
Boy soprano
A boy soprano is a young male singer with an unchanged voice in the soprano range. Although a treble, or choirboy, may also be considered to be a boy soprano, the more colloquial term boy soprano is generally only used for boys who sing, perform, or record as soloists, and who may not necessarily...
, Payn later made a career as a singer and actor in the works of Coward and others. After Coward's death, Payn ran the Coward Estate for 25 years.
Early years
Payn was born in PietermaritzburgPietermaritzburg
Pietermaritzburg is the capital and second largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838, and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its "purist" Zulu name is umGungundlovu, and this is the name used for the district municipality...
, South Africa, the son of Francis Dawnay Payn and his wife, Sybil, née Graham. He was educated in South Africa and, after his parents divorced, in England, where he made his first stage appearance, aged 13, at the London Palladium
London Palladium
The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...
, as Curly in Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
. In October 1931 he broadcast as a boy soprano on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in a programme featuring Derek Oldham
Derek Oldham
Derek Oldham was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
and Mabel Constanduros
Mabel Constanduros
Mabel Constanduros , birth name Mabel Tilling, was an English actress and screenwriter. She achieved fame playing Mrs.Buggins on the radio programme The Buggins Family, which ran from 1928 to 1948. She played Earthy Mangold in the popular Worzel Gummidge radio serial on the BBC Children's Hour...
, and made further broadcasts in 1932 and 1933. At the age of 14, he auditioned for the 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 Charles B. Cochran
Charles B. Cochran
Sir Charles Blake Cochran , generally known as C. B. Cochran, was an English theatrical manager. He produced some of the most successful musical revues, musicals and plays of the 1920s and 1930s, becoming associated with Noel Coward and his works.-Biography:Cochran was born in Sussex and educated...
revue Words and Music
Words and Music (musical)
Words and Music is a musical revue with sketches, music, lyrics and direction by Noël Coward. The revue introduced the song "Mad About the Boy", which, according to The Noël Coward Society's website, is Coward's most popular song...
(1932). His audition piece, singing "Nearer My God to Thee" while executing a tap dance, was so striking that Payn won two tiny parts in the revue. For 163 performances, he played a busker entertaining a cinema queue as a lead-in to the ballad "Mad About the Boy
Mad About the Boy
Dinah Washington's 1952 recording of "Mad about the Boy" is possibly the most widely known version of the song in modern times. The 6/8-time arrangement for voice and jazz orchestra by Quincy Jones omits two verses and was recorded in the singer's native Chicago on the Mercury label.Washington's...
", and announced, in top hat, white jacket and shorts, the show's other hit song "Mad Dogs and Englishmen
Mad Dogs and Englishmen (song)
"Mad Dogs and Englishmen" is a song written by Noël Coward and first performed in The Third Little Show at the Music Box Theatre, New York, on 1 June 1931, by Beatrice Lillie. The following year it was used in the revue Words and Music and also released in a "studio version"...
". He first appeared in films as a boy soprano in the same year. When the revue closed, Payn signed a nine-week contract to sing in cinemas around Britain, but the tour was cancelled when his voice suddenly broke. Unemployable as a boy soprano, he returned with his mother to South Africa. During the run of Words and Music, Payn had studied tap dancing with the show's choreographer, Buddy Bradley. To make a living in South Africa he taught at dancing schools in Durban and Johannesburg, reproducing Bradley's routines.
Adult career
Returning to England in 1936, Payn broadcast frequently as a light baritoneBaritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
on radio as well as on the new television service in variety shows in 1938 and 1939; he was also cast in radio plays. His first adult role in the West End came a fortnight before the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, in Douglas Furber
Douglas Furber
Douglas Furber was a British lyricist and playwright.Furber is best known for the lyrics to the 1937 song The Lambeth Walk and the libretto to the musical Me and My Girl, composed by Noel Gay, from which it came. This show made broadcasting history when in 1939 it became the first full length...
's song and dance show, Sitting Pretty, after which all the theatres were closed. Payn volunteered for the army but was discharged on health grounds because of a hernia after a few weeks.
In 1941 and 1942, he appeared in Up and Doing, a revue, with Leslie Henson
Leslie Henson
Leslie Lincoln Henson was an English comedian, actor, producer for films and theatre, and film director. He initially worked in silent films and Edwardian musical comedy and became a popular music hall comedian who enjoyed a long stage career...
, Binnie Hale
Binnie Hale
Binnie Hale was an English actress and musician. Both her father, Robert Hale and younger brother, Sonnie Hale were actors. She married West End actor Jack Raine, with whom she had one daughter....
, Cyril Ritchard
Cyril Ritchard
Cyril Ritchard was an Australian stage, screen and television actor, and director. He is probably best remembered today for his performance as Captain Hook in the Mary Martin musical production of Peter Pan....
and Stanley Holloway
Stanley Holloway
Stanley Augustus Holloway, OBE was an English stage and film actor, comedian, singer, poet and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady...
, and its successor Fine and Dandy, with the cast unchanged except for Dorothy Dickson
Dorothy Dickson
Dorothy Dickson , was an American-born, London-based theater actress and singer.-Biography:Dickson is known mostly for her rendition of the Jerome Kern song "Look for the Silver Lining". She was also a member of the Ziegfeld Follies and made many appearances in New York and abroad...
replacing Binnie Hale. In the latter show Payn and Patricia Burke sang Rodgers and Hart
Rodgers and Hart
Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership of composer Richard Rodgers and the lyricist Lorenz Hart...
's "This Can't Be Love
This Can't Be Love (song)
"This Can't Be Love" is a show tune and a popular song from the 1938 Rodgers and Hart musical The Boys from Syracuse. It was also included in the 1962 musical film, Billy Rose's Jumbo, though most of the songs in that film came from the 1935 Rodgers & Hart musical Jumbo. The lyrics poke fun of the...
" and later, Coward's "London Pride
London Pride (song)
"London Pride" is a song written and composed by Noël Coward.- Composition :Coward wrote "London Pride" in the spring of 1941, during the Blitz. According to his own account, he was sitting on a seat on a platform of a damaged railway station in London, and was "overwhelmed by a wave of sentimental...
". One night, Coward came backstage after the performance. Payn later wrote, "I remember being very nervous, not having seen him for the best part of 10 years, though I was pleased as punch to be recognised in my own right." Coward's verdict was, "Very good. Splendid." In 1943, Payn announced his engagement to marry Sheila Ascoli, but the wedding did not take place.
In Magic Carpet, Payn appeared with Sydney Howard
Sydney Howard
Sydney Howard was an English stage comedian and motion-picture actor born in Leeds, Yorkshire.Already a major stage star, Howard made his feature film début in 1929's Jack Raymond's Splinters, and went on appearing in unique roles in films such as French Leave, Up for the Cup and Mayor's Nest...
and then, after The Lilac Domino
The Lilac Domino
Der lila Domino is an operetta in three acts by Charles Cuvillier. The original German libretto is by Emmerich von Gatti and Béla Jenbach, about a gambling count who falls in love at a masquerade ball with a noblewoman wearing a lilac domino mask.The operetta achieved far greater popularity in...
(1944), he played Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
, the Mock Turtle and Tweedledum in Clemence Dane
Clemence Dane
Clemence Dane was the pseudonym of Winifred Ashton , an English novelist and playwright.-Life and career:...
and Richard Addinsell
Richard Addinsell
Richard Stewart Addinsell was a British composer, best known for film music, primarily his Warsaw Concerto, composed for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight .-Life:...
's musical version of Alice in Wonderland (1944). In the Leslie Henson show Gaieties (1945) Payn and Walter Crisham sang and danced "White Tie and Tails". Coward came backstage after a performance and offered Payn a leading part in his forthcoming show, Sigh No More
Sigh No More (musical)
Sigh No More is a musical revue consisting of twenty-two scenes and numbers composed, written and produced by Noël Coward, with additional items by Joyce Grenfell, Richard Addinsell and Norman Hackforth. The show was Coward's first post-World War II musical and starred Cyril Ritchard, his wife...
, which, Payn wrote in his memoirs, "marked the beginning of a personal and professional relationship between Noël and myself that would last until his death."
Association with Coward
Coward continually promoted Payn's career. He was widely thought to overrate his protégé's talents. Payn received consistently good notices for his performances, but lacked drive and star quality, as he himself knew. Coward also eventually came to realise it, writing: "He is, I fear, a born drifter. I know his theatrical career has been a failure but there are other ploys to go after. He sleeps and sleeps, and the days go by. I love him dearly and for ever, but this lack of drive in any direction is a bad augury for the future. I am willing and happy to look after him for the rest of my life, but he must do something."In 1951 Payn returned to revue at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. The Lyric Revue had material by several contributors, including Coward, Flanders and Swann
Flanders and Swann
The British duo Flanders and Swann were the actor and singer Michael Flanders and the composer, pianist and linguist Donald Swann , who collaborated in writing and performing comic songs....
and Payn himself; he and Cole Lesley, Coward's assistant, contributed the song "This Seems to be the Moment". The show was such a success at Hammersmith that it transferred to the West End. The following year there was a second edition, The Globe Revue, which ran for six months. Coward cast Payn in an American revival of some of his Tonight at 8:30
Tonight at 8:30
Tonight at 8.30 is a cycle of ten one-act plays by Noël Coward. In the introduction to a published edition of the plays, Coward wrote, "A short play, having a great advantage over a long one in that it can sustain a mood without technical creaking or over padding, deserves a better fate, and if,...
plays, with Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence was an English actress, singer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End theatre district of London and on Broadway.-Early life:...
. They were well received on tour but failed on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
. In London, Payn appeared in Coward's new works, Pacific 1860
Pacific 1860
Pacific 1860 is a musical written by Noël Coward. The story is set in a fictional Pacific British Colony during the reign of Queen Victoria. It involves a visiting Prima Donna and her conflict between love and career...
, Ace of Clubs
Ace of Clubs (musical)
Ace of Clubs is a 1950 musical written, composed and directed by Noël Coward. The show is set in a 1949 London nightclub called "Ace of Clubs". Nightclub singer Pinkie Leroy falls in love with a sailor. Pinkie and her lover get mixed up with gangsters, a lost package and a missing diamond necklace...
, After the Ball
After the Ball (musical)
After the Ball is a musical by Noel Coward, based on Lady Windermere's Fan.After a provincial tour, the musical premiered at the Globe Theatre, London, on 10 June 1954 and ran for 188 performances until 20 November 1954...
, and Waiting in the Wings
Waiting in the Wings (play)
Waiting in the Wings is a play by Noël Coward. Set in a retirement home for actresses, it focuses on a feud between residents Lotta Bainbridge and May Davenport, who once both loved the same man.-Background:...
. Payn's performances were well reviewed, but the shows were unsuccessful. In the 1960s, he played the supporting role of Morris Dixon in Present Laughter
Present Laughter
Present Laughter is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1939 and first staged in 1942 on tour, alternating with his lower middle-class domestic drama This Happy Breed...
.
Payn also did some film work. In 1949 he was in the Borstal
Borstal
A borstal was a type of youth prison in the United Kingdom, run by the Prison Service and intended to reform seriously delinquent young people. The word is sometimes used loosely to apply to other kinds of youth institution or reformatory, such as Approved Schools and Detention Centres. The court...
drama Boys in Brown
Boys in Brown
Boys in Brown is a 1949 British drama film directed by Montgomery Tully. Depicting life in a borstal for young offenders, it starred Jack Warner, Richard Attenborough, Dirk Bogarde and Jimmy Hanley.-Cast:* Jack Warner as Governor...
, with Dirk Bogarde
Dirk Bogarde
Sir Dirk Bogarde was an English actor and novelist. Initially a matinee idol in such films as Doctor in the House and other Rank Organisation pictures, Bogarde later acted in art-house films such as Death in Venice...
and Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
. He appeared in two films with Coward: The Astonished Heart
The Astonished Heart (film)
The Astonished Heart is a 1950 drama film directed by Terence Fisher. It stars Celia Johnson and Noel Coward and is based on his play The Astonished Heart.-Plot:...
(1950) and The Italian Job
The Italian Job
The Italian Job is a 1969 British caper film, written by Troy Kennedy Martin, produced by Michael Deeley and directed by Peter Collinson. Subsequent television showings and releases on video have established it as an institution in the United Kingdom....
(1968), in which Coward played a criminal mastermind with Payn as his obsequious assistant.
After Coward died in 1973, Payn's career for the rest of his life became the administration of the Coward Estate. The Coward authority Barry Day wrote, "It was not a job he ever wanted or expected but he brought to it a dedication and focus that Noël would have been surprised and pleased to see. [He] was thrust into his biggest role and played it as he knew Noël would have wanted him to. It was a fitting farewell performance." Coward's biographer, Philip Hoare
Philip Hoare
Philip Hoare is an English non-fiction writer and journalist. His 2008 book Leviathan won the 2009 Samuel Johnson Prize.-Bibliography:* Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant...
, wrote, "Graham disproved his partner's assessment of himself as 'an illiterate little sod' by publishing his memoir and by managing the Coward estate. He was a generous, uncomplicated man, and he will be missed by his many friends."
In 1988, 15 years after Coward's death, Payn, who "hadn't the heart to use it again", gave their Jamaican home, the Firefly Estate
Firefly Estate
Firefly Estate, located 10 km east of Oracabessa, Jamaica was Sir Noel Coward’s vacation home and is listed as a National Heritage Site by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust. Although the setting is Eden-like, the house built in 1956 is surprisingly Spartan, considering that he often...
, to the Jamaica National Heritage Trust
Jamaica National Heritage Trust
The Jamaica National Heritage Trust is responsible for the promotion, preservation, and development of Jamaica's material cultural heritage .The organisation maintains a list of National Heritage Sites in Jamaica....
. He retained their other home in Switzerland, where he died in 2005, aged 87.
Publications
Payn wrote Noël Coward and His Friends (1979) with Sheridan MorleySheridan Morley
Sheridan Morley was an English author, biographer, critic, director, actor and broadcaster. He was the eldest son of actor Robert Morley and grandson of actress Dame Gladys Cooper, and wrote biographies of both...
and Cole Lesley, and, with Morley, was co-editor of The Noël Coward Diaries, which they dedicated to Lesley. Payn wrote his autobiography, My Life With Noël Coward, in 1994.