Mary Clare
Encyclopedia
Mary Clare was a British
actress who performed in films, on the stage, and later on television.
and Sewell Stokes
, at the Arts Theatre Club, London.
In the theatre, she played the lead role of the victim in Agatha Christie
's 1945 play Appointment with Death
In films, she was mainly a character actress and in later life often portrayed mature ladies who had strength of character or were autocratic. In 1938, she was featured opposite Robert Donat
and Rosalind Russell
in The Citadel
. The sole film in which she played the leading role was Mrs Pym of Scotland Yard in 1939. She appeared in two of the British-made Alfred Hitchcock
films, Young and Innocent and The Lady Vanishes, playing vastly different characters. She played the part of Linda Singer in two different versions of The Constant Nymph and had previously been in the stage version. In 1956, she was in several TV episodes in British television.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
actress who performed in films, on the stage, and later on television.
Biography
Mary Clare Absalom was born in 1892 (not 1894 as some other reports state). She trained at a dramatic school and began her career on the London stage at the age of 18 in 1910. She appeared in the film The Black Spider in 1920, and thereafter divided her time between the stage and the cinema. In September 1936 she played the leading role in the play Laura Garnett, by LeslieLeslie Stokes
Leslie Stokes was an English playwright and BBC radio producer and director.As a young man Leslie Stokes was an actor and later became a playwright and BBC radio producer and director. Together with his brother, author and playwright Sewell Stokes, he co-wrote a number of plays, including the...
and Sewell Stokes
Sewell Stokes
Francis Martin Sewell Stokes was an English novelist, biographer, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and prison visitor. He collaborated on a number of occasions with his brother, Leslie Stokes, an actor and later in life a BBC radio producer, with whom he shared a flat for many years...
, at the Arts Theatre Club, London.
In the theatre, she played the lead role of the victim in Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
's 1945 play Appointment with Death
Appointment with Death (1945 play)
Appointment with Death is a 1945 play by crime writer Agatha Christie. It is based on her 1938 novel of the same name.- Background :Christie is silent on the writing of both the book and the play in her autobiography...
In films, she was mainly a character actress and in later life often portrayed mature ladies who had strength of character or were autocratic. In 1938, she was featured opposite Robert Donat
Robert Donat
Robert Donat was an English film and stage actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr...
and Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
in The Citadel
The Citadel (film)
The Citadel is a 1938 film based on the novel of the same name by A. J. Cronin, first published in 1937. The film was directed by King Vidor and produced by Victor Saville.-Plot:...
. The sole film in which she played the leading role was Mrs Pym of Scotland Yard in 1939. She appeared in two of the British-made Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
films, Young and Innocent and The Lady Vanishes, playing vastly different characters. She played the part of Linda Singer in two different versions of The Constant Nymph and had previously been in the stage version. In 1956, she was in several TV episodes in British television.
Personal life
She married Lionel Percival Mawhood (1888–1935) at the District of St Martin, London in September Quarter 1915; they had two children. She apparently never remarried.Selected filmography
- The Skin GameThe Skin Game (1921 film)The Skin Game is a 1921 British-Dutch silent drama film directed by B. E. Doxat-Pratt.-Cast:* Edmund Gwenn - Hornblower* Mary Clare - Chloe Hornblower* Helen Haye - Mrs. Hillcrist* Dawson Millward - Mr...
(1921) - Lights of London (1923) as Hetty Preene
- The Constant NymphThe Constant Nymph (1928 film)The Constant Nymph is a 1928 British silent film drama, directed by Adrian Brunel and starring Ivor Novello and Mabel Poulton. This was the first film adaptation of the 1924 best-selling and controversial novel of the same name by Margaret Kennedy...
(1928) as Linda Singer - Hindle WakesHindle Wakes (1931 film)Hindle Wakes is a 1931 British film drama, directed by Victor Saville for Gainsborough Pictures and starring Belle Chrystall and John Stuart. The film is adapted from Stanley Houghton's controversial 1912 stage play of the same name, which had previously been filmed twice as a silent in 1918 and...
(1931) as Mrs. Jeffcote - Many WatersMany Waters (film)Many Waters is a 1931 British romance film directed by Milton Rosmer and starring Lillian Hall-Davis, Arthur Margetson and Elizabeth Allan. It was based on a play by Leon M. Lion. An elderly couple reminisce about the romantic adventures of their youth...
(1931) - The Constant NymphThe Constant Nymph (1933 film)The Constant Nymph is a 1933 British drama film directed by Basil Dean and Victoria Hopper, Brian Aherne and Leonora Corbett. It is an adaptation of the novel The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy...
(1933) as Linda Singer - Say it with FlowersSay It With FlowersSay It With Flowers is a 1934 British musical film directed by John Baxter and starring Mary Clare, Ben Field and George Carney. In London a group of shopkeepers hold a benefit concert in a local pub to raise money for a woman to visit the seaside for her health...
(1934) as Kate Bishop - Lorna Doone (1934) Mistress Sara Ridd
- The ClairvoyantThe ClairvoyantThe Clairvoyant is a 1934 drama film made in the UK, starring Claude Rains, Fay Wray, and Jane Baxter, directed by Maurice Elvey, and based on the novel of the same name by Ernst Lothar.-Plot:...
(The Evil Mind) (1934) as Mother - The Guv'norThe Guv'nor (film)The Guv'nor is a 1935 British comedy film starring George Arliss as a tramp who rides a series of misunderstandings and becomes the president of a bank.-Plot:...
(1935) - The Passing of the Third Floor BackThe Passing of the Third Floor BackThe Passing of the Third Floor Back is a 1935 British drama film directed by Berthold Viertel and starring Conrad Veidt, Anna Lee, René Ray and Frank Cellier. The film is based on a short story by Jerome K. Jerome and depicts the various small-minded inhabitants of a building and the arrival of a...
(1935) - The Mill on the FlossThe Mill on the Floss (film)The Mill on the Floss is a 1937 British drama film directed by Tim Whelan and starring Frank Lawton, Victoria Hopper, Geraldine Fitzgerald and James Mason...
(1937) - Young and InnocentYoung and InnocentYoung and Innocent is a 1937 British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Nova Pilbeam, Derrick De Marney and John Longden...
(1937) as Aunt Margaret - The Lady VanishesThe Lady Vanishes (1938 film)The Lady Vanishes is a 1938 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and adapted by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder from the 1936 novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White...
(1938) as Isabel Nisatona - Mrs Pym of Scotland Yard (1939) as Mrs. Pym
- On the Night of the FireOn the Night of the FireOn the Night of the Fire is a 1939 British thriller, directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Ralph Richardson and Diana Wynyard. The film is based on the novel of the same name by F. L. Green. It was shot on location in Newcastle upon Tyne and was released shortly after the outbreak of World...
(1939) as Lizzie Crane - Miss Grant Goes to the DoorMiss Grant Goes to the DoorMiss Grant Goes to the Door was a short propaganda film made for the British Ministry of Information in 1940. It was directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starred Mary Clare and Martita Hunt as two sisters, Caroline and Edith Grant, who have to deal with two invading Germans who arrive at their cottage...
(1940) as Caroline Grant - Old Bill and SonOld Bill and SonOld Bill and Son is a 1941 British, black-and-white, comedy, war film, directed by Ian Dalrymple and starring Morland Graham, John Mills, Mary Clare and Ronald Shiner as Herbert 'Bert' Smith. It was produced by Legeran Films.-Synopsis:...
(1941) as Maggie - This Man Is DangerousThis Man Is DangerousThis Man Is Dangerous is a 1941 British thriller film, directed by Lawrence Huntington and starring James Mason and Gordon McLeod. The film is based on the novel They Called Him Death by David Hume....
(1941) as Matron - Next of KinThe Next of KinThe Next of Kin, also known as Next of Kin, is a 1942 World War II propaganda film produced by Ealing Studios.The film was originally commissioned by the British War Office as a training film to promote the government propaganda message that "Careless talk costs lives"...
(1942) as Mrs. Webster - The Night Has EyesThe Night Has EyesThe Night Has Eyes is a 1942 British thriller film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring James Mason, Wilfrid Lawson and Mary Clare. Two young teachers travel to the Yorkshire Moors where their friend disappeared a year before...
(1942) - The Hundred Pound WindowThe Hundred Pound WindowThe Hundred Pound Window is a 1944 British crime film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Anne Crawford, David Farrar, Frederick Leister and Richard Attenborough. An accountant has to take a second job working at a racetrack where he soon becomes mixed up with a shady crowd.-Cast:* Anne...
(1944) - Fiddlers ThreeFiddlers Three (1944 film)Fiddlers Three is a 1944 British black-and-white comedy with music. The film was produced by Michael Balcon and directed by Harry Watt. The cast included Tommy Trinder, Sonnie Hale, Frances Day, Francis L. Sullivan, Diana Decker, Elisabeth Welch and James Robertson Justice...
(1944) as Volumnia - London Town (1946) as Mrs. Gates
- Mrs. FitzherbertMrs. FitzherbertMrs. Fitzherbert is a 1947 British historical drama film directed by Montgomery Tully and starring Peter Graves, Joyce Howard and Leslie Banks...
(1947) - The Three Weird SistersThe Three Weird SistersThe Three Weird Sisters is a 1948 British melodrama with Gothic influences, directed by Daniel Birt and starring Nancy Price, Mary Clare, Mary Merrall and Raymond Lovell. The screenplay was adapted by Dylan Thomas and Louise Birt from the novel The Case of the Weird Sisters by Charlotte Armstrong...
(1948) as Maude Morgan-Vaughan - Oliver TwistOliver Twist (1948 film)Oliver Twist is the second of David Lean's two film adaptations of Charles Dickens novels. Following the success of his 1946 version of Great Expectations, Lean re-assembled much of the same team for his adaptation of Dicken's 1838 novel, including producers Ronald Neame and Anthony...
(1948) as Mrs. Corney - Portrait of ClarePortrait of ClarePortrait of Clare is a 1950 British drama film directed by Lance Comfort and starring Margaret Johnston, Richard Todd, Robin Bailey and Ronald Howard.-Cast:* Margaret Johnston - Clare Hingston* Richard Todd - Robert Hart* Robin Bailey - Dudley Wilburn...
(1950) - The Black RoseThe Black RoseThe Black Rose is a 1950 20th Century-Fox film starring Tyrone Power and Orson Welles, loosely based on Thomas B. Costain's book. It was filmed partly on location in England and Morocco which substitutes for the Gobi Desert of China...
(1950) as Eloner of Lensford - Moulin RougeMoulin Rouge (1952 film)Moulin Rouge is a 1952 film directed by John Huston, produced by Sir John Woolf and James Woolf of Romulus Films and released by United Artists. The film is set in Paris in the late 19th century, following artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in the city's bohemian sub-culture in and around the...
(1952) as Madame Louet - The Beggers OperaThe Beggar's Opera (film)The Beggar's Opera is a 1953 Technicolor film version of John Gay's 1728 ballad opera directed by Peter Brook and starring Laurence Olivier, Dorothy Tutin, Stanley Holloway and others. Olivier and Holloway do their own singing in this film, but Dorothy Tutin and several others were dubbed...
(1953) as Mrs. Peachum - The Price of SilenceThe Price of Silence (1959 film)The Price of Silence is a 1959 British crime film directed by Montgomery Tully and starring Gordon Jackson, June Thorburn, Maya Koumani and Terence Alexander.-Cast:* Gordon Jackson - Roger Fenton* June Thorburn - Audrey Truscott...
(1959) as Mrs. West