- Evelyn Laye
Infobox actress
bgcolour =
name = Evelyn Laye
imagesize =
caption =
birthname = Elsie Evelyn Lay
birthdate = birth date|1900|07|10
location =Bloomsbury ,London ,England
deathdate = death date and age|1996|02|17|1900|07|10 (respiratory failure)
deathplace =London, England ,UK
occupation = actress
spouse = Frank Lawton (?-1969) (his death)
Sonnie Hale (1926-1930)Evelyn Laye OBE (
10 July 1900 –17 February 1996 ) was an Englishtheatre actress.Born Elsie Evelyn Lay in
Bloomsbury ,London ,England , Laye made her first stage appearance in August 1915 at theTheatre Royal, Brighton as Nang-Ping in "Mr. Wu ", and her first London appearance at the East Ham Palace on 24 April, 1916, in the revue "Honi Soit", in which she subsequently toured.For the first few years of her career played she mainly in
musical comedy andoperetta , including "Going Up" in 1918. Among her successes during the 1920s were "Madame Pompadour" (1923), "The Dollar Princess " and "Lilac Time ". She made her Broadway debut in 1929 inNoel Coward 's "Bitter Sweet ".Married to the actor
Sonnie Hale in 1926, Laye received widespread public sympathy when Hale left her for the actressJessie Matthews in 1930. She continued acting in such productions as "The Sleeping Beauty" and "Cinderella ".She acted several times opposite her second husband, the actor
Frank Lawton , including in the 1956 sitcom "My Husband and I". Her other stage successes included "Silver Wedding" (1957) with Lawton, and "The Amorous Prawn" (1959) and "Phil the Fluter" (1969).Awarded an OBE in 1973, Laye continued acting well into her nineties. It was reported after Laye's death that Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother had planned to try to get her knighted (created a DBE) even though Laye was already in her 90s.
Her acting career ranks as one of the longest in British theatre. During a tribute in 1992 at the
London Palladium the actor SirJohn Mills described her as "the fairest prima donna this side of heaven".She died in
London fromrespiratory failure at the age of 95.External links
*
Persondata
NAME= Laye, Evelyn
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Lay, Elsie Evelyn
SHORT DESCRIPTION= actress
DATE OF BIRTH= 1900-07-10
PLACE OF BIRTH=Bloomsbury ,London ,England
DATE OF DEATH= 1996-02-17 (respiratory failure)
PLACE OF DEATH=London, England ,UK
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
