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Biography
Dulcie Gray was born in 1919 in Malaysia, the daughter of a lawyer in Kuala Lumpur. At the age of three, she was sent to boarding school in England but, when her parents lost their money in the rubber slump, she retuned to Malaysia to complete her education. When she left school at 16, she became a school mistress at a jungle hill station for a time before working her passage to England on a cargo boat by looking after a small child. She won a scholarship to the Webber Douglas Drama school where she met her future husband, Michael Denison. They married five days after she left the school and spent their honeymoon in weekly rep in Aberdeen.
Shortly afterwards, war was declared and Michael Denison was called up for military service. She continued acting and in 1943 received rave reviews for her performance opposite Richard Attenborough in Brighton Rock. She was immediately offered a film contract with Gainsborough Pictures. She started with supporting roles in A Place of One's Own (1944), Madonna of the Seven Moons (1944) and They Were Sisters (1945). She then starred in several well received films: Wanted for Murder (1946) with Eric Portman; A Man About the House (1947); and Mine Own Executioner (1947) with Burgess Meredith.
By then time, Michael Denison had been demobbed and, with considerable help from his wife, signed a film contract with her studio. They starred together in a series of popular films: My Brother Jonathan (1948) which was a great success; The Glass Mountain (1949) which brought them international fame; The Franchise Affair (1950); There Was a Young Lady (1953); and Angels One Five (1953). Changes in taste and the demise of the British film studios meant that this was the last of the films they made together.
They returned, with enthusiasm, to their first love – the theatre. They each appeared in over 50 West End productions and, in some 30 of these, they appeared together, most notably The Four-poster, Candida, Heartbreak House, Where Angel Fear to Tread, An Ideal Husband, On Approval and The School for Scandal. Since her husband’s death in 1998, she has continued in the theatre playing delightful old ladies as in The Ladykillers and The Lady Vanishes.
She is the author of 24 books including crime novels and a prize-winning study of the conversation of British butterflies. She was made a Companion of the British Empire (CBE) in 1983.
| Items for Sale on Collectors' Post |
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| 014568 |
Theatre: Programs (UK) - post 1939 | THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL (by Richard Brinsley Sheridan) with DONALD SINDEN & BERYL REID |
| 014862 |
Theatre: Programs (UK) - post 1939 | HAPPY FAMILY (by Giles Cooper) alternating with ON APPROVAL (by Frederick Lonsdale) with MICHAEL DENISON |
| 008694 |
Theatre: Photos - Signed | DULCIE GRAY - signed photo |
| 011647 |
Theatre: Photos - Signed | DULCIE GRAY - signed photo |
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