The Mawby Triplets were three English child actors who starred in several films in Hollywood and in England during the 1920s and 1930s. While the three girls were sisters, they were not actually triplets. Angella Mawby was born on 20 August 1921 and her younger twin sisters Claudine and Claudette on 10 August 1922. The close resemblance of the three sisters, however, caused Hollywood to market them as triplets. The first film the girls starred in was ''The Baby Cyclone'' opposite actor

Lew Cody Lew Cody (born Louis Joseph Côté; February 22, 1884 – May 31, 1934) was an American stage and film actor whose career spanned the silent film and early sound film age. He gained notoriety in the late 1910s for playing "male vamps" in films ...

, in 1928. In 1929, they appeared in two more films, ''Dance of the Paper Dolls'' and ''

Broadway Melody ''The Broadway Melody'', also known as ''The Broadway Melody of 1929'', is a 1929 American pre-Code musical film and the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was one of the first musicals to feature a Technicolor sequen ...

'' with

Bessie Love Bessie Love (born Juanita Horton; September 10, 1898April 26, 1986) was an American-British actress who achieved prominence playing innocent, young girls and wholesome leading ladies in silent and early sound films. Her acting career spanned ei ...

. In 1930, they appeared with

Gloria Swanson Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most f ...

in ''

What a Widow! ''What a Widow!'' was a 1930 American pre-Code romantic comedy film directed by Allan Dwan and produced by and starring Gloria Swanson. It was distributed through United Artists. The film was produced by Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. It received gener ...

'' Less frequently, the girls performed roles apart from one another, as when Angella appeared in the 1930

John Barrymore John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage, and briefly att ...

film ''

The Man from Blankley's ''The Man from Blankley's'' is a lost 1930 American pre-Code comedy film, directed by Alfred E. Green. It starred John Barrymore and Loretta Young. The film was based on the 1903 play by Thomas Anstey Guthrie, writing under the pseudonym "F. An ...

''. The girls continued to appear in American films until 1932, when the

Lindbergh kidnapping On March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. (born June 22, 1930), the 20-month-old son of aviators Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was abducted from his crib in the upper floor of the Lindberghs' home, Highfields (Amwell and Ho ...

in conjunction with some kidnapping threats in anonymous letters sent to the Mawby family caused their parents to decide to return to England. Once back, the three performed in a number of British films. The girls then performed on the British stage in several plays from 1936 until the outbreak of

the Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The war effectively ended their career as performers. On 29 August 1942, Claudette died, aged 20, when the flat she had moved into three days earlier at Marine Gate in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

was destroyed by a bomb during a German air raid of the city. Angella Mawby Carr died in December 2000, aged 79. Claudine Mawby married the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

pilot

William Walker William Walker may refer to: Arts * William Walker (engraver) (1791–1867), mezzotint engraver of portrait of Robert Burns * William Sidney Walker (1795–1846), English Shakespearean critic * William Walker (composer) (1809–1875), American Ba ...

and died on 13 September 2012, aged 90. She had seven children by him (including former ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' theatre critic and diarist Tim Walker), two of whom predeceased her. She was separated from her husband, who survived her by one month. The girls' handprints are included at

Grauman's Chinese Theatre Grauman's Chinese Theatre (branded as TCL Chinese Theatre for naming rights reasons) is a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States. The original Chines ...

in Hollywood.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mawby Triplets 1921 births 1922 births 1942 deaths 2000 deaths 2012 deaths 20th-century English actresses English child actresses English film actresses English stage actresses English twins Sister trios