Betty Paul (21 May 1921 – 27 February 2011) was a British actress, screenwriter, and novelist. She starred in stage plays, including one Broadway play. Paul wrote for television with her husband Peter Lambda. She received a nomination for a New York Critics' Award.

Early life

She was born Betty Percheron on 21 May 1921 at Hendon, in north-west London. She was the youngest of three children. Her French father was a furnishing fabrics importer and her mother was London Irish. She attended South Hampstead High School and the Institut Francais, later leaving at age 14 to be an actress, singer, and dancer due to the influence of her mother. In 1936, a year after the end of her education, she was in London's West End portraying Adele in ''

Jane Eyre ''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first ...

'' at Queen's Theatre. Two years later, she was the youngest member in C.B. Cochran's Young Ladies troupe.

Career

During

World War II 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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, she joined the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) which was a group that entertained troops. After performing in ''Lady Behave'' (1941) and ''Old Chelsea'' (1943), she decided to change her professional name to Betty Paul. She starred alongside the American actor

Hartley Power Hartley Power (14 March 1894 – 29 January 1966) was an American-born British film and television actor, who made his Broadway debut in ''Dolly Jordan'' in 1922. He is best remembered for two roles: "Sylvester Kee" the ventriloquist who is shot ...

in ''Lady Behave''. Her first husband Robin Hood (brother of actress Miki Hood) died in 1944. She married Power in 1945 and then later divorced him, in 1955. During the early 1940s, Paul was on radio with

Vic Oliver Victor Oliver von Samek (8 July 1898 – 15 August 1964) was an Austrian-born British actor and radio comedian. Early life He was born in Vienna into a Jewish family, the son of Baron Viktor von Samek. He studied medicine at Vienna University but ...

Jimmy Jewel James Arthur Thomas Jewel Marsh (4 December 1909 – 3 December 1995),Gifford, Denni''The Independent'', 5 December 1995. Note: This obituary wrongly gives the year of birth as 1912, which is contradicted by the Ben Warriss obituary. Retrie ...

and Ben Warris Paul. Paul then acted in '' Bless the Bride'' (1947), ''Bitter Sweet'' (1949), '' Into the Blue'', (1950), ''The Dish Ran Away'', (1951), ''All for Mary'' (1954) and ''And So to Bed'' (1961). The 1953 Broadway play ''Maggie'' was her debut in an American stage production. Despite receiving positive reception, she never appeared in another Broadway musical. During the 1950s, she appeared on stage and radio. Paul married her third husband, Hungarian-born sculptor Peter Lambda, in 1958 and they wrote for stage and television together. Their productions include creating the first rural soap opera — ''

Weavers Green ''Weavers Green'' is a British television soap opera, made in 1966 for ITV by Anglia Television. It was notable for being one of the first television programmes to be shot on location using videotape and outside broadcast equipment, rather than ...

—'' ''

The Probation Officer ''Probation Officer'' was a British TV series that ran from 1959-62 about probation officers. It was made by Associated Television and starred John Paul, Jessica Spencer, David Davies and John Scott. Other actors who appeared in the series inclu ...

'', and '' Harriet's Back in Town''. In 1979, Paul appeared in Cameron Mackintosh's stage production of ''My Fair Lady''. She moved from London to

Tibberton, Gloucestershire Tibberton is located from Gloucester and 5 miles from Newent Newent (; originally called "Noent") is a market town and civil parish about 10½ miles (17 km) north-west of Gloucester, England. Its population was 5,073 at the 2001 census, risin ...

, in 1986. Here, Paul continued to write and around six of her radio plays were broadcast. Paul wrote the novels ''Lucky Star'' in 1989 and ''Conditions of Love'' in 1992. Lambda died in 1995. Paul died on 27 February 2011 in Tibberton, Gloucestershire.

Reception

John Chapman, writing for ''Daily News'', said that Paul was "sweet and gifted" and that "few could both act and sing a role as she did". For her role in ''Maggie'', she received a nomination for a New York Critics' Award.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paul, Betty 1921 births 2011 deaths 20th-century British actresses British stage actresses Entertainments National Service Association personnel