Dorice Fordred (25 November 19024 August 1980) was a South African actress, best known for character parts and Shakespearean roles on the London stage.'Miss Dorice Fordred: Noted stage actress', ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'', August 13, 1980. The ''
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
:''This article covers both the historical newspaper (1841–1955, 1960–1963), as well as an unrelated new Brooklyn Daily Eagle starting 1996 published currently''
The ''Brooklyn Eagle'' (originally joint name ''The Brooklyn Eagle'' and ''King ...
'' commented in 1931, "She is one of those rare things, a young and attractive character actress.""Dorice Fordred Comes from Veldt and Began at Old Vic" ''Brooklyn Daily Eagle'' (25 October 1931): 61. via
Newspapers.com
Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites.
In November 2018, ...
Early life
Dorice Fordred was born and raised near
Port Elizabeth
Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...
, Cape Colony. She went to England to study theatre. "Living on the veldt gives you – you can't help it, no matter who you are – a susceptibility to simple, earthy rhythms," she explained to an American interviewer in 1931.
Career
Dorice Fordred spent most of her career on the London stage, where she debuted in 1923 and appeared regularly in the 1920s and 1930s. London productions featuring Fordred in the cast included ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona'' (1923); ''Troilus & Cressida'' (1923); ''The School for Scandal'' (1923–24); ''Faust'' (1924); ''The Taming of the Shrew'' (1924); ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (1924); ''Everyman'' (1925); ''Hamlet'' (1925); ''Macbeth'' (1925); ''Twelfth Night'' (1925); ''Riverside Nights'' (1926); ''The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd'' (1926); ''Trelawney of the Wells'' (1926-1927); ''Thunder on the Left'' (1928); ''Some Showers'' (1928); ''The Iron Law'' (1929); ''Murder on the Second Floor'' (1929-1930); ''Love's Labour Lost'' (1930); ''Debonair'' (1930); ''Getting Rid of Gertie'' (1930); ''Cynara'' (1930–31); ''Three Flats'' (1931); ''The Force of Circumstance'' (1931); ''Musical Chairs'' (1932); ''Half-Holiday'' (1932); ''Earthquake in Surrey'' (1932); ''Francis Thompson'' (1933); ''Bellairs'' (1933); ''
A Sleeping Clergyman
''A Sleeping Clergyman'' is a 1933 play in Two Acts by James Bridie. Directed by H. K. Ayliff, it opened at Malvern's Festival Theatre in July 1933, before moving to London's Piccadilly Theatre in September, where it ran for 230 performances. ...
'' (1933); ''Viceroy Sarah'' (1934); ''Summer's Lease'' (1935); ''Othello'' (1924 and 1935); ''King Lear'' (1936); ''Sonata'' (1936); ''The Ante-Room'' (1936); ''Adults Only'' (1939); ''We At the Crossroads'' (1939).
Dorice Fordred also appeared in films, including ''Blue Bottles'' and ''Daydreams'' (both 1928), both short films, now lost, based in stories by
Elsa Lanchester
Elsa Sullivan Lanchester (28 October 1902 – 26 December 1986) was a British-American actress with a long career in theatre, film and television.Obituary ''Variety'', 31 December 1986.
Lanchester studied dance as a child and after the Fir ...
and
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton (1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was a British actor. He was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play with his future w ...
; ''
The Silent Passenger
''The Silent Passenger'' is a British black-and-white mystery film produced in 1935 at Ealing Studios, London. It is based on an original story written by Sayers specifically for the screen. Her amateur sleuth was portrayed as a somewhat eccentr ...
'' (1935); ''
As You Like It
''As You Like It'' is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has b ...
'' (1936), starring
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the Theatre of the U ...
; ''
Knight Without Armour
''Knight Without Armour'' (styled as ''Knight Without Armor'' in some releases) is a 1937 British historical drama film starring Marlene Dietrich and Robert Donat. It was directed by Jacques Feyder and produced by Alexander Korda from a screenp ...
'' (1937), starring
Marlene Dietrich
Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...
; ''
The Nursemaid Who Disappeared
''The Nursemaid Who Disappeared'' is a 1939 British, black-and-white, crime film, directed by Arthur B. Woods and starring Ronald Shiner as Detective Smith (uncredited), Ian Fleming, Arthur Margetson, Peter Coke and Edward Chapman. Based on ...
'' (1939); '' Stolen Life'' (1939); ''John Smith Wakes Up'' (1940); and ''The Skin Game'' (1951). On Broadway, she had one credit, for ''Payment Deferred'' (1931), again with Elsa Lanchester and Charles Laughton as fellow cast members."Payment Deferred: Who's Who in the Cast" ''Playbill'' (1931).