Moya Nugent

Moya Nugent (27 March 1901 – 26 January 1954) was a British actress and singer. She made a few broadcasts and three silent films but was chiefly known as a stage performer, and was particularly associated with the works of Noël Coward, appearing in twelve of his plays and two of his revues. Before that, she appeared early in her career in ''Peter Pan'', and was cast in other children's plays and pantomimes. She was in the West End casts of revues by Cole Porter and others, and in musical comedies such as '' Lilac Time''.

Her last stage role was in 1950; she died suddenly in 1954, aged 52.

Life and career

Nugent was born in Dublin. At the age of ten she made her first appearance on the stage, at the Playhouse Theatre, London on 21 September 1911, as Meenie in ''Rip Van Winkle''.Parker, pp. 1818–1819 Later that year she played the Baby Mermaid and Liza in ''Peter Pan'' at the Duke of York's Theatre, repeating the roles in the three succeeding annual revivals of the play. Between then and 1920 she appeared as Maggie in ''The Ever-Open Door'' (Aldwych Theatre, 1913) and Isabella in '' Quality Street'' (Duke of York's, 1913), followed by two revues, ''More'' and ''Pell-Mell'' ( Ambassadors Theatre, 1915), the part of Emily in Cyril Harcourt's ''Wanted, A Husband''. In the Christmas seasons of 1918 and 1919 she played the Princess in ''Old King Cole'' at the Grand Opera House, Belfast and the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin.

Coward roles

Nugent first met Noël Coward when they were both child actors in ''Peter Pan''. In 1920 she began her connexion with his plays, as Joyce Dermott in '' I'll Leave It to You'' in the pre-London run in Manchester and the West End run at the theatre then known as the New but now called the Noël Coward Theatre. She appeared in two Coward revues: '' This Year of Grace'' (London Pavilion, 1928), and '' Words and Music'' (Adelphi Theatre, 1932 and in its revised version ''Set to Music'', at the Music Box, New York, 1939). Between the two revues she played Daisy Devon in ''Cavalcade'' at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

The first of her later roles in Coward plays was Martha James in ''Conversation Piece Nugent made occasional studio broadcasts, as a singer on variety programmes, and as an actress in both light and serious drama, including the popular ''Mrs Dale's Diary''. She was also heard in relays of shows and plays in which she was appearing in the West End, including ''All Clear'', ''Blithe Spirit'' and ''London to Brighton''.

Nugent made few records, but for HMV in 1934 she recorded two numbers from ''Conversation Piece'' – "Dear Little Soldiers" (with Madie Andrews) and "There's Always Something Fishy About the French" (with Heather Thatcher).

In silent films, Nugent played the Marchioness in a 1913 adaptation of ''The Old Curiosity Shop'', Sybil Garfield in ''The Lights of Home'' (1920); and was in ''The Auction Mart'' in 1920.

Death

Nugent collapsed and died on 26 January 1954, aged 52, while rehearsing for a new play, ''All Night Sitting'', at the Cambridge Theatre."Actress's death at rehearsal", ''The Times'', 27 January 1954, p. 4

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nugent, Moya
1901 births
1954 deaths
20th-century English actresses
20th-century English singers
20th-century English women singers
English film actresses
English silent film actresses
English stage actresses