Peggy Evans (10 January 1921 – 26 July 2015)
was an English actress. She trained at the
Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribu ...
's
The Company of Youth
The Company of Youth was an acting school for young contract players for the Rank Organisation who were being groomed for stardom. It was commonly known as the Rank Charm School.
History
The Company of Youth was a conscious attempt by J. Arthur ...
(a "charm school").
Early years
One of four children, Evans was born in Sheffield but grew up in
Ealing
Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan.
Ealing was histor ...
, west London. As a teenager, her winning a creative writing contest earned her a screen test with the Rank Organization.
[
]
Film
After having bit parts in ''Lightning Conductor
A lightning rod or lightning conductor (British English) is a metal rod mounted on a structure and intended to protect the structure from a lightning strike. If lightning hits the structure, it will preferentially strike the rod and be conducte ...
'' (1938) and ''Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt
''Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt'' is a 1940 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde, starring Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch as Oxford 'scholars'.
The film is one of many to be based on the 1892 Victorian farce ''Charley's Aunt'' by Brando ...
'' (1940), Evans entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Sen ...
for training.[ Her work in '']Penny and the Pownall Case
''Penny and the Pownall Case'' is a 1948 British second feature
A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended fo ...
'' (1948) was praised in ''Monthly Film Review'': "Peggy Evans ... is a sparkling heroine, who not only looks extremely attractive but acts with naturalness and charm as well."
Personal life
Evans was married twice: to actor Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne (born Michael Hecht; 7 July 1941) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005. He previously held cabinet posi ...
from 1949 to 1956; the union produced two children but ended in divorce. She married, secondly, to Peter Stevens in 1990; the couple remained together until his death in 1997. In later years, she learned Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
and lived in the Algarve
The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese).
The region has it ...
for part of each year.
Death
On 26 July 2015, at age 94, Evans died in England.[
]
Filmography
References
External links
*
1921 births
2015 deaths
Actresses from Sheffield
English film actresses
People from Ealing
British expatriates in Portugal
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