Sonia Dresdel (5 May 1909 – 18 January 1976) was an English actress, whose career ran between the 1940s and 1970s.
Life
She was born Lois Obee in
Hornsea
Hornsea is a seaside town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The settlement dates to at least the early medieval period. The town was expanded in the Victorian era with the coming of the Hull ...
,
East Riding of Yorkshire
The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...
, England, and was educated at
Aberdeen High School for Girls
Harlaw Academy is a six-year comprehensive secondary school situated 200 yards from the junction of Union Street and Holburn Street in the centre of Aberdeen, Scotland. It is directly adjacent to St Margaret's School for Girls. The academy dra ...
and
RADA
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 Senat ...
.
[
]
Career
Her performance in the lead role of Ibsen
Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...
's ''Hedda Gabler
''Hedda Gabler'' () is a play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The world premiere was staged on 31 January 1891 at the Residenztheater in Munich. Ibsen himself was in attendance, although he remained back-stage. The play has been can ...
'' at the Westminster Theatre
The Westminster Theatre was a theatre in London, on Palace Street in Westminster.
History
The structure on the site was originally built as the Charlotte Chapel in 1766, by William Dodd with money from his wife Mary Perkins. Through Peter Ri ...
in 1942 "was legendary. It was the performance on which her reputation was founded. James Agate
James Evershed Agate (9 September 1877 – 6 June 1947) was an English diarist and theatre critic between the two world wars. He took up journalism in his late twenties and was on the staff of ''The Manchester Guardian'' in 1907–1914. He later ...
was ecstatic..."[N. de J., 'Obituary: Sonia Dresdel', ''The Guardian'', 19 January 1976] For a decade Dresdel was regarded as one of England's foremost stage actresses. Her leading role in the 1947 film ''While I Live
''While I Live'' is a 1947 British drama film directed and co-written by John Harlow and starring Sonia Dresdel, Tom Walls and Carol Raye. ''While I Live'' is best remembered for its musical theme "The Dream of Olwen" composed by Charles Willi ...
'' also gained her a great deal of acclaim. In the film she plays Julia Trevelyan, a spinster living in a lonely cliff top house in Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
and haunted by the death of her sister 25 years earlier.
Her best remembered role is as Mrs. Baines in the film version of Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
's '' The Fallen Idol'' (1948), which starred Ralph Richardson
Sir Ralph David Richardson (19 December 1902 – 10 October 1983) was an English actor who, with John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, was one of the trinity of male actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. He wo ...
, Michèle Morgan
Michèle Morgan (; née Simone Renée Roussel; 29 February 1920 – 20 December 2016) was a French film actress, who was a leading lady for three decades in both French cinema and Hollywood features. She is considered to have been one of the g ...
and Bobby Henrey
Robert Henrey (born 26 June 1939) is an British people, Anglo-French people, French former child actor best known for his role as the son of the France, French ambassador to London in the classic 1948 England, English film ''The Fallen Idol (film ...
. The film received Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
nominations for Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to:
Film awards
* AACTA Award for Best Direction
* Academy Award for Best Director
* BA ...
(Sir Carol Reed
Sir Carol Reed (30 December 1906 – 25 April 1976) was an English film director and producer, best known for ''Odd Man Out'' (1947), '' The Fallen Idol'' (1948), ''The Third Man'' (1949), and '' Oliver!'' (1968), for which he was awarded the ...
) and Best Screenplay.
In the 1950s, as well as appearing increasingly on television, Dresdel moved more to the management side of things, becoming a theatre director under the aegis of the ''New White Rose Players'', directing plays including the thriller ''Night of the Shoot''.[
In the 1970s she played the Witch in BBC Television series "Lizzie Dripping", and played Lady Dorothy in the series “Sykes” series 2 episode 5 “Rolls”.
]
Death
She died of lung cancer, aged 66. The critic Philip Hope-Wallace
Philip Adrian Hope-Wallace CBE (6 November 1911 – 3 September 1979) was an English music and theatre critic, whose career was mostly with ''The Manchester Guardian'' (later known as ''The Guardian''). From university he went into journalism afte ...
, said Dresdel was "an actress of high definition with a real power to take an audience by the wrist and give them the works. She had terrific personality and was terribly underused and misused. She would have been the Lady Macbeth of all Lady Macbeths."[
]
Partial filmography
* ''The World Owes Me a Living
''The World Owes Me a Living'' is a 1945 British Second World War drama film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring David Farrar and Judy Campbell. The film is based on a novel by John Llewellyn Rhys, a young author who was killed in action in 1 ...
'' (1945) as Eve Heatherley
* ''While I Live
''While I Live'' is a 1947 British drama film directed and co-written by John Harlow and starring Sonia Dresdel, Tom Walls and Carol Raye. ''While I Live'' is best remembered for its musical theme "The Dream of Olwen" composed by Charles Willi ...
'' (1947) as Julia Trevelyan
* ''This Was a Woman
''This Was a Woman'' is a 1948 British crime film directed by Tim Whelan and starring Sonia Dresdel, Walter Fitzgerald and Emrys Jones. It was made at the Riverside Studios with sets designed by the art directors Ivan King and Andrew Mazzei. ...
'' (1948) as Sylvia Russell
* '' The Fallen Idol'' (1948) as Mrs. Baines
* ''The Clouded Yellow
''The Clouded Yellow'' is a 1950 British mystery film directed by Ralph Thomas and produced by Betty E. Box for Carillon Films. A dismissed secret service agent falls in love with a disturbed young woman who is wrongly accused of murder and t ...
'' (1951) as Jess Fenton
* '' The Third Visitor'' (1951) as Steffy Millington
* '' Now and Forever'' (1956) as Miss Fox
* '' The Secret Tent'' (1956) as Miss Mitchum-Browne
*''David Copperfield
''David Copperfield'' Dickens invented over 14 variations of the title for this work, see is a novel in the bildungsroman genre by Charles Dickens, narrated by the eponymous David Copperfield, detailing his adventures in his journey from inf ...
'' (1956) as Betsey Trotwood
Betsey Trotwood is a fictional character from Charles Dickens' 1850 novel ''David Copperfield''.
Role in novel
Betsey Trotwood is David Copperfield's great-aunt on his father's side, and has an unfavourable view of men and boys, having been ill-us ...
* ''Death Over My Shoulder
''Death Over My Shoulder '' is a 1958 British crime film directed by Arthur Crabtree based on a story by American journalist Alyce Canfield. The film stars Keefe Brasselle and his wife Arlene DeMarco one of The DeMarco Sisters.
Plot
When Jack ...
'' (1958) as Miss Upton
* ''The Trials of Oscar Wilde
''The Trials of Oscar Wilde'', also known as ''The Man with the Green Carnation'' and ''The Green Carnation'', is a 1960 British drama film based on the libel and subsequent criminal cases involving Oscar Wilde and the Marquess of Queensberry. I ...
'' (1960) as Lady Wilde
* '' George and the Dragon'' (1967–1968, TV Series) as Priscilla
* '' The Break'' (1962) as Sarah
* ''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 ...
'' (1963, TV series) as Mrs. Reed
* ''Public Eye
Public Eye or The Public Eye may refer to:
* ''Public Eye'' (TV series), a British television series that ran from 1965 to 1975
* ''The Public Eye'' (TV series), a Canadian television public affairs television series which aired on CBC Televisio ...
'' (1968, TV Series) as Mrs. Briggs
* ''Dixon of Dock Green
''Dixon of Dock Green'' was a BBC police procedural television series about daily life at a fictional London police station, with the emphasis on petty crime, successfully controlled through common sense and human understanding. It ran from 19 ...
'' (1968) as Mrs. Dewar
* '' The Caesars'' (1968) as Livia
* ''Last of the Long-haired Boys
''Last of the Long-haired Boys'' is a 1968 British drama film starring Richard Todd, Gillian Raine and Patrick Barr.
Plot summary
After the end of the Second World War an RAF pilot struggles to adjust to civilian life.
Cast
* Richard Todd - Tri ...
'' (1968) as Miss Dearborn
* '' Bachelor Father'' (1970–1971, TV Series) as Mother
* ''Paul Temple
Paul Temple is a fictional character created by English writer Francis Durbridge. Temple is a professional author of crime fiction and an amateur private detective. With his wife Louise, affectionately known as 'Steve' in reference to her jo ...
'' (1971, TV Series) as Agnes Armadyne
* ''Wives and Daughters
''Wives and Daughters, An Every-Day Story'' is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, first published in the ''Cornhill Magazine'' as a serial from August 1864 to January 1866. It was partly written whilst Gaskell was staying with the salon hostess M ...
'' (1971, TV Mini-Series) as Lady Cumnor
* ''The Strauss Family
''The Strauss Family'' is a 1972 British Associated Television series of eight episodes,Acorn DVD sleeve notes about the family of composers of that name, including Johann Strauss I and his sons Johann Strauss II, Eduard Strauss and Josef Strau ...
'' (1972, TV Mini-Series) as Lucari
* ''Lady Caroline Lamb
Lady Caroline Lamb (née Ponsonby; 13 November 1785 – 25 January 1828) was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and novelist, best known for ''Glenarvon'', a Gothic novel. In 1812 she had an affair with Lord Byron, whom she described as "mad, bad, and ...
'' (1972) as Lady Pont
* ''The Onedin Line
''The Onedin Line'' is a BBC television drama series that ran from 1971 to 1980. The series was created by Cyril Abraham.
The series is set in Liverpool from 1860 to 1886 and covers the rise of a fictional shipping company, the Onedin Line, nam ...
'' (1972, TV Series) as Lady Lazenby
* ''Lizzie Dripping
''Lizzie Dripping'' (released in its second year under the title ''Lizzie Dripping Again'') is a British television children's programme produced by the BBC in 1973 and 1974 (the second series was broadcast in 1975). It was written by Helen Cress ...
'' (1973-1975, TV Series) as The Witch
* ''The Pallisers
''The Pallisers'' is a 1974 BBC television adaptation of Anthony Trollope's Palliser novels. Set in Victorian era England with a backdrop of parliamentary life, Simon Raven's dramatisation covers six of Anthony Trollope's novels and follows the ev ...
'' (1974, TV Mini-Series) as the Marchioness of Auld Reekie
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dresdel, Sonia
1909 births
1976 deaths
British film actresses
People from Hornsea
People educated at Harlaw Academy
British stage actresses
Actresses from Yorkshire
20th-century British actresses
20th-century English women
20th-century English people