Coward, Noël (Sir)

1899

1973

The multi-talented Noel Coward was born at Teddington on 16 December 1899, the son of Arthur Coward and his wife Violet (née Veitch). He made his first appearance on the stage when a child as Prince Mussel in “The Goldfish” at the Little Theatre on 27 January 1911 and continued to act for many years, often in his own plays and films. His first success as a playwright came with “The Vortex”, in which he played Nicky Lancaster, at the Everyman and then the Royalty in 1924. Even greater success came with “Hay Fever” in 1925, followed by “Private Lives” (Phoenix Theatre, 1930, and Times Square Theatre in New York, 1931) and “Design for Living” (1932). His reputation as a composer of highly polished and witty comedies of manners was firmly established. In 1935 he introduced ‘Tonight at 7.30’ (later called ‘Tonight at 8.30’), three programmes of nine one-act plays of his own writing, which he also directed and in which he played, among these being “Family Album”, “Red Peppers”, “Fumed Oak”, “Hands Across the Sea” and “Shadow Play”. At the St James’s in 1942 he acted Charles Condomine in his “Blithe Spirit”, a comedy that ran 1987 performances, breaking records for a non-musical run. Other notable plays included “Present Laughter” (1942), “Peace in Our Time” (1947), “Nude With Violin” (1956), “Quadrille” (1952) and “Waiting in the Wings” (1960). Coward composed the music for a number of his productions, among them, the popular “Bitter Sweet” (1929), “Operette” (1938), “Words and Music” (1938), “After the Ball” (1954) and “The Girl Who Came for Supper” (1963), adapted from Rattigan’s “The Sleeping Prince”. He also wrote the screenplay for “In Which We Serve”, which he directed and in which he acted, and for “Blithe Spirit”, “The Happy Breed” and the memorable “Brief Encounter”. Appearances in films included “Around the World in 80 Days”, “The Italian Job” and “Our Man in Havana”. Among his other writing, which include short stories, novels, verses, and lyrics, are two autobiographical volumes, “Present Indicative” (1937) and “Future Indefinite” (1954). He entered management several times, including with the Lunts at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York in 1933. Coward was knighted in 1970. He became a member of the Garrick Club in October 1966. He died at St Mary, Jamaica, on 26 March 1973. In addition to his portrait by Seago (G0139), also in the Garrick Club is a small oil painting by Coward of a beach scene in Jamaica (G0973) which came to the Club in 1996.