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Dateline: 17th June, 2004
Judy Campbell (1916 - 2004) The funeral of actress Judy Campbell, who died on 6th June at the age of 88, will be held tomorrow (Friday 18th June) in Chelsea Old Church at 2 pm. Born in Grantham in 1916, she made her stage debut in the town's Theatre Royal in 1935, and then went on to work in reps around the country, including the Festival Theatre and the Lverpool Playhouse, as well as a tour with comedian Vic Oliver. By 1937 she was working in the West End but it was not until May 1940 that she really came to the notice of the public - and of Noël Coward. She was appearing in New Faces at the Comedy Theatre at the height of the Blitz and, on one particular evening, was supposed to be performing a Dorothy Parker monologue. Somehow the script was lost and, at the last minute, she was informed that she would be singing A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. She hadn't sung in public before and certainly didn't consider herself to be a singer. What was worse, there wasn't a microphone and so she half-talked, half-sang her way through the song. Surprisingly she was a hit. She created, it was said, a wonderful air of theatricality and Coward, who was in the audience, went round to her dressing room afetrwards to congratulate her. he took her to the Savoy Grill and told her, "It takes talent to put over a song when you haven't got a voice," and said that she would work with him. And so she did. They toured the provinces in Blithe Spirit, Present Laughter and This Happy Breed, then returned to the West End. She also starred in many films, including Breach of Promise (1942) and Green for Danger (1945). After the war, she worked consistently in the West End, with starring roles in, among others, Relative Values (Coward), The Reluctant Debutante (William Douglas Home), Heartbreak House, You Never Can Tell (both Shaw) and Ayckbourn's first London production, Mr Whatnot (1964). She again appeared in an Ayckbourn play three years later when she took over from Celie Johnson in Relatively Speaking. From the 70s onwards she expanded her range, tackling such classics as Lady Touchwood in The Double Dealer (Wycherley) at Bristol Old Vic and modern parts such as Linda Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. In television she made guest appearances in series such as Inspector Morse and Dust to Dust. She appeared as Countess Vronsky in Anna Karenina (1985) and as Aunt Ann in the 2002 remake of The Forsyte Saga. She was also a playwright: one of her plays, The Bright One, had a West End production in 1958 with Kay Kendall in the lead role. Her last appearance was last year in Sheridan Morley's revue Where Are the Songs We Sung? at the Jermyn Street Theatre, where - to a standing ovation every night - she again performed A Nightingale Sang. She was born into a theatrical family - her mother was the actress Mary Fulton and her father the playwright, actor and theatre-owner JA Campbell - and leaves behind a theatrical family. Her daughter is actress/singer Jane Birkin and her grandchildren actresses Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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