Joyce Grenfell, 69, British Actress
By THOMAS LASK DEC. 1, 1979
December 1, 1979, Page 47
The New York Times Archives
Joyce Grenfell, the British actress whose sketches and impersonations on stage and screen of a variety of well‐intentioned but slightly daffy British upper class ladies delighted viewers on both sides of the Atlantic, died yesterday in London She was 69 years old.
Mrs. Grenfell ‐the wife of a mining executive, Reginald Grenfell — was a tall, slim, charming woman with a rather toothy smile that became one of the hallmarks of her performances. She had an eye for the revealing platitude and for the well‐meaning but bumbling mannerisms of her countrywomen. In a series of sketches, monologues and songs, she incorporated them into her own shows and those of others.
Two of her one‐woman shows, “Joyce Grenfell Requests the Pleasure” (1955) and “Joyce Grenfell” (1958), were seen on Broadway. Of the former, Walter Kerr wrote: “Miss Grenfell seems to me to have built for herself a small but quite valid theater of her own. What she does is to take a familiar, sometimes almost routine little snapshot of overheard life, define the comment she wants to make on it, then expand the picture to the precisely controlled, severely stylized dimensions of the musical stage.”
Memorable Parts
In films, she appeared as a lanky gym mistress in “The Happiest Day of Your Life”; as a woman sleuth in “The Bells of St. Trinian's”; as an eager saleswoman in “A Run for Your Money” with Alec Guinness. In these and other pictures, the parts were small but memorable and they were recalled long after the pictures themselves faded from the mind. She did concede once that she was getting tired of making fun of silly women for money.
The London‐born actress described herself as three‐quarters American because her father, Paul Phipps, was American born, and her mother was Nancy Langhorne of Virginia, one of the famous Langhorne sisters. One aunt was Lady Astor; another was the wife of Charles Dana Gibson, the artist.
She loved the theater from childhood and, as a young woman, was sent to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for training. But her plans were interrupted by marriage. Instead of looking for acting jobs, she began to contribute light verse to Punch and other magazines and wrote for The Observer.
Discovered at Party
At a party one evening, she entertained the guests with a lecture, “How to Make a Boutonniere Out of Beech Nut Husks Clusters.” At the party was the producer Herbert Farjeon, who was entranced and invited her to join his “The Little Revue.” It was the beginning of her career.
During World War II, she toured battle areas with a troupe going as far east as India. In addition to her stage and screen work she appeared on BBC radio in quiz and discussion programs. On one, “Trans‐Atlantic Quiz,” she was the quiz mistress.
In 1946, she was named Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Her husband survives.