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Heather Angel
Heather Angel PP234.jpg
Angel in 1934
Born
Heather Grace Angel

(1909-02-09)9 February 1909
Headington, Oxford, England
Died 13 December 1986(1986-12-13) (aged 77)
Occupation Actress
Years active 1931–1979
Spouse(s)
Ralph Forbes
(m. 1934; div. 1941)
Robert B. Sinclair
(m. 1944; died 1970)
Children 1

Heather Grace Angel (9 February 1909 – 13 December 1986) was a British actress. She was known for providing the voice of Mrs. Darling, Wendy's mother in Peter Pan (1953) and Alice's sister in Alice in Wonderland (1951).

Early life

Angel was born 9 February 1909 in Headington, Oxford, England. She was the daughter of Mary Letitia Stock and Andrea Angel, an Oxford University chemistry lecturer and initially a don at Brasenose College and later at Christ Church. They were married in 1904 and, after the wedding, they moved to the Banbury Road. Andrea Angel's maternal grandfather was an Italian refugee who was named after his uncle Andrea Rabagliati.

In the 1911 UK Census, the family is shown as living at 17 Banbury Road, Oxford along with three servants. She was the younger of two sisters.

Andrea Angel was killed in the Silvertown explosion in January 1917, and posthumously awarded the Edward Medal (First Class). In his will, he left his wife £374 and shortly thereafter, his wife moved to London with the two daughters. By 1929, when Heather was 19, she was already appearing with an overseas touring theatre company managed by Charles Bradbury-Ingles. The same record shows that she was living at 20 Queen Anne's Grove, London W4, when she left.

Career

Stage

Angel began her stage career at the Old Vic in 1926 and later appeared with touring companies. Her Broadway debut came in December 1937 in Love of Women at the Golden Theatre. She also appeared in The Wookey (1941–42).

Film

Lifeboat (1944) 1
L-R: Walter Slezak, John Hodiak, Tallulah Bankhead, Henry Hull, William Bendix, Heather Angel, Mary Anderson, Canada Lee, and Hume Cronyn in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944)

Angel appeared in many British films. She made her first screen appearance in City of Song. She later had a leading role in Night in Montmartre (1931), and followed this success with The Hound of the Baskervilles (1932). She then decided to move to Hollywood. She sailed on the Majestic to New York on 21 December 1932 with her mother. Over the next few years, she played strong roles in such films as The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935), The Three Musketeers (1935), The Informer (1935) and The Last of the Mohicans (1936).

In 1937 she made the first of five appearances as Phyllis Clavering in the popular Bulldog Drummond series. She was cast as Kitty Bennett in Pride and Prejudice (1940) and as the maid, Ethel, in Suspicion (1941). Angel was also the leading lady in the first screen version of Raymond Chandler's The High Window, released in 1942 as Time to Kill. She was one of the passengers of Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944). Her film appearances in the following years were few, but she returned to Hollywood to provide voices for the Walt Disney animated films Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). From 1964 until 1965, she played a continuing role in the television soap opera Peyton Place. After that role, she played Miss Faversham, a nanny and female friend of Sebastian Cabot's character of Giles French in the situation comedy Family Affair.

Personal life

Angel married actor Ralph Forbes in Arizona in 1934, a union that lasted less than ten years. Angel had acted with Henry Wilcoxon in Self Made Lady (1932) when they were both in Britain. When she heard Wilcoxon was also in Hollywood, she contacted him. She invited him to polo matches at the home of Will Rogers and later taught him horseback riding. They acted together in two other films: The Last of the Mohicans (1936) and Lady Hamilton (1941). Though they remained lifelong friends, they never married. Heather and her husband were both present at the wedding of Wilcoxon to his first wife. They had intended to host the wedding at their house in Coldwater Canyon.

Angel married Robert B. Sinclair (1905–1970), a film and television director, in 1944. On 4 January 1970, an intruder, Billy McCoy Hunter, broke into their home. When Sinclair attempted to protect Angel, Hunter killed him in her presence, then fled. He was allegedly found with a knife and pistol when arrested. The incident is believed to have been a failed burglary. Angel had one son with Sinclair in 1947.

Death

In 1986, Angel died of cancer in Los Angeles. She was cremated at Santa Barbara Cemetery.

Recognition

Angel has a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the film industry. Her star is located at 6301 Hollywood Boulevard.

Filmography

Year Film Role Director Notes
1931 City of Song Carmela Carmine Gallone
A Night in Montmartre Annette Lefevre Leslie S. Hiscott
The Hound of the Baskervilles Beryl Stapleton Gareth Gundrey
1932 Frail Women Girl Maurice Elvey uncredited
Self Made Lady Sookey (Sue Lee) Roberts George King
Mr. Bill the Conqueror Rosemary Lannick Norman Walker
After Office Hours Pat Thomas Bentley
Men of Steel Ann Ford George King
1933 Pilgrimage Suzanne John Ford
Charlie Chan's Greatest Case Carlotte Eagan Hamilton MacFadden
Berkeley Square Helen Pettigrew Frank Lloyd
Early to Bed Grete Ludwig Berger
1934 Orient Express Coral Musker Paul Martin
Murder in Trinidad Joan Cassell Louis King
Romance in the Rain Cynthia Brown Stuart Walker
Springtime for Henry Miss Smith Frank Tuttle
1935 The Mystery of Edwin Drood Rosa Bud Stuart Walker
It Happened in New York Chris Edwards Alan Crosland
The Informer Mary McPhillip John Ford
The Headline Woman Myrna Van Buren William Nigh
The Three Musketeers Constance Rowland V. Lee
The Imperfect Lady Evelyn Alden Tim Whelan
1936 The Last of the Mohicans Cora George B. Seitz
Daniel Boone Virginia Randolph David Howard
The Bold Caballero Lady Isabella Palma Wells Root
1937 Bulldog Drummond Escapes Phyllis Clavering James P. Hogan
Western Gold Jeannie Thatcher Howard Bretherton
Portia on Trial Elizabeth Manners George Nicholls Jr.
The Duke Comes Back Susan Corbin Foster Irving Pichel
1938 Bulldog Drummond in Africa Phyllis Clavering Louis King
Army Girl Mrs. Gwen Bradley George Nicholls Jr.
Arrest Bulldog Drummond Phyllis Clavering James P. Hogan
1939 Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police Phyllis Clavering James P. Hogan
Undercover Doctor Cynthia Weld Louis King
Bulldog Drummond's Bride Phyllis Clavering James P. Hogan
1940 Half a Sinner Anne Gladden Al Christie
Pride and Prejudice Kitty Bennet Robert Z. Leonard
Kitty Foyle Wife in Prologue Sam Wood uncredited
1941 Shadows on the Stairs Sylvia Armitage D. Ross Lederman
That Hamilton Woman A Streetgirl Alexander Korda
Singapore Woman Frieda Jean Negulesco
Suspicion Ethel (Maid) Alfred Hitchcock
1942 The Undying Monster Helga Hammond John Brahm
Time to Kill Myrle Davis Herbert I. Leeds
1943 Cry 'Havoc' Andra Richard Thorpe
1944 Lifeboat Mrs. Higley Alfred Hitchcock
Three Sisters of the Moors Anne Brontë Short
In the Meantime, Darling Mrs. Nelson Otto Preminger
1948 The Saxon Charm Vivian Saxon Claude Binyon
1951 Alice in Wonderland Ada Voice
1953 Peter Pan Mrs. Darling Voice
1962 The Premature Burial Kate Carrell Roger Corman
1975 Gone with the West Old Little Moon / Narrator Bernard Girard
1979 Backstairs at the White House Mrs. Wallace
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