Moira Shearer

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Moira Shearer

Birth name	Moira Shearer King
Born	17 January 1926 Dunfermline, Fife
Died	31 January 2006) Oxford, England
Other name(s)	Lady Kennedy
Notable roles	Victoria Page in The Red Shoes
Spouse(s)	Ludovic Kennedy

Moira Shearer, Lady Kennedy, (17 January 1926 – 31 January 2006), was an internationally famous Scottish ballet dancer and actress.

She was born Moira Shearer King in Dunfermline, Fife, the daughter of actor Harold V. King, and educated in Scotland, England, and Africa. Trained as a ballerina, she made her debut with the International Ballet in 1941 before moving on to Sadler's Wells in 1942.

She rose to international fame in 1948 after starring as Victoria Page in the ballet-themed film The Red Shoes, directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger. With hair that matched the titular footwear, the role and film were so powerful that even though she went on to star in other films and worked as a dancer for many decades, she is primarily known only for playing "Vicki".

Robert Helpmann, Shearer and Léonide Massine in The Red Shoes.

In 1950, she married Sir Ludovic Kennedy, with whom she had a son and three daughters. She remained at Sadler's Wells until 1953, when she retired from ballet. She continued to act, appearing as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the 1954 Edinburgh Festival and working again for Powell on the controversial film Peeping Tom, which damaged Powell's own career.

In 1972, she was chosen by the BBC to present the Eurovision Song Contest when it was staged at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh. She wrote for The Daily Telegraph newspaper and gave talks on ballet worldwide.

The BBC persuaded her to return to ballet in 1987 to play L. S. Lowry's mother in A Simple Man.

She died at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, England at the age of 80.