Kay Walsh

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Kay Walsh (August 27, 1911 – April 16, 2005) was an English actress and dancer. She was born Kathleen Walsh in London, England, and started out in show business dancing in West End music halls. She made her film debut playing Mary Vivien in Get Your Man (1934).

[edit] Life

Miss Walsh first married the film director David Lean, on November 23, 1940. They divorced in 1949. She later married Canadian psychologist Elliott Jaques, and they adopted a daughter, Gemma, in 1956. This marriage also ended in divorce. She appeared in two classic Noel Coward films, playing Freda Lewis in In Which We Serve (1942) and Queenie Gibbons in This Happy Breed (1944), which were directed by her husband, Lean. He also directed her in her role of Nancy in Oliver Twist (1948).

In 1950, Miss Walsh played a shrewd, scheming maid, Nellie Goode, who attempts to blackmail the character played by star Jane Wyman in Hitchcock's Stage Fright. Walsh's favourite role was that of the old pub barmaid, Miss D. Coker, in the 1958 comedy The Horse's Mouth with Alec Guinness. She also appeared in Vice Versa (1948), written and directed by Peter Ustinov, and Connecting Rooms (1970).

Between films, she appeared regularly in plays and farces at the Strand and Aldwych Theatres, directed by Basil Dean. She was a semi-regular on the 1979 Anglo-Polish TV series Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. She remained active in films until her retirement in 1981, after the film Night Crossing.

Miss Walsh later lived in retirement in London, where she died, age 93.