Maureen Swanson
| Maureen Swanson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Maureen Swanson 25 November 1932 Glasgow, Scotland, UK |
| Died | 18 November 2011 (aged 78) |
| Other names | Maureen Swanson |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1952–1961 |
| Spouse(s) | William Ward, 4th Earl of Dudley; 7 children |
Maureen Ward, Countess of Dudley (25 November 1932 – 16 November 2011), was a British actress. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Lady Dudley was the daughter of James Swanson. As Maureen Swanson, she featured in British pictures during the 1950s and retired from acting in 1961, following her marriage to Viscount Ednam.
Marriage and children
She married on 24 August 1961 as the second wife of Viscount Ednam. She was styled as the Countess of Dudley on 26 December 1969, following her husband's succession to the earldom. They had seven children:
- Hon. William Ward (born and died stillborn 21 October 1961)
- Lady Susanna Louise Ward (born 23 May 1963), unmarried and without issue
- Lady Melissa Patricia Eileen Ward (born 18 July 1964), married in 1991 to Simon Puxley; has daughter (India Ward Puxley; born 1991)
- Lady Victoria Larissa Cecilia Ward (born 28 May 1966), unmarried and without issue
- Lady Amelia Maureen Erica Ward (born 5 September 1967), unmarried and without issue
- Lady Cressida Emma Sophia Ward (born 7 January 1970), married on 29 June 1996 to Oliver Preston, without issue, divorced 1998. She married, secondly, in a civil service in July 2011 in London, and on 1 October 2011 in Sicily in a Roman Catholic wedding, to Dr. Ludovic Toro; Ward has a daughter from a prior relationship (Lily Rose Ward Davis; born 2 November 2004)
- Hon. Leander Grenville Dudley Ward (born 31 October 1971), married British journalist Laura Sevier on 23 July 2011
Filmography
- Moulin Rouge (1952) .... Denise de Frontiac
- Valley of Song (1953) .... Olwen Davies
- Knights of the Round Table (1953) .... Elaine
- One Just Man (1954) ....
- Third Party Risk (1954) .... Marina
- Orders Are Orders (1954) .... Joanne Delamere
- Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents (1 episode, "Rehearsal", 1954) .... Marguerite
- The Vise (4 episodes, "One Just Man", "Broken Honeymoon", "Death on the Boards" and "Stranglehold", 1954–1955) .... Susan, Craig's daughter / Maria / Maria / Susan Allerton
- Three Cornered Fate (1955) ....
- The Bob Hope Show (1 episode, "28 February 1956", 1956) .... Herself
- A Town Like Alice (1956) .... Ellen
- Jacqueline (1956) .... Maggie
- Up in the World (1956) .... Jeannie Andrews
- The Spanish Gardener (1956) .... Maria
- Robbery Under Arms (1957) .... Kate Morrison Mullockson
- The Malpas Mystery (1960) .... Audrey Bedford
- The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre (1 episode, "The Malpas Mystery", 1960) .... Audrey Bedford
- No Hiding Place (1 episode, "A Warrant for Joe Roberts", 1961) .... Ann Evans
Theatre
- The Happiest Millionaire
- Who's Your Father? by Dennis Cannan, opposite Donald Sinden, at the Cambridge Theatre
Libel case
In a 1989 libel case, Lady Dudley admitted to having had an affair with Stephen Ward,[1] the osteopath and artist who was one of the central figures in the 1963 Profumo affair. They became friends when he was commissioned to draw her portrait in 1953 — 10 years before the Profumo scandal. From the 1989 court case, Lady Dudley won “substantial” damages from the publishers of Honeytrap: the Secret Worlds of Stephen Ward by Anthony Summer and Stephen Dorril, in which the authors suggested that she had been one of the “popsies” whom Ward had procured for his influential friends.[1] In 2002 the Countess of Dudley again accepted substantial libel damages from the publishers of Christine Keeler: The Truth At Last, Keeler's own account of the events surrounding her notorious affair with the former war minister John Profumo, in which she referred to Lady Dudley as having been “one of Stephen’s girls”.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Obituary: The Countess of Dudley, Daily Telegraph, 26 November 2011