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:

Filmography

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. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Obituary: The Countess of Dudley, Daily Telegraph, 26 November 2011

External links