Dora was in the Great St Trinians Train Robbery in 1966,
she was gorgeous in that
with her red hair and cute querky voice....
but she was nt on screen very long.
Maybe that is the story of Dora's life... cameo roles
.... cleaners, skivvies etc lots of bit parts in the movies....
maybe the movies and TV could nt see her potential.
She should have had her own series on TV maybe opposite Penelope Keith or someone.
She just does nt seem to have been on TV nearly enough.
Maybe she did lots of theatre, I don t know.
I ve just been looking on IMDB
Wish they d put the film and TV credits in
Chronological order, its so confusing with
everything jumbled up !
I was in touch with Dora last year discussing her musical career - or more precisely, her hit "All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle". Really nice lady. She was always my mother's favourite actress. She freely admits to not understanding the Internet so don't expect a response!
seen her the other night on uk gold in victoria woods .dinnerladies.........obviously dora at her best was in a taste of honey ...truly superb stuff a great lady underated
I also remember her playing a role in CARRY ON SERGEANT , her being a naafi lady and shirley eaton as bob mokhouses wife also a naafi lady.
I worked with her on 'An Angel For May' four or five years ago, lovely lady & I saw her outside M&S in Brighton last week!
I was just thinking about her accent, wot is it ?
I think she is from Oldham, but its not really that
its something that is unique to Dora and an
intrical part of her persona .
When I think of Dora I think of actresses like
Beryl Reid and Hylda Baker, they, like Dora were
unique and idocynratic, they were comedy actresses who also made it into the movies.
Perhaps Patsy Palmer is Dora s natural successor, they moth have red hair, they both have distinctive accents.
If Patsy did some work, exagerating her cockney accent a little, she could have a long career ahead
in cameo movie parts, just like Dora
The info that you saw Dora in Brighton, outside M and S ............ maybe she lives there ?
If so then thats another bit of sycronicity cos Patsy
lives in Brighton too !
She was fantastic as Rita Tushingham's Mum in "A Taste Of Honey". A lovely lady too. Didn't she own an hotel in Brighton?
name='hankoler']I also remember her playing a role in CARRY ON SERGEANT , her being a naafi lady and shirley eaton as bob mokhouses wife also a naafi lady.
I'll always remember Kenneth Connor's immortal line to her...
"corrrrrr Norah..."
A very funny lady who showed like a lot of her ilk she could take on serious roles too.
name='Santonix']She was fantastic as Rita Tushingham's Mum in "A Taste Of Honey". A lovely lady too. Didn't she own an hotel in Brighton?
That's right -
It was used as a location for a couple of the CARRY ONs - COVENIENCE and GIRLS, and has since (I understand) been turned into apartments.
Good business sense has Dora !
Smudge
Titbit from Wikipedia:-
She owned the Clarges Hotel in Brighton when it was used in on-location exterior shots for the comedy film Carry On Girls.
Dora s interview with Jenny from Womans Hour
Putfile - DORA BRYAN INTERVIEW WITH JENNY
She has been living in Brighton for donkey's years, saw her on the train to Victoria several times many moons ago.
name='Merton Park']She has been living in Brighton for donkey's years, saw her on the train to Victoria several times many moons ago.
I think she owns a Hotel there - "Clarges"
name='Santonix']She was fantastic as Rita Tushingham's Mum in "A Taste Of Honey". A lovely lady too. Didn't she own an hotel in Brighton?
great film and part of a newspaper giveaway with Saturday Night & Sunday Morning. She was great in that.
name='Sam Boone']I was in touch with Dora last year discussing her musical career - or more precisely, her hit "All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle". Really nice lady. She was always my mother's favourite actress. She freely admits to not understanding the Internet so don't expect a response!
I LOVE that song, I'm not ashamed to say. I'd love to have a CD of Dora's recordings. Can you tell me any of what she said?
Just wanted to copy and put this up as a tribute to one of my favorite actresses, Dora Bryan.
Born Dora Broadbent, 7 February 1924, Southport, Lancashire, England. A much-loved singer, actress, and comedienne, Dora Bryan has successfully mixed straight theatre with revue, cabaret, musical comedy, variety, pantomime, television and film, in a career that has endured for more than 60 years.
She made her first stage appearance in a Manchester pantomime at the age of 12, and two years later was a member of the Oldham Repertory Company. She met her future husband, professional cricketer Bill Lawton in Oldham, and they were married 12 years later in 1953.
Dora Bryan moved to London when she was 21, and was seen by No�l Coward while appearing in the play No Room At The Inn. Coward wrote a good character part for her in Peace In Our Time, his 1947 drama about a German occupation of London.
Subsequently, Bryan was noticed by film director Carol Reed, who introduced her to the film business. Another of her mentors was impresario Binkie Beaumont, a provider of much work for Bryan over the years. During World War II she entertained British Forces abroad with the often derided, but immensely valuable, Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), and in the 50s starred in a series of intimate and satirical revues.
These included Coward's The Lyric Revue (1951) and The Globe Revue (1952), as well as At The Lyric (1953) by Alan Melville, and Arthur MacRae's Living For Pleasure (1958).
Her first venture into West End musical comedy with The Water Gipsies (1955, Lily Bell) was a personal triumph ("Why Did You Call Me Lily?", "You Never Know With Men", "It Would Cramp My Style" [with Roy Godfrey]), and was followed by Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1962, Lorelei Lee).
In 1966, she took over the title role in Hello, Dolly! from Mary Martin and made it her own. In 1979, a nervous breakdown forced her to withdraw before the opening of On The Twentieth Century, and Bryan subsequently spoke of her problems with alcohol.
A comeback to the musical stage in 1986 with a revival of the 60s hit Charlie Girl (Kay Connor) proved disappointingly brief, even with Hollywood legend Cyd Charisse on board. Far more satisfying was her irresistible portrayal of Ida, "the ideal leader of a septuagenarian brat pack", in Paul Kerryson's Chichester Festival production of 70, Girls, 70, which toured and reached London's Vaudeville Theatre in June 1991.
It was the beginning of a decade in which Dora Bryan received an honorary MA degree from the University of Manchester (1992), won a Laurence Olivier Award for her role in Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party at the Royal National Theatre (1994), and was awarded the OBE (1996).
No stranger to awards, back in the 60s Bryan was adjudged best leading actress by the British Film Academy for her performance in A Taste Of Honey (1961), and her Top 20 novelty single record, "All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle", collected the Best Bad Record prize two years later.
In the late 90s she continued to star in productions such as The School For Scandal and When We Are Married, and also toured her own one-woman show, Memories Of A Life.
xx
Wonderful Actress "A Taste Of Honey" superb Iconic film and she played the Oldham Rep as you have mentioned many Times......My Home Town........
I saw her on stage in Hello Dolly. She was amazing and made the part her own. She even came on during the interval and did a hilarious silent routine - just her sat at a table eating a snack - pulling faces and chewing. Quite a treat to see her live as I loved her as a kid - except I used to get her mixed up with - don't ask me why - Doris Day.
She should have been a Dame long ago. Here's one of my favourite movie memories of all time.
8:42 in
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IDjPwCgnjQ"]YouTube- /-\ T/-\STE 0F |-|0NEY 1 1961[/ame]
I saw her in Hello Dolly as well - very funny lady.
name='Dandy Forsdyke']
She should have been a Dame long ago.
Absolutely. Unforgettable in The Great st Trinians Train Robbery, and her audiobook of Angela Carter's Wise Children was and is a family favourite. A friend sees her around in Hampstead, but I haven't had the pleasure.
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