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In Remembrance: Sally Gray
Sally Gray, the voluptuous British film actress who gave up a
successful career to marry Dominick Browne, the Lord Oranmore and
Browne, has passed away on September 24, 2006 in London, England.
She was 90.
Born Constance
Vera Stevens on February 14, 1916 in London, Gray appeared on the
London stage before making her film debut in a bit part in 1930’s
adaptation of Richard Sheridan’s 18th century stage
comedy School For Scandal. Her film career began in earnest
with an appearance in 1935’s Radio Pirates. She joined the
British & Dominions Film Company for her next film Cross Currents
(1935) and stayed with them for a year, playing supporting roles in
a handful of features.
By 1936, Gray
was playing lead roles in such films as the musicals Cheer Up
and Saturday Night Revue (1937), dramas such as Café
Colette (1937) and comedies such as Lightening Conductor
(1938). She made three pictures for the American RKO studios – two
installments in the studio’s The Saint series, The Saint
In London (1939) and The Saint’s Vacation (1941) where
she played different characters and Dangerous Moonlight
(1941) - and the studio actively pursued her to come to America, but
she refused.
Gray
temporarily retired in 1942 due to health reasons, but returned to
the screen in a series of headlining roles in such films as Green
For Danger (1946), The Mark Of Cain, They Made Me A
Fugitive (both 1947), Silent Dust (1948) and director
Edward Dmytryk’s classic thriller Obsession (1949).
Gray’s last
role was opposite tough guy George Raft in the crime drama Escape
Route (1952), after which she retired from acting to marry Dominick
Browne, becoming the third wife of the fourth Lord Oranmore and
Browne. |
