| Kathleen Byron | |
| Birthname: | Kathleen Elizabeth Fell |
| Born: | 11 January 1921 |
| Location: | West Ham, London, England |
| Deathplace: | Northwood, London, England |
| Othername: | Kathleen Jacob |
| Spouse: | 1943 - 50 Daniel Bowen (div) 1953 - 95 Alaric Jacob (dec) |
| Notable Role: | Black Narcissus |
Kathleen Byron (11 January 1921 - 18 January 2009) was an English actress of stage, screen and television.
Byron was born in West Ham[1] - now in the London Borough of Newham. Her father was a railway clerk; who later became a Labour mayor of the County Borough of East Ham. She attended the local grammar school and trained at Bristol's Old Vic Drama School before making her film debut in Carol Reed's The Young Mr Pitt (1942), in which she had two lines as a maid opposite Robert Donat.[2] In 1943, she married a USAAF pilot, Lt John Daniel Bowen; and moved to the United States. The director Michael Powell persuaded her to return to England where she was to make her most successful films.[2] She was best known for her roles in the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger: as an angel in A Matter of Life and Death (1946), as leading lady opposite David Farrar in The Small Back Room (1949), and, most memorably of all, as the disturbed Sister Ruth in Black Narcissus (1947). Byron was romantically linked with Michael Powell around the time the film was made; and he was named as co-respondent when she was divorced in 1950.[2]
Her success in Black Narcissus led her to Hollywood, which resulted with a supporting role in Young Bess (1953). She found the experience an unrewarding one and soon returned to Britain. Her subsequent roles of the time were mostly in B-Movies. In the 1960s and '70s she did mostly television work, including the role of Mme Celeste Lekeu in two episodes of the BBC drama Secret Army in 1977, a brief stint on the soap opera Emmerdale Farm in 1979, and a small role as Queen Louise of Denmark in Edward the Seventh in 1975.
Byron continued to act into the 1980s, 1990s and the new millennium, her film, theatre and television work included Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap (1990), David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980), the 1996 adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Stephen Poliakoff's series, Perfect Strangers (2001).
In 1953 she married the British journalist and writer Alaric Jacob (who predeceased her), who was then working for the BBC. They had one son and daughter; with a child from Jacob's previous marriage.[3]
She died 18 January 2009 in Northwood in north London.[4]
