 A regular pleasure of '40s and '50s British films was this chirpy blonde with adaptable nasal voice (Cockney, Lancashire, 'refeened') and scene-stealing comic timing. Dora Bryan (born Dora Broadbent in Southport on 7 February 1924) played tarts of every hue, starting with warm-hearted Rosie in The Fallen Idol (d. Carol Reed, 1948), irresistibly spiteful hussies in The Cure for Love (d. Robert Donat, 1950) and Time Gentlemen Please! (d. Lewis Gilbert, 1952), a nosy neighbour in No Trace (d. John Gilling, 1950), was very comfy as Gladys, the sultan's wife in You Know What Sailors Are (d. Ken Annakin, 1954), and an extremely dubious headmistress in The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (d. Frank Launder & Sidney Gilliat, 1966). Oddly, after winning a BAFTA for sluttish, selfish Helen ("Every wrinkle tells a dirty story") in A Taste of Honey (d. Tony Richardson, 1961), she
made only a handful more films, but she was so persistently busy on the stage and TV that she can scarcely have noticed. Whether Winnie or Glad or Maisie or Pearl, she assured filmgoers of at least a few minutes of unalloyed joy. She was on stage from 1935, often in revues but also in The Merry Wives of Windsor (1984).
Bibliography
Bryan, Dora, According to Dora (1987) Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Film
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FILM & TV CREDITS
