Micheline Patton

Micheline Patton (1912-2001) was an Irish actress who worked on radio, stage and television from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s.

Biography

Micheline Elizabeth Patton was born in Belfast in 1912, where she grew up and went to school.[1] She then studied Modern History at St Hugh's College, Oxford, graduating in 1932.[2] She was sometimes known to her family as "Betty," and a cousin was the Irish playwright and BBC producer Denis Johnston, with whom she briefly had an affair in 1943.[1][3]

Patton died, aged 88, on 30 June 2001.[2]

Radio

Between 1935 and 1947 Patton was regularly heard on BBC radio. She read several short stories for radio, including works by Katherine Mansfield,[4] Anton Chekhov,[5] and Helen Colvill.[6] She acted in radio plays including playing the role of Winifred in the 1947 BBC Radio adaptation of In Chancery from The Forsyte Saga.[7]

Television

Patton also acted on early BBC television. In December 1937, she controversially appeared in a backless dress in the final episode of the early fashion documentary Clothes-Line. Patton was filmed from behind, giving an illusion of nudity, which led to outraged viewers writing in to complain.[8] The episode was titled Grandmamma Looks Back, inspiring the co-presenter Pearl Binder's quip, "Grandmamma looks back but Micheline has no back to be seen."[8]

She went on to appear in a November 1938 adaptation of Robert J. Flaherty's book The Captain's Chair (produced as The Last Voyage of Captain Grant),[9] and in July 1939, a drama based on the Parnell Commission.[10]

In 1947 Patton had a small role in Weep for the Cyclops, a biographical 1947 television drama on Jonathan Swift, which was written and produced by her cousin Denis Johnston.[11][3]

Patton's final recorded BBC appearance was in 1958, with a role in The Ordeal of Christabel Pankhurst.[12]

Theatre

Patton's best received role was probably as Emily Brontë in The Brontës, by Alfred Sangster, produced by the Sheffield Repertory Company.[13] She played this role from 1946-1949, receiving generally good notices. in 1946 a reviewer for the Brontë Society noted that Patton was so "exceptionally good that one suspected (perhaps too artlessly) a spiritual affinity. What strength that pale, frigid face reflected!"[14] A reviewer for Punch commented on the "interesting" Patton's ability to "suggest dark churnings of the soul."[15] Less enthusiastically, in 1947, a reviewer for Theatre World commented "Micheline Patton does all that could be done with her material," calling the part "poorly written."[13]

Film

Patton appeared as Mrs. Broome in The Yellow Teddy Bears in 1963.[16]

References

  1. 1 2 Adams, Bernard. Denis Johnston: a life. Lilliput. pp. 205, 207, 240, 268, 283. ISBN 9781901866674.
  2. 1 2 "Oxford University Gazette: Colleges, Halls and Sections Obituaries". www.ox.ac.uk. Oxford University. 22 November 2001. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  3. 1 2 Stewart, Bruce. "Denis Johnston: Life". RICORSO: A Knowledge of Irish Literature. Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  4. ↑ "Feuille d'Album, 31 January 1938". Genome: Radio Times 1923-2009. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  5. ↑ "Rothschild's Fiddle, 16 August 1938". Genome: Radio Times 1923-2009. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014. ; "The Kiss, 16 March 1939". Genome: Radio Times 1923-2009. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  6. ↑ "Short Story (Angelina of Intro d'Acqua), 24 November 1935". Genome: Radio Times 1923-2009. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  7. ↑ "In Chancery". Genome: Radio Times 1923-2009. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  8. 1 2 Taylor, Lou, Establishing Dress History, chapter 2 (Manchester 2002) ISBN 0-7190-6639-5
  9. ↑ "The Last Voyage of Captain Grant". Genome: Radio Times 1923-2009. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  10. ↑ "The Parnell Commission". Genome: Radio Times 1923-2009. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  11. ↑ "Weep for the Cyclops: The true history of Dr. Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin". Genome: Radio Times 1923-2009. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  12. ↑ "YOU ARE THERE: The Ordeal of Christabel Pankhurst". Genome: Radio Times 1923-2009. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  13. 1 2 "The Brontes, St. James, 25th June". Theatre World. Iliffe Specialist Publications Ltd. 43-44: 6. 1947.
  14. ↑ "Brontë Society Publications". 10-12, Part 61. Brontë Society. 1946.
  15. ↑ "Punch". 215. Punch Publications Limited. 1 January 1948: 16.
  16. ↑ "The Yellow Teddy Bears (1963)". BFI. British Film Institute. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
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