Moira Shearer

Moira Shearer King, Lady Kennedy (17 January 1926 – 31 January 2006), was an internationally renowned British ballet dancer and actress. She is best remembered for her performances in Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes (1948) and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960).

Moira Shearer
Moira Shearer in 1954
Born
Moira Shearer King

(1926-01-17)17 January 1926
Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland
Died31 January 2006(2006-01-31) (aged 80)
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Other namesLady Kennedy
Years active1938–1987
Spouse(s)
Sir Ludovic Kennedy
(m. 1950; her death 2006)
Children4

Early life

She was born Moira Shearer King at Morton Lodge in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, the only child of civil engineer Harold Charles King and Margaret Crawford Reid, née Shearer.[1] In 1931 her family moved to Ndola, Northern Rhodesia, where her father worked as a civil engineer and where she received her first dancing training under a former pupil of Enrico Cecchetti.[2] She returned to Britain in 1936 and trained with Flora Fairbairn in London for a few months before she was accepted as a pupil by the Russian teacher Nicholas Legat.[2] At his studio she met Mona Inglesby[3] who gave Shearer a part in her new ballet Endymion, presented at an all star matinee at the Cambridge Theatre in 1938.[4] After three years with Legat, she joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet School. After the outbreak of World War II, her parents took her to live in Scotland.[2] She joined Mona Inglesby's International Ballet[5] for its 1941 provincial tour and West End season before moving on to Sadler's Wells in 1942.

Film career

Shearer first came to the public’s attention as Posy Fossil in the advertisements for the Noel Streatfeild book Ballet Shoes while she was training under Flora Fairbairn, a good friend of Streatfeild's.

She achieved international success with her first film role as Victoria Page in the Powell & Pressburger ballet-themed film The Red Shoes, (1948).[6] Even her hair matched the titular footwear, and the role and film were so powerful that although she went on to star in other films and worked as a dancer for many decades, she is primarily known for playing "Vicky".

Shearer retired from ballet in 1953, but she continued to act, appearing as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the 1954 Edinburgh Festival. She worked again for Powell on The Tales of Hoffmann and on the controversial film Peeping Tom (1960), which damaged Powell's own career.

In 1972, she was chosen by the BBC to present the Eurovision Song Contest when it was staged at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh.[7] She also wrote for The Daily Telegraph newspaper and gave talks on ballet worldwide.

The choreographer Gillian Lynne persuaded her to return to ballet in 1987 to play L. S. Lowry's mother in A Simple Man for the BBC.

Personal life

In 1950, Moira Shearer married journalist and broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy. They were married in the Chapel Royal in London's Hampton Court Palace.[6][8] She and Kennedy had a son, Alastair, and three daughters, Ailsa, Rachel, and Fiona. Shearer died at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, England at the age of 80.[9]

Filmography
YearTitleRoleNotes
1948The Red ShoesVictoria Page
1951The Tales of HoffmannStella / Olympia
1953The Story of Three LovesPaula Woodward(segment "The Jealous Lover")
1955The Man Who Loved RedheadsSylvia / Daphne / Olga / Colette
1960Peeping TomVivian
1961Black TightsRoxane
1987A Simple ManMotherTV movie, final film role

See also

References
  1. Debra Craine; Judith Mackrell (2010). The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Oxford University Press. pp. 408–. ISBN 978-0-19-956344-9.
  2. Fisher, Hugh (1952). "Moira Shearer". Dancers of To-day. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. Mona Inglesby with Kay Hunter (2008). "Ballet in the Blitz". Groundnut Publishing. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. Handley-Taylor, Geoffrey (1947). "Mona Inglesby, Ballerina and Choreographer". Vawser and Wiles. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. "Mona Inglesby". The Independent. London. 13 October 2006. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  6. Percival, John. "Shearer, Moira". ODNB. OUP. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  7. O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007. ISBN 978-1-84442-994-3.
  8. "Moira of the Red Shoes". Photoplay. 1950.
  9. Obituary in The New York Times, 2 February 2006. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
Preceded by
Bernadette Ní Ghallchóir		 Eurovision Song Contest presenter
1972		 Succeeded by
Helga Guitton
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