Dorothy Hyson

Biography

Dorothy Hyson was one of the British cinema and theatre's most gifted players. Noted for her great beauty and striking looks, the songwriters Rogers and Hart dedicated their song, "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World", to her. Her second husband, the actor Anthony Quayle, described her as "the Most Beautiful Creature I Have Ever Seen". She was born in Chicago in 1914, the only child of the musical comedy star, Dorothy Dickson and her husband, Carl Heison (who changed his name to Hyson). She made her London stage debut at the age of 12 at the Savoy Theatre in J.M. Barrie's "Quality Street" and, the following year, acted in Daisy Ashford's "The Young Visitors" (Strand Theatre), prompting the leading critic of the day, James Agate, to write: "I think in Dorothy Hyson we may have the comedienne of the future". In 1933, Ivor Novello, impressed by her charm and beauty, offered her the role of Gladys Cooper's daughter in his play, "Flies in the Sun". Later successes included Maxwell Anderson's comedy, "Saturday's Children and Touch Wood", in which she co-starred with Flora Robson. In March 1935, she appeared with Laurence Olivier in the play, "The Ringmaster", directed in London's West End by Raymond Massey. At the age of 20, she married the British film actor Robert Douglas. She was rarely off the West End stage throughout the thirties and forties and, in June 1947, married Anthony Quayle. In later years, Quayle said of his wife, "Without her, I could have been nothing - and done nothing. With her love and help, our two lives joined together and I could lift the world up and carry it aloft". Hyson was a renowned hostess in London and numbered among her close friends, H.M. Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Noël Coward and John Gielgud. On her retirement from acting, she said: "I always tried my best at being an actress - but when I met Anthony Quayle all I wanted to do was to be his wife and look after him. My acting didn't matter anymore. He always came first for me". Her son is the designer Christopher Quayle. Her two daughters are Rosanna Astley and the actress Jenny Quayle.