Lucille Lisle

Biography

Lucille Lisle, the Australian born film actress who enjoyed a career as a leading lady in somewhat incoherent movies during the early 1930s, was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and educated at St. Vincents College, Sydney. Her mother put her on the stage when still a child in the pantomime of `Dick Whittington' 1916 at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne. After she had grown up Lisle appeared in several productions under the management of J.C. Williamson limited, notably as Phyllis in `Old English' and as Anne Hall in `Cradle Snatchers' in which she toured for a year. She then appeared opposite Maurice Moscovitch in `The Silent House', followed by roles in `Saturday's Children' and Baby Cyclone' under the direction of Sir Benjamin Fuller. In 1930, she travelled to America making her debut there at the Empire theatre on October 6th as Bertina Farmer in `Stepdaughters of War'. Two years later she arrived in London after a short run in a play off Broadway. Lisle succeeded Edna Best as Stella Hallam at the Lyric in `Another Language'. In 1933, she went on stage in Liverpool in `The Late Christopher Bean', not before she held up proceedings for an hour while she signed autograph books for fans that waited patiently in the rain. Where her stage career flourished her work in motion pictures faltered, poor writing and bad directing all too often the blame for poor reviews. Anthony Havelock-Allen producer her debut feature, an incoherent thriller in which she played the wife of Leslie Perrins. In 1936, after playing in the films `Twice Branded' a prison melodrama starring James Mason and `Midnight at the Wax Museum' one of director Edward Pearson's final credits, Lisle replaced Jessica Tandy as Anna in `Anthony and Anna'. The play ran for two years. `The Minstrel Boy' 1937 was a poor attempt to launch Lisle as a sizzling romantic leading lady. She was joined by Fred Conyngham and Chili Bouchier, the scenario written by Joan Morgan, a child sensation in British pictures during the 1910s. It was Lisle's final film. Undaunted she struggled on comforted by the fact that theatre was offering her so much more than her endeavours on screen. Lisle won the praise of the critics as "the most exquisite and believable" Maria in `Twelfth Night' 1938. She joined the BBC repertory company in 1940 with which she continued for five years. After W.W.II she returned to the BBC as a regular broadcaster retiring in 1952.