Muriel Angelus

Biography

The memories are vague when it comes to recalling this London-born leading lady, but Muriel Angelus did have her moments. She managed to appear in a few classic Broadway musical shows and Hollywood films before her early retirement in the mid-1940s. Of Scottish parentage and the daughter of a chemist, the former Muriel Findlay was born on March 10,1909. Developing a sweet-voiced soprano at an early, Muriel made her singing debut at 12, eventually changing her last name and becoming a popular music hall performer. She made her West End debut in the musical production of "The Vagabond King" in 1927. Muriel entered films toward the end of the silent era with The Ringer (1928), the first of three movie versions of the Edgar Wallace play. Her second film Sailors Don't Care (1928) (1928) was important only in that she met her first husband, Scots-born actor John Stuart. Her part was excised from the film. Other silents included The Infamous Lady (1928) and the German film Mascottchen (1929). Muriel moved into leading femme parts in sound pictures with Night Birds (1930) in which she got to sing a number, but most of her films would not usurp her musical talents. The sweet-natured actress who played both ingenues and 'other woman' roles, went on to co-star with her husband in the romantic comedy No Exit (1930), and appeared opposite others in the Edgar Wallace crimer Red Aces (1930), the comedies Let's Love and Laugh (1931) and My Wife's Family (1931), again with her husband in Hindle Wakes (1931). After co-starring in the crime stories Detective Lloyd (1932) and Blind Spot (1932) and the comedy Don't Be a Dummy (1932), she co-starred with British star Monty Banks in one of his farcical comedies So You Won't Talk (1935). Muriel received a career lift with the glossy musical London stage hit "Balalaika" and a chain of events happened with its success. It led to her securing the pivotal role of Adriana in "The Boys From Syracuse" and, in turn, a contract with Paramount Pictures. Divorced from Stuart by this time, Muriel settled in Hollywood and made her best known films while there. She was quite touching as girlfriend to blind painter Ronald Colman in The Light That Failed (1939), a second remake of the Rudyard Kipling novel, and appeared to great advantage as a con-artist in The Way of All Flesh (1940). She was given the second lead in the romantic adventure Safari (1940) and appeared in her last film, Preston Sturges' classic satire The Great McGinty (1940), as Brian Donlevy's secretary. After scoring another long-running Broadway hit with "Early To Bed" in 1943, Muriel met Radio City Music Hall orchestra conductor Paul Lavalle while appearing on radio in New York and married him in 1946. She retired to raise a family in New England. They had a daughter, Suzanne, who later worked for NBC. Muriel pretty much stayed out of the limelight for the remainder of her life. Muriel died at age 95 in a Virginia nursing home in August 22, 2004, some seven years after her husband's death.