Dora Bryan

b. Dora Broadbent, 7 February 1924, Southport, Lancashire, England. A much-loved singer, actress, and comedienne, Dora Bryan has successfully mixed straight theatre with revue, cabaret, musical comedy, variety, pantomime, television and film, in a career that has endured for more than 60 years. She made her first stage appearance in a Manchester pantomime at the age of 12, and two years later was a member of the Oldham Repertory Company. She met her future husband, professional cricketer Bill Lawton in Oldham, and they were married 12 years later in 1953. Dora Bryan moved to London when she was 21, and was seen by Noël Coward while appearing in the play No Room At The Inn. Coward wrote a good character part for her in Peace In Our Time, his 1947 drama about a German occupation of London. Subsequently, Bryan was noticed by film director Carol Reed, who introduced her to the film business. Another of her mentors was impresario Binkie Beaumont, a provider of much work for Bryan over the years. During World War II she entertained British Forces abroad with the often derided, but immensely valuable, Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), and in the 50s starred in a series of intimate and satirical revues. These included Coward’s The Lyric Revue (1951) and The Globe Revue (1952), as well as At The Lyric (1953) by Alan Melville, and Arthur MacRae’s Living For Pleasure (1958). Her first venture into West End musical comedy with The Water Gipsies (1955, Lily Bell) was a personal triumph (‘Why Did You Call Me Lily?’, ‘You Never Know With Men’, ‘It Would Cramp My Style’ [with Roy Godfrey]), and was followed by Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1962, Lorelei Lee). In 1966, she took over the title role in Hello, Dolly! from Mary Martin and made it her own. In 1979, a nervous breakdown forced her to withdraw before the opening of On The Twentieth Century, and Bryan subsequently spoke of her problems with alcohol. A comeback to the musical stage in 1986 with a revival of the 60s hit Charlie Girl (Kay Connor) proved disappointingly brief, even with Hollywood legend Cyd Charisse on board. Far more satisfying was her irresistible portrayal of Ida, ‘the ideal leader of a septuagenarian brat pack’, in Paul Kerryson’s Chichester Festival production of 70, Girls, 70, which toured and reached London’s Vaudeville Theatre in June 1991. It was the beginning of a decade in which Dora Bryan received an honorary MA degree from the University of Manchester (1992), won a Laurence Olivier Award for her role in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party at the Royal National Theatre (1994), and was awarded the OBE (1996). No stranger to awards, back in the 60s Bryan was adjudged best leading actress by the British Film Academy for her performance in A Taste Of Honey (1961), and her Top 20 novelty single record, ‘All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle’, collected the Best Bad Record prize two years later. In the late 90s she continued to star in productions such as The School For Scandal and When We Are Married, and also toured her own one-woman show, Memories Of A Life.