Hammond, Kay (1909–1980)

views updated

Hammond, Kay (1909–1980)

British actress who originated the role of Elvira in Blithe Spirit. Born Dorothy Katherine Standing inLondon, England, on February 18, 1909; died on May 5, 1980; daughter of Guy Standing (an actor) and Dorothy Standing; attended Banstead in Surrey; studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; married John Selby Clements (an actor-manager), around 1945; no children.

Theater:

stage debut as Amelia in Tilly of Bloomsbury (Regent Theatre, June 25, 1927); Ellen in Plus Hours (Regent, July, 1927); Valerie Hildegard in 77 Park Lane (St. Martin's, October 1928); Beatrice in Nine Till Six (Arts and Apollo, January 1930); "Foxey" Dennison in The Last Chapter (New, May 1930); Babs in Dance with No Music (Arts, July 1930); Diana Lake in French Without Tears (Criterion, November 1936); Adeline Rawlinson in Sugar Plum (Criterion, March 1939); Elvira in Blithe Spirit (Picadilly, St. James, and Duchess, July–February 1941); Amanda in Private Lives (Apollo, November 1944); Lady Elizabeth Gray in The Kingmaker (St. James's, May 1946); Melantha in Marriage á la Mode (St. James's, July 1946); Mrs. Sullen in The Beaux' Stratagem (Phoenix, May 1949); Ann Whitefield and Dona Ana de Ulloa in Man and Superman (New, February 1951); Helen Mansell-Smith in The Happy Marriage (Duke of York's, August 1952); Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion (St. James's, November 1953); Gabrielle in The Little Glass Clock (Aldwych, December 1954); Lydia Languish in The Rivals (Saville, February 1956); Mrs. Millamant in The Way of the World (Saville, December 1956); Hippolyte in The Rape of the Belt (Picadilly, December 1957); Louise Yeyder in Gilt and Gingerbread (Duke of York's, April 1959); The Marriage-Go-Round (Picadilly, October 1959).

Born in 1909, the daughter of actors, Britain's Kay Hammond was raised in the theater and coached in elocution by Mrs. Patrick Campbell , a close family friend. After studying at the Royal Academy, Hammond made her debut in 1927 as Amelia in Tilly of Bloomsbury. Distinguished by her elegant beauty and what one critic called "a funny voice," she played a progression of bit parts until her first starring role in Terence Rattigan's French Without Tears (1936), which ran for two years. She had a second two-year run as Elvira in Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, which she also filmed in 1945. In a revival of Coward's Private Lives in 1944, Hammond played opposite John Clements, whom she married during a tour of the play. It was a personal and professional partnership that lasted many years. (After her marriage, Hammond more often than not performed with her husband.)

Under her husband's management, Hammond appeared in The Kingmaker (1946) and Marriage à la Mode (1946), before the health problems that would plague her for the rest of her life. Forced to retire from the stage for two years, she made a triumphant return in May 1949, appearing as Mrs. Sullen opposite her husband in The Beaux' Stratagem, which enjoyed a record run. Critic Audrey Williamson found the actress in fine form, calling her "particularly exquisite—a pouting period beauty with a sidelong glance and a perfection of wit in the pointing of her lines. Despite her famous 'plummy' yet attractive drawl, she has a style and intelligence in dialogue surpassed only by Edith Evans among modern actresses of Restoration Comedy." Hammond's later appearance in Shaw's Man and Superman (1951) was not nearly so well received. T.C Worsley found her speech pattern unsuitable for Shaw. "Her particular trick of speech, by which in modern comedy she gets all her characteristic effects, is a slow over-articulated drawl, insinuating an innuendo," he wrote. "For most of Shaw an opposite technique is required. Miss Hammond doesn't just lack speed, which it might be possible to get away with; she completely holds things up."

For the role of Eliza in a revival of Shaw's Pygmalion (1953), Hammond successfully subdued her distinguishing drawl with a series of voice lessons, but it returned to haunt her performance as Lydia Languish opposite her husband in The Rivals (1956). Reviewing the play, Frank Granville-Barker called her "always charming but unhappily not so invariably audible." With her husband again, she had a less than successful run in Congreve's The Way of the World (1956). As the comic Mrs. Millamant, she seemed, according to most of the critics, unable to find the wit and humor in her role. (She also often missed performances due repeated attacks of bronchitis.) She was back in form, however, for Benn Levy's The Rape of the Belt (1957) and won raves as Louise Yeyder in Gilt and Gingerbread (1959), a modern comedy by Lionel Hale.

Kay Hammond's last performance was in The Marriage Go Round (1959), after which she retired from the stage. She remained in fragile health until her death on May 5, 1980.