Jeans, Ursula (1906–1973)

British actress. Born Ursula McMinn on May 5, 1906, in Simla, India; died in a nursing home near London, England, on April 21, 1973; daughter of C.H. McMinn and Margaret Ethel (Fisher) McMinn; educated in England; studied for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London; married Robin Irvine (deceased); married Roger Livesey (an actor).

Selected theater:

stage debut as Sophie Binner in Cobra (Theater Royal, Nottingham, August 1925); London debut as Angela in The Firebrand (Wyndham's Theater, February 1926); the Girl of the Town in Escape (Ambassadors' Theater, August 1926); Toby in The Fanatics (Ambassadors' Theater, March 1927); Dagmar Krumbak in Samson and Delilah (Arts Theater, July 1927); Jill Osborne in Chance Acquaintance (Strand Theater, September 1927); Monica Grey in The Second Man (Playhouse Theater, January 1928); Pearl Pretty in Mud and Treacle (Globe Theater, May 1928); Miss Carruthers in Passing Brompton Road (Criterion Theater, July 1928); Evelyn Seymour in High Treason (Strand Theater, November 1928); Ilona Szabo in The Play's the Thing (St. James's Theater, December 1928); Cora Wainwright in The Five O'clock Girl (London Hippodrome, March 1929); Elsie Fraser in The First Mrs. Fraser (Haymarket Theater, June 1929); Barbara Olwell in Apron Strings (Vaudeville Theater, July 1931); Flaemmchen in Grand Hotel (Adelphi Theater, September 1931); Glad in I Lived With You (Prince of Wales' Theater, March 1932); Trudy Hanks in The Multabello Road (St. Martin's Theater, April 1932); New York debut as Pauline Murray in Late One Evening (Plymouth Theater, New York City, January 1933); with Old Vic-Sadler's Wells Company played Viola in Twelfth Night, Anya in The Cherry Orchard, Anne Boleyn in Henry VIII, Mariana in Measure for Measure, Cecily Cardew in The Importance of Being Earnest, Angelica in Love for Love, and Miranda in The Tempest (1938); Sarah Traille in Lovers' Leap (Vaudeville Theater, October 1934); The Sphinx in The Machine of the Gods (Grafton Theater, March 1935); Olive Allingham in The Benefit of the Doubt (Arts Theater, June 1935); Nina Popinot in Vintage Wine (Victoria Palace, August 1935); Penelope Marsh in Short Story (Queen's Theater, November 1935); Alithea in The Country Wife (Old Vic, October 1936); Karen in The Children's Hour (Gate Theater, November 1936); Sally Grosvenor in They Came by Night (Globe Theater, July 1937); Shena March in People of Our Class (New Theater, May 1938); with Old Vic played Kate Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer, Petra in The Enemy of the People, and Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew (1939); Joanna in Dear Brutus (Globe Theater, January 1941); toured as Elvira in Blithe Spirit (1942); Helen in Ever Since Paradise (New Theater, June 1947); Mary Bernard in Man of the World (Lyric, Hammersmith, February 1950); with Old Vic appeared as Olivia in Twelfth Night, Dame Overdo in Bartholomew Fair, Lady Cicely Waynflete in Captain Brassbound's Conversion, and Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor (1950); Jean Moreland in Third Person (Arts Theater, October 1951); Lady Pounce-Pellott in The Blaikie Charivari (Citizen's Theater, Glasgow, October 1952); Margaret Bell in The Teddy Bear (St. Martin's Theater, April 1953); Stella Hampden in Escapade (48th St. Theater, New York, November 1953); Barbara Leigh in Uncertain Joy (Court Theater, March 1955); Mrs. Tarleton in Misalliance (Lyric, Hammersmith, February 1956); with husband, toured Australia and New Zealand in The Reluctant Debutante, and The Great Sebastians (1956–58); Lady Touchwood in The Double-Dealer (Old Vic, September 1959); Juliette Dulac in Head of the Family (Hampstead Theater Club, January 1962); Irette in The Twelfth Hour (Oxford Playhouse, May 1964); Mrs. Pocock in The Elephant's Foot (Nottingham Playhouse, April 1965); Lady Markby in An Ideal Husband (Strand Theater, December 1965); toured South Africa in Oh, Clarence (July 1970).

Selected films:

The Gypsy Cavalier (1922); The Virgin Queen (1923); S.O.S. (1928); The Love Habit (1931); The Crooked Lady (1932); Cavalcade (1933); Friday the 13th (1933); Dark Journey (1937); Storm in a Teacup (1937); The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943); Mr. Emmanuel (1944); Gaiety George (Showtime, 1946); The Woman in the Hall (1947); The Weaker Sex (1948); The Dam Busters (1955); North West Frontier (Flame Over India, 1959); The Green Helmet (1961); The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965).

Born Ursula McMinn in Simla, India, in 1906, to British parents, C.H. McMinn and Margaret Fisher McMinn , actress Ursula Jeans was educated in London and studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She made her first stage appearance in 1925 and debuted in London in 1926, playing Angela in The Firebrand. Although primarily a stage actress, Jeans also made occasional films beginning in 1922 with The Gypsy Cavalier. She made only two appearances in New York: the first in 1933 at the Plymouth Theater in Late One Evening; the second in 1953 at the 48th Street Theater in Escapade. After the death of her first husband, Jeans married actor Roger Livesey, with whom she toured Australia and New Zealand from 1956 to 1958, co-starring in The Reluctant Debutante and The Great Sebastians. Ursula Jeans died in a nursing home in London, age 66, in 1973.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts