Noël Coward is remembered on screen for work that changed what came after it.
The record lists Noël Coward as English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer (1899–1973).
Noël Coward was born at Teddington in 1899. His recorded nationality is United Kingdom. He trained at Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.
The studio system was at its height in this period: contracts were long, the output was industrial, and a handful of studios decided who worked.
Noël Coward is credited as film producer, playwright and lyricist.
His name is attached above all to wit, flamboyance, and what Time called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise". A film outlives its reviews, its budget and usually its studio; what remains is whether anyone still watches it.
The filmography includes Sail Away, Words and Music and Present Laughter.
Formal recognition came in the shape of the Knight Bachelor.
That the work was made from United Kingdom shaped it: national industries differ in what they finance, who they cast and which audiences they can reach.
Noël Coward died in 1973, aged 74. The films remain, which is the only form in which a screen career survives.
Achievements
- Knight Bachelor
- Notable work: Sail Away
- Notable work: Words and Music
- Notable work: Present Laughter
- Worked as film producer, playwright and lyricist
