MURIEL PAVLOW

(27 June 1921 - 19 January 2019)

The British actress Muriel Pavlow, who has died aged 97, had a long career on stage, in the cinema and on television. She was born in London to parents of Russian and Swiss-French origin. Muriel grew up in Hertfordshire and began acting as a teenager. Her first film was with Gracie Fields in Sing As We Go (1934) and she made her theatre debut in The Old Maid in 1936. Being rather petite, she played juvenile roles long beyond her own age until John Gielgud cast her in John Van Druten’s Old Acquaintance. Her early films include A Romance in Flanders, John Halifax (as a young boy), Night Boat to Dublin, The Shop at Sly Corner and Quiet Wedding where she met her future husband, the actor Derek Farr. Her stage work included Dodie Smith’s Dear Octopus, J.M. Barrie’s Dear Brutus, Terence Rattigan’s While the Sun Shines and Odd Man In with Derek Farr and Donald Sinden. She was at the Stratford Memorial Theatre during the 1950s and also became popular as one of the Rank Organisation’s contract players in films such as Malta Story with Alec Guinness, Doctor in the House and Doctor at Large with Dirk Bogarde, Conflict of Wings with John Gregson, Simon and Laura with Peter Finch, and Reach for the Sky (as the wife of Kenneth More, who played Douglas Bader), among many others. She generally played sympathetic roles, morally supporting the men in her life. Muriel Pavlow more or less retired from films with Murder She Said, with Margaret Rutherford, in 1961. However, she continued to work on stage and in television. Derek Farr died in 1986 but Muriel worked regularly until 2004 when she made a TV movie called Belonging. Her career farewell came in 2009 with a small part in Stephen Poliakoff’s film Glorious 39. Muriel Pavlow spent her last years in Denville Hall, the home for retired actors.

MICHAEL DARVELL