Theatre News

Stage & Screen Actress Dulcie Gray Dies, Aged 92

| London's West End |

15 November 2011

Much-loved stage and screen actress Dulcie Gray died earlier today from bronchial pneumonia, according to reports in The Stage newspaper. She was 92.

Gray was born in Kuala Lumpur in 1919 where her father was a lawyer. She trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, where she met her husband, the late Michael Denison. The couple regularly appeared on stage, film and television together, and were married for 59 years before he died in 1998.

Gray came to prominence in the 1940s appearing in Gainsborough melodramas such as Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945), A Place of One’s Own (1945) and They Were Sisters (1945), her first leading role. With Denison she later appeared in My Brother Jonathan (1948), The Glass Mountain (1949) and Angels One Five (1952).

On stage Gray co-starred with Denison in over 100 productions. Her myriad credits included Candida, An Ideal Husband, Heartbreak House and Let Them Eat Cake as well as The Little Foxes and Brighton Rock.

She also returned to the stage following Denison’s death, appearing in The Ladykillers, The Lady Vanishes and Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

Gray was perhaps best known to fans of 1980s hit television show Howards’ Way which she starred in alongside Denison in the role of Kate Harvey. The drama, about an aircraft designer who decides to invest his time and redundancy money in a boat building yard, ran for six series from 1985 to 1990.

Gray also turned her talent to writing, penning 24 books, 17 of which were detective stories featuring her central Inspector Cardiff character. Gray was awarded a CBE for services to drama in 1983.