|
Date of Birth
|
16-December-1899
|
|
Place of Birth
|
Teddington
(London, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, United Kingdom, Middlesex)
|
|
Nationality
|
England
|
|
Also know as
|
Sir Noel Coward, Noel Peirce Coward, The Master, Noel Coward, Noël Peirce Coward, Sir Noël Peirce Coward
|
|
Profession
|
Writer, Singer, Screenwriter, Playwright, Composer, Television Director, Theatre Director, Actor, Film Score Composer, Film Producer
|
|
Quotes
|
- There's always something fishy about the French.
- Work is more fun than fun.
- Extraordinary how potent cheap music is.
- The higher the building the lower the morals.
- That strange feeling we had in the war. Have you found anything in your lives since to equal it in strength? A sort of splendid carelessness it was, holding us together.
- Wit ought to be a glorious treat like caviar; never spread it about like marmalade.
- I have a memory like an elephant. In fact, elephants often consult me.
- I've sometimes thought of marrying, and then I've thought again.
- My importance to the world is relatively small. On the other hand, my importance to myself is tremendous. I am all I have to work with, to play with, to suffer and to enjoy. It is not the eyes of others that I am wary of, but of my own. I do not intend to let myself down more than I can possibly help, and I find that the fewer illusions I have about myself or the world around me, the better company I am for myself.
- I have always paid income tax. I object only when it reaches a stage when I am threatened with having nothing left for my old age -- which is due to start next Tuesday or Wednesday.
- Edward Woodward... Edward Woodward... sounds like a fart in the bath.
|
|
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".
Born in Teddington, southwest London, Coward attended a dance academy in London as a child, making his professional stage début at the age of eleven. As a teenager he was introduced into the high society in which most of his plays would be set. Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter and Blithe Spirit, have remained in the regular theatre repertoire. He composed hundreds of songs, in addition to well over a dozen musical theatre works, poetry, several volumes of short stories, the novel Pomp and Circumstance, and a three-volume autobiography. Coward's stage and film acting and directing career spanned six decades, during which he starred in many of his own works.
At the outbreak of the Second World War Coward volunteered for war work, running the British propaganda office in Paris. He also worked with the Secret Service, seeking to use his influence to persuade the American public and government to help Britain. Coward won an Academy Honorary Award in 1943 for his naval film drama, In Which We Serve, and was knighted in 1969. In the 1950s he achieved fresh success as a cabaret performer, performing his own songs, such as "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", "London Pride" and "I Went to a Marvellous Party".
|
