Coward, Noël
Coward, Noël ( 1899 – 1973 ),actor, dramatist, and composer, born in Teddington, Middlesex, the son of a piano salesman and an ambitious mother who from an early age encouraged his theatrical aspirations. His first play was performed in 1917 , but he achieved fame with The Vortex ( 1924 ), in which he himself appeared as Nicky Lancaster, a young drug-addict tormented by his mother's adulteries. More characteristic of his talent were his comedies Fallen Angels ( 1925 ), Hay Fever ( 1925 , about the eccentric, theatrical, guest-confusing, self-regarding Bliss family), Private Lives ( 1933 , about two disastrous interconnected second marriages), Design for Living ( 1933 , about a successful ménage à trois), and Blithe Spirit ( 1941 ), which features the hearty medium, Madame Arcati , and Elvira , a predatory ghost. The smart sophistication, technical accomplishment, and...
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