Kay Kendall

Early life Kendall was born at Stanley House, Hull Road, in Withernsea, a coastal resort in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Her father was Terrence Justin "Terry" McCarthy, professionally known as Terry Kendall, a vaudeville performer and variety artist. He was the son of singer-songwriter Stephen McCarthy and the celebrated music-hall performer Marie Kendall, whose father was the Irish music-hall comedian John McCarthy. Kay's mother was the former Gladys Drewery.

She had two elder siblings, Terrence Justin "Terry" Kendall McCarthy and Patricia Kim "Pat" Kendall McCarthy (also known as Kim Kendall). By her father's second marriage to his professional dancing partner, Dora Spencer, she had a younger half-brother, Cavan Spencer Kendall McCarthy (a.k.a. Cavan Kendall). Young Justine attended various schools, including St Leonard's (Brighton), St Margaret's (near Oban, Scotland), and the Lydia Kyasht Dancing Academy (London).

Career Her first major screen role was in the 1946 musical London Town, one of the more expensive flops in British film history. She co-starred with Petula Clark again in the drama film Dance Hall (1950), and was featured in a quick succession of minor films before achieving fame in Genevieve (1953).

She appeared in the drama Simon and Laura (1955) with Peter Finch; the comedy Abdulla the Great (1955) with Sydney Chaplin and Gregory Ratoff; and the epic historical film The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955), with Robert Taylor and Robert Morley.

In October and November 1957, she appeared in two episodes of the short-lived American television series The Polly Bergen Show.

In 1958, Kendall won a Golden Globe Award for her performance as Lady Sybil Wren in Les Girls, the story of three showgirls in postwar Paris (with Mitzi Gaynor and Taina Elg).

Kendall died in 1959, aged 32, soon after completing her last film, the comedy Once More, with Feeling! (1960), starring opposite Yul Brynner.

Critical assessment Stanley Donen, who produced and directed Once More, with Feeling!, said: "She was completely unpredictable. She was an instinctive comedienne with a real clown sense. No one has had it since Carole Lombard – and Kay was a better actress."

"As they say about crime victims, Kay Kendall was in the wrong place at the wrong time," wrote Rhoda Koenig, a critic writing for The Independent in 2006. "In her case, the crime was a waste of talent. One of the most delightful of British actresses... few of her films gave her a chance to shine. A natural screwball heroine, Kendall was born too late for the 1930s comedies in which she would have been the equal of the scatty but scintillating Carole Lombard or Claudette Colbert, and too soon for the naughtiness and absurdity of the 1960s... Kendall was beautiful and funny. She was a true comedienne, unafraid to compromise her ladylike appearance with pratfalls, pop eyes and comic drunk scenes. Kendall could get away with such antics without looking vulgar."

In 1955, she starred opposite Rex Harrison in The Constant Husband, and they had an affair. Kendall married Harrison in 1957.

Kendall never was told of her illness and believed she merely had an iron deficiency.

Death

Kendall died of myeloid leukemia on September 6, 1959, aged 32. Her gravesite is in the churchyard of St John-at-Hampstead Church. Part of the inscription on her gravestone reads "KATE / Deeply loved wife of / REX". In September 2013 her final resting place was restored by the Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America.

Legacy Kendall's life is recounted in the 2002 biography The Brief, Madcap Life of Kay Kendall by Eve Golden and Kim Elizabeth Kendall.

Situated near where Kendall once lived, the late 19th-century lighthouse in Withernsea houses a museum that contains exhibits dedicated to local history, including a memorial to Kendall and displays of many artifacts and photographs associated with her life and times.

The Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund supports scientific research into leukaemia.

On 6 September 2014, a blue plaque commemorating Kay Kendall was erected by the Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America and unveiled at her former home in Withernsea to mark the 55th anniversary of her death.

Complete filmography

Champagne Charlie (1944) – Minor Role (uncredited) Fiddlers Three (1944) – Girl (uncredited) Dreaming (1945) – Party Girl (uncredited) Waltz Time (1945) – Lady in Waiting Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) – Slave Girl (uncredited) London Town (1946) – Patsy Night and the City (1950) – One of Helen's Girls (uncredited) Dance Hall (1950) – Doreen Happy Go Lovely (1951) – Secretary (uncredited) Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951) – Sylvia The Inch Man (1951) (TV series) Sweethearts and Wives (1951) (TV play) Wings of Danger (1952) – Alexia LaRoche Curtain Up (1952) – Sandra Beverley It Started in Paradise (1952) – Lady Caroline Frencham Mantrap (1953) – Vera Genevieve (1953) – Rosalind Peters Street of Shadows (1953) – Barbara Gale The Square Ring (1953) – Eve Meet Mr Lucifer (1953) – Lonely Hearts Singer Fast and Loose (1954) – Carol Hankin Doctor in the House (1954) – Isobel Minster The Constant Husband (1955) – The 'Wives' – Monica Abdulla the Great (1955) – Ronnie Simon and Laura (1955) – Laura Foster The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955) – Isabelle, Countess of Marcroy Les Girls (1957) – Lady Sybil Wren The Reluctant Debutante (1958) – Sheila Broadbent Once More, with Feeling! (1960) – Dolly Fabian (released posthumously)