Margaret Halstan

Margaret Halstan (25 December 1879 – 8 January 1967 ) was a British stage and screen actress, who often played upper-class ladies of the gentry, with a career spanning over six decades.

Biography Halstan was born Clara Maud Hertz in London, England on Christmas Day 1879, of apparently Jewish descent. Her parents were Henry Anthony Hertz and his wife Elizabeth Maud. Halstan also acted in BBC radio productions such as the 1938 radio adaptation of the novel If I Were You, and the 1940 radio adaptation of the short story "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime".

She made the easy transition to film roles debuting in the 1916 silent A Bunch of Violets and subsequently appearing in sound pictures.

She also played the elderly aunt Lydia, who comes to visit her family in Norfolk at Christmas, in the seasonal feature The Holy and the Ivy, in 1952 starring Ralph Richardson and was one of two actors to have also played the stage version in 1950.

Personal life Halstan married lawyer John Hartman Morgan in 1905.

Theatre

Filmography Year Title Role Notes 1916 A Bunch of Violets Lady Marchant 1917 Profit and the Loss Unknown role 1922 Tell Your Children Lady Sybil Edwards 1922 Brown Sugar Honoria Nesbitt Performed the same role in the 1920 play 1930 The Middle Watch Lady Agatha Hewitt 1931 The Beggar Student Countess Novalska 1935 Drake of England Lady Sydenham 1940 Old Mother Riley in Society Duchess 1941 Quiet Wedding Lady Yeldham 1942 The Black Sheep of Whitehall Matron 1952 The Holly and the Ivy Aunt Lydia Performed the same role in the 1950 play 1953 Blood Orange Lady Marchant 1955 Touch and Go Mrs. Pritchett