Muriel Angelus

Muriel Angelus ( Findlay; 10 March 1912 – 26 June 2004) was an English stage, musical theatre, and film actress.

Early life The daughter of a chemist, young Muriel was educated at the Ursuline Convent in London. At age 12, she acted in a production of Henry VIII. She went on to sing in music halls and to dance in a West End production of The Vagabond King (1927).

Film career She entered films toward the end of the silent era with The Ringer (1928), the first of three movie versions of the Edgar Wallace play. Her second film, Sailor Don't Care (1928) was important only in that she met her first husband, Scots-born actor John Stuart on the set; her role was excised from the film. In turn, she received a contract with Paramount Pictures, but never became a star and is largely remembered solely by the acting buffs and nostalgists. Her last known film role was in The Great McGinty (1940). She revived her Broadway career and had a great success in the musical comedy, Early to Bed (1943). Her final performance came in 1946, after her marriage to Paul Lavalle. In 1959, she resisted the efforts of Richard Rodgers to secure her for the part of the Mother Abbess in the first Broadway production of The Sound of Music. Interviewed in 1996, she said it had been a mistake for her to leave England. "I was caught up in the glamour, but once in Hollywood I was nothing more than a tiny craft battling in an ocean beside much weightier ships."

Filmography