noël coward

The Noël Coward Society

Noël was born on December 19, 1899, and was given his first name because Christmas was just days away.

He was the son of Arthur and Violet Veitch Coward. His father was an unsuccessful piano salesman with little personal drive, so family finances were often shaky. Violet had seen her first son die as an infant, so she was fiercely devoted to Noël and did her best to gloss over their genteel poverty. Noël's younger brother Eric suffered from chronic poor health that kept him in the background for most of his short life. From day one, Noël was the family's star attraction. A basically healthy child, Noël survived several accidents in which fate seemed to intercede on his behalf.

From an early age, Noël was intelligent, temperamental, and an instinctive performer. He loved to sing and dance and threw frightful tantrums if he was not summoned to perform for guests. His formal education consisted of a few years at the Chapel Royal Choir School (which he despised) and some dance lessons (which he vastly preferred). In time, his voracious reading habits and keen sense of observation more than made up for his lack of schooling.

Coward excelled in amateur talent shows. With his mother's encouragement, he launched his professional acting career at the age of 12, making his London debut in a children's show called The Goldfish. He appeared in several West End productions with the popular comic actor-manager Charles Hawtrey, and played the "lost boy" Slightly in Charles Frohman's annual production of Peter Pan.

In the early 1900s, England was a terribly class-conscious society. As a boy actor born to relatively poor parents, Noël would normally have been snubbed by the upper classes. However, his professional and social ambitions were insatiable, and Coward's extraordinary determination and charm won him entrance into the chicest circles.

Coward was too young to be drafted when the war broke out in 1914, so he appeared in several plays, building his professional reputation. His first screen role was in D.W. Griffith's Hearts of the World (1917), where he spent several scenes following silent star Lillian Gish around with a wheel barrow.

I Leave It To You (1920) was Coward’s first full length play produced in the West End, with Noël in a leading role – quite an accomplishment for a lad of 21. The brief run brought encouraging reviews, whetting Coward's appetite for more. However, most London producers were unwilling to gamble on a playwright Coward's age.

Coward shrewdly decided his next project should involve a controversial topic, one guaranteed to attract publicity. He wrote, directed and starred in The Vortex (1924), a searing look at sexual vanity and drug abuse among the upper classes. A middle aged socialite with a foolish penchant for extramarital affairs with younger men is violently confronted by her cocaine-snorting son.

When most producers refused to consider such a play, the small Everyman Theatre in suburban London agreed to take it on. However, it was up to Noël to raise the money and produce the show. On the opening night, the audience was both shocked and fascinated, and Coward got so carried away playing the addicted socialite that he gashed his hand on stage. He wrapped up his hand in a handkerchief and played on, not about to let anything stop the show. At the end, Coward and co-star Lillian Braithwaite received a wild ovation.

The Vortex immediately became the talk of London. Some hated it, but the combination of fiery acting and scandalous subject matter made for brisk ticket sales. Other plays had examined drug abuse, but not among the rich and powerful. The Vortex moved to a larger theatre for an extended run, making the long-suffering Coward an "overnight" sensation.

During the London run of The Vortex, Coward met Jack Wilson, a handsome American stockbroker who became his lover and business manager for the next decade. Blinded by love, he overlooked Wilson's heavy drinking and blatant stealing and he demanded that everyone else in his circle overlook these things too. To make his commitment clear, Coward purchased Goldenhurst Farm in Kent, renovated the buildings and moved his parents and Wilson there in 1926.

Coward's stage works played successfully in both London and New York, most notably the comedy Hay Fever (1925) and the revue On With The Dance (1925). But he was working at an unbearable pace. Several of his plays failed, and the resulting pressure finally got to him. He collapsed on stage one night in 1926, and doctors advised him to take a prolonged rest.

As he often would, Coward escaped his troubles by travelling. Despite his exhausted state, he forced himself to head halfway around the world. When he reached Hawaii, he was delirious with fever. Coward spent several weeks recovering at a private beach house, lying in the sun and dashing off just one song – “A Room With a View.” When he finally returned to England, he wisely avoided performing for more than a year and focused on his writing.

Now at the peak of his popularity, Coward could seemingly do no wrong. After adding "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" to his London revue Words and Music (1932), he co-starred with friends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in one of his most daring plays, Design For Living (1933). It involved a bisexual romance between two men and a woman – an unspeakable subject in those days. The topic and the stellar cast guaranteed sold-out houses for every night of the limited run.

By this time, Jack Wilson's drinking and unreliable business practices had permanently soured his romance with Noël. After their break-up, the homosexual Wilson married, partially to spite Coward. Despite this, Noël maintained a friendship with his former lover, and frequently provided a sympathetic ear to Wilson's long suffering wife Natasha. Jack's mismanagement of Coward's American business affairs eventually forced Noël to select new agents.

When World War II broke out, Coward was determined to make up for his embarrassing efforts in the previous war. After serving for a brief time as a secret agent, he entertained troops in Europe, Africa and the Far East, frequently at his own expense.

In a matter of months, he wrote a trio of hit plays, including the autobiographical Present Laughter (1942) and the cockney drama This Happy Breed (1942). His biggest wartime hit was Blithe Spirit (1942), a comedy about a writer whose research into the occult brings back the ghost of his first wife – causing mayhem for him, his second wife, and a daffy spiritualist. The play proved one of Coward's most popular successes, with Margaret Rutherford winning stardom as the eccentric Madame Acarti.

At the same time, Coward also wrote, produced, starred in and directed In Which We Serve (1942), a film which vividly depicted the heroism of a British destroyer crew. The then-unknown David Lean acted as co-director.

Coward played the captain, a character based on close friend Lord Louis Mountbatten. Critics complained that it was hard to accept Noël Coward as a naval commander, but the film won deserved acclaim in Britain and the US.

While Coward was entertaining troops overseas, Lean directed popular film adaptations of This Happy Breed (1944) and Blithe Spirit (1945) before adapting one of Coward's one-act plays into the moving film Brief Encounter (1945), a dark wartime romance that is still considered a masterpiece.

A hit revival of Private Lives in 1963 took London by storm, sparking renewed interest in Coward's plays on both sides of the Atlantic. Encouraged by this, he wrote and starred in the London production of three one-acts called Suite In Three Keys (1966). This included Song at Twilight, the story of an aging author who fears his homosexuality will be exposed. This was daring stuff in the mid 1960's, and it was well received. But Noël, who prided himself on his professionalism, suffered memory lapses. His sympathetic co-stars helped him to carry on, but he was horrified. Years of self-indulgent eating, drinking and chain-smoking had taken their toll, and Coward chose to permanently retire from the stage.

As Coward's health went into a steady decline, he cut back on public appearances, but he fully enjoyed the ongoing re-discovery of his works that friends affectionately called "Dad's Renaissance." His 70th Birthday in 1969 became a national celebration in Britain, and he was finally granted his knighthood the following year.

In January of 1973, Noël travelled to New York for a gala performance of Oh Coward!. He attended with long-time friend Marlene Dietrich on his arm. Bent with age and illness, he remained the personification of elegance. Friends sensed that he was declining, but no one realized it would be his last public appearance.

In the early morning hours of Monday, March 26, 1973, Noël Coward suffered a stroke at his home in Jamaica. A servant found him on his bathroom floor, and was able to carry him to his bed before he died. His simple gravesite lies on Firefly Hill, and after years of delay Westminster Abbey installed a memorial to him in its Poet's Corner. Graham Payne has lovingly and faithfully supervised Coward's estate, preserving their home in Switzerland much as Coward left it.