Madeleine Carroll

Edith Madeleine Carroll (26 February 1906 – 2 October 1987) was an English actress, popular both in Britain and in America in the 1930s and 1940s.

She had won a beauty contest, and got a job in Seymour Hicks' touring company, making her stage debut in 1927 in The Lash.

The following year she made her screen debut in The Guns of Loos, and then starred alongside Miles Mander in The First Born, written by Alma Reville.

Thence she met Reville's husband, Alfred Hitchcock.

Carroll was the lead in her second film, What Money Can Buy (1928) with Humberston Wright.

She followed it with The First Born (1928) with Miles Mander, which really established her in films.

Carroll went to France to make Not So Stupid (1928).

Back in Britain she starred in The Crooked Billet (1929) and The American Prisoner (1929), both shot in silent and sound versions.

On stage, Carroll appeared in The Roof (1929) for Basil Dean, The Constant Nymph, Mr Pickwick (opposite Charles Laughton) and an adaptation of Beau Geste.

In 1930, she starred in Atlantic, then co-starred with Brian Aherne in The W Plan (1930).

In France she was in Instinct (1930).

The same year, Carroll starred in the controversial Young Woodley (1930), followed by a farce, French Leave (1930).

She had a support role in an early adaptation of Escape (1930) and was the female lead in The School for Scandal (1930) and Kissing Cup's Race (1930).

Carroll starred as a French aristocrat in Madame Guillotine (1931) with Aherne, then did another with Mander, Fascination (1931).

She was in The Written Law (1931), then signed a contract with Gaumont British for whom she made Sleeping Car (1932) with Ivor Novello.

She had a big hit with I Was a Spy (1933), which won her an award as best actress of the year.

It was directed by Victor Saville.

Carroll played the title role in the play Little Catherine.

Abruptly, she announced plans to retire from films to devote herself to a private life with her husband, the first of four.

Carroll went to Hollywood to appear in The World Moves On (1934) for Fox; John Ford directed and Franchot Tone co starred.

Carroll is remembered for starring in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935) where she originated the "ice cold blonde" role in Hitchcock films.

The director stated, "how very well Madeleine fitted into the part. I had heard a lot about her as a tall, cold, blonde beauty. After meeting her, I made up my mind to present her to the public as her natural self".

She is also noted for largely abandoning her acting career after the death of her sister Marguerite in the London Blitz to devote herself to helping wounded servicemen and children displaced or maimed by the war.

She was awarded both the Legion d'Honneur and the Medal of Freedom for her work with the Red Cross.

Carroll was born at 32 Herbert Street (now number 44) in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, daughter of John Carroll, an Irish professor of languages from County Limerick, and Helene, his French wife.

She graduated from the University of Birmingham, with a B.A. degree in languages.

While at university she appeared in some productions for the Birmingham University Dramatic Society.

She was a French mistress at a girls' school in Hove for a year.

Carroll's father opposed her taking up acting, but with her mother’s support she quit teaching and traveled to London to look for stage work.

Back in England she was in The Dictator (1935) for Saville, playing Caroline Matilda of Great Britain.

Carroll attracted the attention of Alfred Hitchcock and in 1935 starred as the director's earliest prototypical cool, glib, intelligent blonde in The 39 Steps.

Based on the espionage novel by John Buchan, the film became a sensation and with it so did Carroll.

Cited by The New York Times for a performance that was "charming and skillful", Carroll became very much in demand.

Of Hitchcock heroines as exemplified by Carroll, film critic Roger Ebert wrote: "The female characters in his films reflected the same qualities over and over again: They were blonde. They were icy and remote. They were imprisoned in costumes that subtly combined fashion with fetishism. They mesmerised the men, who often had physical or psychological handicaps. Sooner or later, every Hitchcock woman was humiliated."

The filmmaker and actor Orson Welles called the film a "masterpiece" and screenwriter Robert Towne remarked, "It's not much of an exaggeration to say that all contemporary escapist entertainment begins with The 39 Steps."

At the end of the century it was ranked fourth in the BFI Top 100 British films.

Following on from this success Hitchcock wanted to re-team Carroll with her 39 Steps co-star Robert Donat the following year in Secret Agent, a spy thriller based on a work by W. Somerset Maugham.

However, Donat's recurring health problems intervened, resulting in a Carroll–John Gielgud pairing.

In between the films she made a short drama The Story of Papworth (1935).

At the peak of her success in 1938, she was the world's highest-paid actress.