Coral Browne

Coral Browne (born Coral Edith Brown on 23 July 1913 in Melbourne, Australia) was a remarkable Australian‑American actress whose career spanned over five decades, encompassing stage, film, radio and television. Raised in the suburb of Footscray as the only daughter of railway clerk Leslie Clarence Brown and Victoria Elizabeth Bennett, she displayed an early talent for performance, debuting professionally at age seventeen in Loyalties at Melbourne's Comedy Theatre. In 1934, armed with just £50 and a letter of introduction from Gregan McMahon to the legendary Marie Tempest, she emigrated to England where she quickly became a leading lady, starring opposite Jack Buchanan in The Last of Mrs Cheyney and delighting London audiences at the Savoy Theatre throughout World War II. Browne’s tenacity was evident when she personally financed the rights to The Man Who Came to Dinner, securing royalties that funded future productions, and she continued to command the stage in celebrated Broadway runs of Macbeth, The Rehearsal and The Right Honourable Gentleman. Her film career featured memorable turns such as Vera Charles in Auntie Mame (1958), Mercy Croft in The Killing of Sister George (1968) and Lady Claire Gurney in The Ruling Class (1972), while her television work earned a BAFTA for Best Actress in 1984 for the iconic An Englishman Abroad, where she portrayed herself in a dramatisation of her encounter with Soviet spy Guy Burgess. A prolific radio performer, she appeared in countless BBC dramas, and in 1961 she was the featured castaway on Desert Island Discs. Her personal life included marriages to actor Philip Pearman (1950‑1964) and later to cult‑film legend Vincent Price (1974‑1991), with whom she became a naturalised U.S. citizen in 1987. Browne died of breast cancer in Los Angeles on 29 May 1991 at age 77; she left no children, but her legacy endures through biographies, stage portrayals, and a lasting reputation as a colorful, devout, and fiercely independent thespian.