Madeleine Carroll

At the height of her celebrity, Madeleine Carroll (1906–1987) was the world’s highest-paid actress. She worked alongside such greats as Laurence Olivier and Charles Laughton, British directors Victor Saville and Alfred Hitchcock, and Hollywood directors John Ford and Otto Preminger. She also did radio and television shows—all of which she abandoned to become a Red Cross worker.
Piecing together long-lost facts, the author describes Carroll’s almost indescribable life, narrating her personal highs and lows, as well as her fervent commitment to helping others—particularly child victims of war.

John Pascoe has been a researcher, writer and editor for British Steel, Arup and Electrocomponents. He is the holder of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) International Award of Excellence, STC Trans-European Award and CSI Honor Award for “outstanding achievement.” He lives in the United Kingdom.

John Pascoe
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 244
Bibliographic Info: 65 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2020
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7546-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3559-0
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments ix
Preface 1
Introduction 3
Act I—Star of British Stage and Screen 5
One: The English Rose (1906–27) 5
Two: Star of the Silent Screen (1928) 12
Three: Stage Spectaculars (1929) 18
Four: Star of the Talkies (1930) 24
Five: Marriage (1931) 37
Six: Pleasure Cruise (1932) 43
Seven: Victor Saville (1933) 47
Eight: Hollywood (1934) 53
Nine: Alfred Hitchcock (1935) 64
Act II—Hollywood and the European Theater of War 75
Ten: The General Died at Dawn (1936) 75
Eleven: The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) 86
Twelve: United Artists, Then Paramount (1938) 93
Thirteen: The Radio Star (1939) 99
Fourteen: Technicolor (1940) 111
Fifteen: The Airman or the Seaman (1941) 125
Sixteen: Bob Hope’s Favorite Blonde (1942) 131
Seventeen: United Seamen’s Service (1943) 136
Eighteen: American Red Cross (1944–45) 142
Act III—Broadway, Broadcasting and Building a Better World 151
Nineteen: Love and Marriage (1946) 151
Twenty: The Film Producer (1947) 157
­Twenty-One: The Broadway Star (1948) 159
­Twenty-Two: The Public Speaker (1949) 164
­Twenty-Three: The Television Pioneer (1950) 171
­Twenty-Four: Married Life (1951–56) 174
­Twenty-Five: The Radio Soap Star (1957–59) 183
­Twenty-Six: The Watershed (1960–63) 187
­Twenty-Seven: Beekman and Other Places (1964–86) 192
The Final Curtain (1987) 203
Filmography 205
Stage Performances 212
Selected Radio Performances 216
Chapter Notes 219
Bibliography 227
Index 231

“A very good biography…covers a lot of ground…Pascoe’s research in thorough…a good read…[Carroll] led an eventful life, and the author does a terrific job laying it all out in detail. There’s a good balance of her private life and her professional work. The photos are another plus for the book; they are an outstanding mix of portraits, scene stills and rare candids.”—Classic Images