Sonia Dresdel

British actress (1909-1976)

Sonia Dresdel
in The Clouded Yellow (1950)
Born	Lois Obee 5 May 1909 Hornsea, East Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died	18 January 1976 (1976-01-19) (aged 66) Canterbury, Kent, England
Occupation(s)	Actress, theatre director

Sonia Dresdel (5 May 1909 – 18 January 1976) was an English actress, whose career ran between the 1940s and 1970s.^[1]

Life

She was born Lois Obee in Hornsea, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, and was educated at Aberdeen High School for Girls and RADA.^[1]^[2]

Career

Her performance in the lead role of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler at the Westminster Theatre in 1942 "was legendary. It was the performance on which her reputation was founded. James Agate was ecstatic..."^[3] For a decade Dresdel was regarded as one of England's foremost stage actresses.^[4] Her leading role in the 1947 film While I Live also gained her a great deal of acclaim.^[5] In the film she plays Julia Trevelyan, a spinster living in a lonely cliff top house in Cornwall and haunted by the death of her sister 25 years earlier.^[6]^[7]

Her best remembered role is as Mrs. Baines in the film version of Graham Greene's The Fallen Idol (1948), which starred Ralph Richardson, Michèle Morgan and Bobby Henrey.^[8] The film received Academy Awards nominations for Best Director (Sir Carol Reed) and Best Screenplay.^[9]

In the 1950s, as well as appearing increasingly on television, Dresdel moved more to the management side of things, becoming a theatre director under the aegis of the New White Rose Players, directing plays including the thriller Night of the Shoot.^[4]

In the 1970s she played the Witch in BBC Television series Lizzie Dripping, and played Lady Dorothy in the series “Sykes” series 2 episode 5 “Rolls”.

Death

She died of lung cancer, aged 66. The critic Philip Hope-Wallace, said Dresdel was "an actress of high definition with a real power to take an audience by the wrist and give them the works. She had terrific personality and was terribly underused and misused. She would have been the Lady Macbeth of all Lady Macbeths."^[3]

Partial filmography

The World Owes Me a Living (1945) as Eve Heatherley
While I Live (1947) as Julia Trevelyan
This Was a Woman (1948) as Sylvia Russell
The Fallen Idol (1948) as Mrs. Baines
The Clouded Yellow (1951) as Jess Fenton
The Third Visitor (1951) as Steffy Millington
Now and Forever (1956) as Miss Fox
The Secret Tent (1956) as Miss Mitchum-Browne
David Copperfield (1956) as Betsey Trotwood
Death Over My Shoulder (1958) as Miss Upton
The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) as Lady Wilde
George and the Dragon (1967–1968, TV Series) as Priscilla
The Break (1962) as Sarah
Jane Eyre (1963, TV series) as Mrs. Reed
Public Eye (1968, TV Series) as Mrs. Briggs
Dixon of Dock Green (1968) as Mrs. Dewar
The Caesars (1968) as Livia
Last of the Long-haired Boys (1968) as Miss Dearborn
Bachelor Father (1970–1971, TV Series) as Mother
Paul Temple (1971, TV Series) as Agnes Armadyne
Wives and Daughters (1971, TV Mini-Series) as Lady Cumnor
The Strauss Family (1972, TV Mini-Series) as Lucari
Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) as Lady Pont
The Onedin Line (1972, TV Series) as Lady Lazenby
Lizzie Dripping (1973-1975, TV Series) as The Witch
The Pallisers (1974, TV Mini-Series) as the Marchioness of Auld Reekie

References

^ ^a ^b "Sonia Dresdel". BFI. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012.
^ Hartley, Cathy (15 April 2013). A Historical Dictionary of British Women. ISBN 9781135355333.
^ ^a ^b N. de J., 'Obituary: Sonia Dresdel', The Guardian, 19 January 1976
^ ^a ^b Bruce Eder. "Sonia Dresdel - Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos - AllMovie". AllMovie.
^ David Parkinson. "While I Live". RadioTimes.
^ Harper, Sue (1 June 2000). Women in British Cinema. ISBN 9781441134981.
^ "While I Live (1947)". BFI. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012.
^ "The Fallen Idol (1948)". BFI. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012.
^ "The Fallen Idol (1948) - Carol Reed - Awards - AllMovie". AllMovie.