Dame Cleo Laine | |
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 Laine in 1997 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Clementine Dinah Hitching |
| Born | (1927-10-28)28 October 1927 (age 97) Southall,Middlesex, England |
| Genres |
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| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1950s–2018 |
| Spouses | |
Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth (bornClementine Dinah Hitching; 28 October 1927) is an English singer and actress known for herscat singing.[1] She is the widow of jazz composer and musicianSir John Dankworth and the mother of bassistAlec Dankworth and singerJacqui Dankworth.
Laine was born Clementine Dinah Hitching on 28 October 1927, inSouthall,Middlesex (now London),[2][3][4] to Alexander Sylvan Campbell, a Jamaican[5] who worked as a building labourer[6] and regularlybusked,[7] and Minnie Bullock, an English farmer's daughter fromSwindon, Wiltshire, whose maiden name was reportedly Hitching.[5]
The family moved constantly, but most of Laine's childhood was spent in Southall. It was not until 1953, when she was 26 and applying for a passport for a forthcoming tour of Germany, that Laine found out her real birth name, owing to her parents not being married at the time and her mother registering her under her own name (Hitching).[5]
Laine attended the Board School on Featherstone Road, Southall (later known as Featherstone Primary School), and was sent by her mother for singing and dancing lessons at an early age. She went on to attendMellow Lane Senior School inHayes[6] before going to work as an apprentice hairdresser, a hat-trimmer, a librarian, and in a pawnbroker's shop.[5]
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Laine auditioned successfully at the age of 24 forJohn Dankworth's small group, the Johnny Dankworth Seven. Laine later played with his big bands, Johnny Dankworth & His Orchestra as well as Johnny Dankworth & His New Radio Orchestra, with which she performed until 1958. Dankworth and Laine married that year.[6] She played the lead inBarry Reckord'sFlesh to a Tiger at London'sRoyal Court Theatre, home of the new wave of playwrights of the 1950s such asJohn Osborne andHarold Pinter. The same year, she played the title role inThe Barren One,Sylvia Wynter's adaptation ofFederico García Lorca'sYerma. This led to other stage performances, such as the musicalValmouth in 1959, the playA Time to Laugh (withRobert Morley andRuth Gordon) in 1962,Boots With Strawberry Jam (withJohn Neville) in 1968, and eventually to her role as Julie inWendy Toye's production ofShow Boat at theAdelphi Theatre in London in 1971.[8]Show Boat had its longest run to date in that London season with 910 performances staged.[9]
During this period, she had two major recording successes. "You'll Answer to Me" reached the British Top 10 while Laine was "prima donna" in the 1961Edinburgh Festival production ofKurt Weill's opera/balletThe Seven Deadly Sins, directed and choreographed byKenneth MacMillan. In 1964, herShakespeare and All that Jazz album with Dankworth was well received. Dankworth and Laine foundedthe Stables theatre in 1970, in what was the old stables block in the grounds of their home.[10] It eventually hosted over 350 concerts per year.[11]
Laine's international activities began in 1972, with a successful first tour of Australia, where she released six top-100 albums throughout the 1970s.[12] Shortly afterwards, her career in the United States was launched with a concert at New York'sLincoln Center, followed in 1973 by the first of manyCarnegie Hall appearances. Coast-to-coast tours of the US and Canada soon followed, and with them a succession of record albums and television appearances, includingThe Muppet Show in 1977.[13] This led, after several nominations, to her first Grammy award, in recognition of the live recording of her 1983 Carnegie concert. She kept touring into the 21st century, including in Australia in 2005.[14] She performed live in the UK as late as 2018.[1]
She has collaborated withJames Galway,Nigel Kennedy,Julian Lloyd Webber andJohn Williams. Other important recordings during that time were duet albums withRay Charles (Porgy and Bess) as well asArnold Schoenberg'sPierrot Lunaire, for which she received a Grammy Award nomination.[15]
Laine's relationship with the musical theatre started in Britain and continued in the United States with starring performances inSondheim'sA Little Night Music andFranz Lehár'sThe Merry Widow (Michigan Opera). In 1980 she starred inColette, a musical by Dankworth. The show began atthe Stables theatre,Wavendon, in 1979 and transferred to theComedy Theatre, London, in September 1980. In 1985 she originated the role of Princess Puffer in the Broadway musicalThe Mystery of Edwin Drood, for which she received aTony nomination. In 1989, she received the Los Angeles critics' acclaim for her portrayal of the Witch in Sondheim'sInto the Woods.[16] In May 1992, Laine appeared withFrank Sinatra for a week of concerts at theRoyal Albert Hall in London.[17]
Derek Jewel of theSunday Times dubbed her "quite simply the best singer in the world."[18]
In 1946, Laine married George Langridge, a roof tiler, with whom she had a son, Stuart. The couple divorced in 1957.[19][20]
In 1958, she marriedJohn Dankworth.[6] They were married until his death in 2010. On that day, Laine performed at a concert atThe Stables to mark the venue's 40th anniversary. She then announced Dankworth's death at the end of the show.[1]
As of 2018[update], Laine resides inWavendon, Buckinghamshire.[1]
