Coral Browne
Browne in 1989
Born	Coral Edith Brown (1913-07-23)23 July 1913 Melbourne, Australia
Died	29 May 1991(1991-05-29) (aged 77) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1933–1985
Spouses	Philip Westrope Pearman ​ ​ (m. 1950; died 1964)​ Vincent Price ​ (m. 1974)​

Coral Edith Browne (23 July 1913 – 29 May 1991) was an Australian-American stage and screen actress. Her extensive theatre credits includedBroadway productions ofMacbeth (1956),The Rehearsal (1963) andThe Right Honourable Gentleman (1965). She won the 1984BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for theBBC TV filmAn Englishman Abroad (1983). Her film appearances includedAuntie Mame (1958),The Killing of Sister George (1968),The Ruling Class (1972) andDreamchild (1985). She was actorVincent Price's third wife.^[1]

Coral Edith Brown was the only daughter of railway clerk Leslie Clarence Brown (1890–1957),^[2] and Victoria Elizabeth Brown (1890–1989), née Bennett, both ofVictorian birth.^[3][4] She and her two brothers were raised inFootscray, a suburb ofMelbourne.

She studied at theNational Gallery Art School. Her amateur debut was as Gloria inShaw'sYou Never Can Tell, directed byFrank Clewlow.Gregan McMahon snapped her up for her professional debut as "Margaret Orme" inLoyalties at Melbourne'sComedy Theatre on 2 May 1931, aged 17. She was still billed as "Brown", the "e" being added in 1936.^[5]

At the age of 21, with just £50 on her and a letter of introduction to famed actressMarie Tempest from Gregan McMahon,^[6] she emigrated to England where she became established as a stage actress, notably as leading lady toJack Buchanan in Frederick Lonsdale'sThe Last of Mrs Cheyney, W. Somerset Maugham'sLady Frederick^[6] and Alan Melville'sCastle in the Air. She was a regular performer in productions at theSavoy Theatre in London and was resident inthe hotel for many years, including throughoutWorld War II. When the original British touring production ofThe Man Who Came to Dinner ran into financial difficulty and could not be produced in London, Browne borrowed money from her dentist and bought the rights to the play, successfully staging it at the Savoy.^[7] She received royalties from the play from all future productions.

She began film acting in 1936, with her more famous roles being Vera Charles inAuntie Mame (1958), Mercy Croft inThe Killing of Sister George (1968), and Lady Claire Gurney inThe Ruling Class (1972). Her television debut came in January 1938, when she appeared in aBBC Television production ofThe Billiard Room Mystery.^[8] Throughout her career, she was a regular performer on BBC Radio and appeared in numerous radio dramas, includingDinner at Eight,^[9]The Second Mrs. Tanqueray,^[10]The Caspary Affair,^[11]The Tragedy of Othello,^[12]Oedipus The King,^[13]Hamlet,^[14]The Infernal Machine,^[15]Two Mothers,^[15]Captain Brassbound's Conversion^[16] andThe Eyes of Youth^[17] amongst many others. In 1961, Browne was the featured castaway onDesert Island Discs, hosted byRoy Plomley.^[18] Television plays for the BBC includedCharley's Aunt in 1969,^[19]Lady Windermere's Fan in 1972,^[20]Mrs. Warren's Profession also in 1972^[21] andThe Importance of Being Earnest in 1974.^[22]

In 1969, Browne appeared in the poorly received original production ofJoe Orton's controversial farceWhat the Butler Saw in the West End at the Queen's Theatre with SirRalph Richardson,Stanley Baxter, andHayward Morse.

While touring theSoviet Union in a Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (later theRoyal Shakespeare Company) production ofHamlet in 1958, she met the spyGuy Burgess.^[23] This meeting became the basis ofAlan Bennett's script for the television movieAn Englishman Abroad (1983) in which Browne played herself, apparently including some of her conversations with Burgess. Burgess, who had found solace in his exile by continually playing the music ofJack Buchanan, asked Browne if she had known Buchanan. "I suppose so", the actress replied, "we nearly got married". On theBFI TV 100, a list compiled in 2000 by theBritish Film Institute (BFI), chosen by a poll of industry professionals, to determine what were the greatestBritish television programmes of any genre ever to have been screened,An Englishman Abroad was listed at No. 30.

Her other notable film of this period,Dreamchild (1986) concerned the authorLewis Carroll. In the film, Browne gave an affecting account of the later life ofAlice Liddell who had inspired the taleAlice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Browne was portrayed byPrunella Scales on stage in Alan Bennett's adaptation of his playAn Englishman Abroad entitledSingle Spies.Penelope Wilton took the role of Browne in the BBC radio adaptation of the original film. In a televised documentaryCaviar to the General broadcast on UKChannel 4 in 1990, shortly before her death, Coral Browne humorously described her reaction to seeing the stage version ofAn Englishman Abroad, particularly expressing her irritation at the costumes. She recalled that when she made the film version, the costume designer went to great lengths to find out what she wore at the time the story is set, but when she saw the stage costumes she exclaimed: "I fainted. The prospect of my appearing in a fake fur whatever it was, and hats that wouldn't have come out of a grab bag after Christmas at the Salvation Army... I was incensed... and I mean... and if the play ever comes to New York I shall go there with three lawyers... because I consider it a defamation." In 2018, an Australian stage playCoral Browne - This F***ing Lady was staged by Maureen Sherlock starringGenevieve Mooy as Browne.Amanda Muggleton took on the part of Browne in later productions of the play.^[24]

Browne married actor Philip Pearman in 1950,^[25] and remained married until his death in 1964.^[26] While making the filmTheatre of Blood (1973), she met actorVincent Price;^[27] they married on 24 October 1974. The two appeared together in the international stage adaptation ofArdèle, which played in the US as well as in London at the Queen's Theatre. During this run, Browne and Price starred together in theBBC Radio playNight of the Wolf, first airing in 1975.^[28] The two subsequently appeared in the 1979CBS TV miniseriesTime Express.

She became a naturalized United States citizen in 1987 as a gift to Price who later converted toCatholicism for her (she had converted many years previously).

Browne died on 29 May 1991 inLos Angeles, California, from breast cancer; she was 77. After her death, she was cremated and her ashes were scattered in the Rose Garden at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. She had no children from her marriages; Price died two years later.

Browne was awarded theBAFTA Television Award forBest Actress 1984 for her role inAn Englishman Abroad. She later received the LondonEvening Standard British Film Awards forBest Actress in 1986 forDreamchild. In 1976, the Los Angeles Theatre Critics named her Best Actress for her role inTravesties at theMark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

When told by theRoyal Shakespeare Company that there was no suitable role in their upcoming production ofKing Lear for her husband, Philip Pearman, she demanded a script and running through it she found the page she was looking for. "There you are", she said, "the perfect part. A small camp near Dover."^[29]

Browne's language was colourful, and anunauthorized biography of her,This Effing Lady, was published. She was a devout Catholic (by conversion). The two aspects came together in a story of her standing outsideBrompton Oratory after Sunday mass when an actor came up to her with gossip about who was sleeping with someone else's wife. She stopped him in his tracks with: "I don't want to hear this filth. Not with me standing here in a state of fucking grace.^{[citation needed]}"

Alan Bennett: "When I said to Coral that I’d thought [Cecil] Beaton was gay she remarked, 'Not when he was with me, darling. Like a rat up a drainpipe.'^{[citation needed]}"

The younger Australian performerBarry Humphries paid tribute to Browne at her memorial service with an appropriate poem: "She left behind an emptiness/A gap, a void, a trough/The world is quite a good deal less/Since Coral Browne fucked off."^[30]

• Browne was the subject of a biography,The Coral Browne Story: Theatrical Life and Times of a Lustrous Australian, byBarbara Angell.^[31] This was published May 2007 and launched at the Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne, on 14 June of that year.
• Coral Browne: 'This Effing Lady', by Rose Collis, published by Oberon Books, was launched at the Royal National Theatre, 4 October 2007.^[32]

In 2018, an Australian stage playCoral Browne – This F***ing Lady was staged by Maureen Sherlock starring Genevieve Mooy as Browne.^[24]

• A Warm Corner Comedy Theatre, Melbourne c. 1930
• The Roof Comedy Theatre, Melbourne 1931
• Loyalties Comedy Theatre, Melbourne May 1931
• Hay Fever
• The Quaker Girl
• The Apple Cart
• Dear Brutus
• Hedda Gabler
• Children in Uniform Melbourne
• Command to Love Melbourne
• Mated 1934 or 1935
• Lover's Leap, Vaudeville Theatre London 1935
• Basalik, London Arts Theatre Club 1935
• Desirable Residence, Embassy Theatre London 1935
• Heroes Don't Care, St. Martin's Theatre, London 10 June 1936
• The Taming of the Shrew, New London Theatre 1936–1937
• The Great Romancer, New London Theatre 1937
• The Gusher, Prince's Theatre, London 1937
• Believe It Or Not, New Theatre, London March 1940
• The Man Who Came to Dinner, Theatre Royal, Birmingham, England, 17 November 1941
• The Man Who Came to Dinner, Savoy Theatre, London, 4 December 1941–42
• My Sister Eileen, Savoy Theatre, London, 1943
• The Last of Mrs. Cheyney, Savoy Theatre, London 1943–44
• Lady Frederick, Savoy Theatre, London, November 1946
• Lady Frederick, Grand Theatre, Blackpool, 21 April 1947
• Lady Frederick, Theatre Royal, Brighton, 16 June 1947
• Canaries Sometimes Sing, Grand Theatre, Blackpool, 3 November 1947
• Castle in the Air, Adelphi Theatre, London, 1949–50
• Othello, Old Vic Theatre, London, 31 October 1951
• King Lear, Old Vic, London, 3 March 1952
• Affairs of State, Theatre Royal, Brighton, 28 July 1952
• Affairs of State, Cambridge Theatre, Cambridge Circus, 21 August 1952
• Affairs of State, Hippodrome, Bristol, 1953–54
• Simon And Laura, Strand Theatre, London, 1954
• Nina Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, 27 July 1955
• Macbeth Old Vic, London, 1955–56
• Macbeth Hippodrome, Bristol, 1955–56
• Tamburlaine the Greatm Playbill Winter Garden Theatre, New York, 19 January – 4 February 1956
• Tamburlaine the Great, Stratford, Ontario, Canada
• Macbeth, Winter Garden Theatre, New York, 29 October 1956 – 12 January 1957
• Troilus and Cressida, Winter Garden Theatre, New York, 26 December 1956 – 12 January 1957
• Hamlet, Old Vic, London, 1957–58
• A Midsummer Night's Dream, Old Vic, London, 1957–58
• The Pleasure of His Company, Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, 1957–58
• Toys in the Attic, Piccadilly Theatre, London, 10 November 1960
• Bonne Soupe, The Comedy Theatre London, 1960
• Bonne Soupe, New Theatre, Oxford, 26 September 1961
• Bonne Soupe,Wyndham's Theatre London, 13 February 1962
• The Rehearsal, Royale Theatre, New York, 23 September – 28 December 1963
• The Right Honourable Gentleman, Billy Rose Theatre, New York, 19 October 1965 – 22 January 1966
• Lady Windermere's Fan, Phoenix Theatre, London, 1966
• Lady Windermere's Fan, Theatre Royal, Brighton, 23 August 1966
• What the Butler Saw, Queen's Theatre, London, 1969
• My Darling Daisy, Lyric Theatre, London, 1970
• Mrs. Warren's Profession, Old Vic, London, 1970–71
• The Sea, Royal Court, London, 1973–74
• The Waltz of the Toreadors Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, 1974
• Ardèle, Queen's Theatre, London, 1975
• Charley's Aunt, Cirque Dinner Theatre, Seattle, 12 August 1975
• Charley's Aunt Granny's Dinner Theatre, Dallas, 16 March – 10 April 1976
• Charley's Aunt, National U.S. tour, 10 May – 26 June 1976
• The Importance of Being Earnest,Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, 1976
• Travesties, Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, 1976

• Coral Browne: 'This Effing Lady' (2007) by Rose Collis, Oberon Books,ISBN 978-1-84002-764-8
• The Coral Browne Story (2007) by Barbara Angell,ISBN 978-0-646-47322-2[1]
• Vincent Price: A Daughter's Biography (1999) byVictoria Price,ISBN 0-312-26789-4
• Who's Who (1991 edition) St. Martin's Press, 1991, p. 241
• Variety, 3 June 1991, p. 69
• The Daily Telegraph obituary (31 May 1991)

• Coral Browne CollectionArchived 14 March 2016 at theWayback Machine at thePerforming Arts Collection,Arts Centre Melbourne
• Coral Browne at theInternet Broadway Database
• Coral Browne atIMDb
• Coral Browne at theBFI'sScreenonline

• 1913 births
• 1991 deaths
• 20th-century American actresses
• 20th-century Australian women
• 20th-century Roman Catholics
• American film actresses
• American Roman Catholics
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• Australian emigrants to the United States
• Australian film actresses
• Australian Roman Catholics
• Australian stage actresses
• Australian television actresses
• Australian voice actresses
• Actresses from Melbourne
• Best Actress BAFTA Award (television) winners
• Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery
• Catholics from California
• Converts to Roman Catholicism
• Deaths from breast cancer in California
• People from Footscray, Victoria

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