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The Lady Audley | |
|---|---|
 Churchill in 1966 | |
| Born | Sarah Millicent Hermione Spencer-Churchill (1914-10-07)7 October 1914 London, England |
| Died | 24 September 1982(1982-09-24) (aged 67) London, England |
| Buried | St Martin's Church, Bladon |
| Noble family | Spencer-Churchill |
| Spouses | |
| Parents | |
Sarah Millicent Hermione Touchet-Jesson, Baroness Audley (née Spencer-Churchill;[a] 7 October 1914 – 24 September 1982), was an English actress and dancer and a daughter ofWinston Churchill.
Sarah Churchill was born inLondon, the second daughter ofWinston Churchill, laterPrime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955, andClementine Churchill, later Baroness Spencer-Churchill; she was the third of the couple's five children and was named after Sir Winston's ancestor,Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. She was educated atNotting Hill High School as a day girl and later atNorth Foreland Lodge as a boarder.[1]
Churchill married three times:
It has been both stated and confirmed by multiple sources,[who?] including Sarah Churchill's sister, Lady Soames, that Winston and Clementine Churchill neither liked nor approved of Sarah's first two husbands. Towards the end of her marriage to Vic Oliver, she began an affair with the American ambassador to Britain,John Winant; it is believed the failure of the relationship contributed to the depression that led to Winant's suicide in 1947.[2] Only Sarah's third marriage to Lord Audley (the love of her life, it was said) was greeted with warm approval by both parents.[citation needed]
In 1964 Churchill became romantically involved with African-American emigrated jazz singer and painter,Lobo Nocho, and there were reports that the two might marry.[3][4] Her father was also believed to have disapproved of this relationship.[5]
During theSecond World War, Churchill joined theWomen's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). In her account of the work ofphoto reconnaissanceEvidence in CameraConstance Babington Smith records that she was with them and worked closely on the interpretation of photographs for the 1942 invasion ofNorth Africa,Operation Torch. Known by the name Sarah Oliver, Babington Smith says she was "a quick and versatile interpreter." Aspects of Churchill's wartime service are also described in detail inWomen of Intelligence: Winning the Second World War with Air Photos.
American author Christopher Ogden's biography ofPamela Harriman and other sources indicate that during the war Churchill had an affair with (married) US AmbassadorJohn Gilbert Winant, and that it ended badly. Winant committed suicide in 1947.
Catherine Grace Katz's book,The daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Family, Love, and War describes Sarah,Kathleen Harriman andAnna Roosevelt Halsted, playing a key role in theYalta Conference, as they managed their temperamental fathers.[6]
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Churchill is best known for her role in the filmRoyal Wedding (1951) as Anne Ashmond, romantic interest ofFred Astaire as Tom Bowen. In the same year, she had her own television show. She also appeared inHe Found a Star (1941),Spring Meeting (1941),All Over the Town (1949),Fabian of the Yard (1954) andSerious Charge (1959).
On 17 November 1950, Churchill starred in "Witness for the Prosecution", an episode of the American TV programDanger.[7] She had a talk show on Sunday afternoons on CBS-TV in 1951. A review inTime magazine described it as "a pleasantly informal 15 minutes of conversation and anecdote".[8] She appeared on both theJack Benny radio and television programmes. On television, she appeared on the episode "How Jack Met Rochester".
In 1960, she appeared as Lisa Grayson in the play "The Night Life of a Virile Potato" by Gloria Russell at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London.[9]
In 1961, she appeared as Rosalind in Shakespeare'sAs You Like It at the Pembroke-in-the-round Theatre in WestCroydon. Her parents were noted as paying a surprise visit to watch her performance, which was almost entirely attended by Croydon schoolchildren. Her father, who sat in the front row of an in-the-round performance and so was highly visible throughout, fell asleep.
In 1980,A Matter of Choice, an LP of Churchill reciting her poems, was released byArgo Records (UK).[20]
During the course of her life she created several lithographic prints. In the 1950s Churchill produced several prints featuring Malibu, California.[21] Later in the 1970s, Churchill commercially published a collaborative series of portraits of her father, Sir Winston Churchill through Curtis Hooper, entitled "A Visual Philosophy of Sir Winston Churchill". The series was carefully constructed by Churchill to represent her father's great drive. In the series, (28 in total) most of the works were based on famous photographs chosen by Churchill, while one was based on Churchill's drawing of her father. Each work was given an embossed quotation by Sir Winston Churchill and was signed by both Sarah Churchill and artist Curtis Hooper in pencil and pressed with the artists seal. Artist proofs were made available for each work, with a run of no more than 150 artist proofs, per work, also signed by both Sarah Churchill and artist Curtis Hooper in pencil, below the portrait. All artist proofs bore the artist's embossed seal.[22]
Sarah Churchill appeared in a London revival of Shaw'sPygmalion in the 1950s, but drinking had become a problem. She was arrested for making a scene in the street on a number of occasions and even spent a short spell on remand inHolloway Prison. She wrote frankly about this in her 1981autobiographyKeep on Dancing.
Sarah Churchill died on 24 September 1982 at the age of 67. She is buried with her parents and three of her siblings (Marigold had previously been buried in agrave atKensal Green Cemetery in London) atSt Martin's Church, Bladon, nearWoodstock, Oxfordshire.[23]
As he paced and fretted, it fell to 30-year-old Sarah, a former actress who had enlisted in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, to take on the delicate role of supporting Winston that her mother, Clementine, had gratefully ceded. Sarah could manage her mercurial father, ease his worries and temper the linguistic torrents when he vented his spleen.
