Kay Walsh

Kathleen "Kay" Walsh (15 November 1911, Chelsea, London – 16 April 2005, Chelsea, London) was an English actress and dancer. She was raised in Pimlico by her grandmother.

Career

She began her career as a dancer in West End music halls, making her film debut inHow's Chances? (1934) in a small part, and had a larger role in another 1934 film, Get Your Man. She continued to act in "quota quickies" films for several years. Walsh first met David Lean, then a film editor, in 1936, during the filming of Secret Of Stamboul. They began a relationship and Walsh broke off her engagement to Pownell Pellew. Walsh and Lean married on 23 November 1940. She moved on to higher-prestige films with appearances in two Noël Coward-scripted films, In Which We Serve (1942) and This Happy Breed (1944), both directed by Lean. Walsh had campaigned for Lean to receive co-director credit on In Which We Serve.

Walsh contributed dialogue to the 1938 film of Pygmalion, and also devised the scenario for the closing sequence of Lean's film adaptation of Great Expectations (1946), for which she received a writing credit on the latter film. She devised the opening sequence of Lean's adaptation of Oliver Twist (1948), as well as performing the role of "Nancy". Walsh and Lean divorced in 1949, on grounds of infidelity based on Lean's relationship with actress Ann Todd. Walsh continued to work as a character actress in films through the 1950s, including films with Alfred Hitchcock and Ronald Neame. Her own favourite film role was that of the barmaid Miss D. Coker in Neame's 1958 film of The Horse's Mouth, with Alec Guinness.

Between films, she appeared regularly in plays and farces at the Strand and Aldwych theatres, directed by Basil Dean. She was a semi-regular on the 1979 Anglo-Polish TV series Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, and remained active in films until her retirement in 1981. Her last role was in Night Crossing. 

Death

Her second marriage was to the Canadian psychologist Elliott Jaques, and they adopted a daughter, Gemma, in 1956. That marriage also ended in divorce.

She lived in retirement in London. She died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital from multiple burns, following an accident, aged 93.

Partial filmography

• All That Glitters (1936)
• Secret Of Stamboul (1936)
• Keep Fit (1937)
• The Last Adventurers (1937)
• I See Ice (1938)
• Sons of the Sea (1939)
• The Middle Watch (1940)
• In Which We Serve (1942)
• This Happy Breed (1944)
• The October Man (1947)
• Vice Versa (1948)
• Oliver Twist (1948)
• Stage Fright (1950)
• Last Holiday (1950)
• The Magnet (1950)
• Encore (1951)
• The Magic Box (1951)
• Hunted (1952)
• Young Bess (1953)
• The Rainbow Jacket (1954)
• Lease of Life (1954)
• Cast a Dark Shadow (1955)
• The Horse's Mouth (1958)
• Tunes of Glory (1960)
• Greyfriars Bobby: The True Story of a Dog (1961)
• Reach for Glory (1962)
• 80,000 Suspects (1963)
• Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow (1963)
• Circus World (1964)
• The Beauty Jungle (1964)
• He Who Rides a Tiger (1965)
• A Study in Terror (1965)
• The Witches (1966)
• Connecting Rooms (1970)
• The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970)
• Taste of Excitement (1970)
• Scrooge (1970)
• The Ruling Class (1972)
• Night Crossing (1982)