Heather Angel

Heather Grace Angel (9 February 1909 – 13 December 1986) was an English actress.

Spouse(s):

Henry Wilcoxon
Ralph Forbes (m. 1934–41)
Robert B. Sinclair (m. 1944–70) (his death)

Life and career

Angel was born in Headington, Oxford, England, and was brought up on a farm near Banbury. Her father Andrea Angel was killed in the Silvertown explosion in 1917 and was posthumously awarded the Edward Medal (First Class).

She began her stage career at the Old Vic in 1926 and later appeared with touring companies. She appeared in many British films before going to Hollywood. She made her first screen appearance in City of Song. She later had a leading role in Night in Montmartre (1931), and followed this success with The Hound of the Baskervilles (1932). Over the next few years, she played strong roles in such films as The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935), The Three Musketeers (1935), The Informer (1935) and The Last of the Mohicans (1936). In 1937 she made the first of five appearances as Phyllis Clavering in the popular Bulldog Drummond series. She was cast as Kitty Bennett in Pride and Prejudice (1940) and as the maid, Ethel, in Suspicion (1941). Angel was also the leading lady in the first screen version of Raymond Chandler's The High Window, released in 1942 as Time to Kill. She was one of the passengers of Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944). Her film appearances in the following years were few, but she returned to Hollywood to provide voices for the Walt Disney animated films Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953).

She later played a continuing role in the television soap opera Peyton Place from 1964 until 1965. After that role, she played Miss Faversham, a nanny and a female friend of Sebastian Cabot's character of Giles French in the situation comedy Family Affair.

Angel was married to Robert B. Sinclair (1905–1970), a film and television director. On 4 January 1970, an intruder broke into their home; when Sinclair attempted to protect Angel, the intruder killed Sinclair in Angel's presence, then fled. The incident is believed to have been a failed burglary.

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for her contributions to films, at 6312 Hollywood Boulevard.

Angel died from cancer in Santa Barbara, California, and was buried in Santa Barbara Cemetery.