Trivia

The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, Surrey, England opened its doors in 1965 as a proud memorial to the much loved French actress who had made her home in nearby Effingham Common, and whose warmth, humour and talent gave her an unrivalled position on the English stage for forty-six years.

Studied piano at the Paris Conservatoire from the age of nine. Two years later, she performed public concert recitals.

She was a president of the League Against Cruel Sports from 1948 to 1951.

Screen, stage, television actress, and pianist.

In private life she always shied away from publicity, keeping the public and private sides of her life completely separate.

Throughout her long career she suffered few failures, the worst being "Colombe" in 1951 in which she was miscast as the cruel and bitter ageing actress.

She continued to be active on both stage and silver screen as well as appearing as a pianist at special events until shortly before her death in 1958.

She was educated in Paris and studied music at the Paris Conservatoire where, at age 12, she won the 1905 Premier Prix for her piano playing and also became an accomplished singer.

In 1920, Arnaud married the actor Hugh McLellan, son of C. M. S. McLellan.

She appeared before an audience for the first time in that role on 7th August, 1911, and was such a success in her stand-in appearances that she next won the leading role of Suzanne in "The Girl in the Taxi" opening at the Lyric theatre on 5th September, 1912. Again she was a big success marking the start of what would be a long and prosperous career, most of which would be spent in London.

In London she lived in a cottage at Eaton Mews and later for many years lived at Effingham Common, near Guildford (where today the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, which opened in 1965, is dedicated to her memory.).

All of her greatest successes came in comedy to which she was best suited.

Her ashes were scattered in the churchyard at St. Martha's Hill near Guildford, where there remains a small memorial stone on the church grounds.

Father: Charles L. Arnaud; Mother: Antoinette de Montegut.

Feted as a child prodigy, she spent the next several years touring in Europe and the USA where she performed with many of the leading orchestras of the day under conductors such as Gustav Mahler, Willem Mengelberg, and Edouard Colonne.

She occasionally performed as a pianist later in her career, for example, with the Hallé Orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli in Manchester in 1948.

An operation damaged her vocal cords, and so she switched from musicals to plays, beginning with the role of Louise Allington in the farce Tons of Money, which ran for nearly two years at the Shaftesbury Theatre from 1922.

She also turned her hand to 'straight' acting and first appeared in a Shakespearean role as Princess Katherine in "Henry V" at the Alhambra in January, 1934.

She was also the soloist at the premiere of Franz Reizenstein's pastiche Concerto Popolare at the 1956 Hoffnung Festival (having been chosen after Eileen Joyce declined).

She continued to act on stage well into the 1950s. In 1958 she appeared in the West End with Jack Hulbert in Ronald Millar's The Big Tickle.

Over the next few years she became a mainstay of the British film industry, including reprising other of her successful stage roles in "Tons of Money," "Cuckoo in the Nest" and "The Improper Duchess.".

In 1911 she played a series of concerts in England after which she decided to try her talents at musical comedy and, despite having had no special preparation for the stage, immediately secured an engagement as understudy to Elsie Spain in the role of Princess Mathilde in "The Quaker Girl" at the Adelphi Theatre - a remarkable achievement for a relative theatrical novice.

She appeared in a succession of musical comedies, farces and opera bouffe - making another notable success as Noisette in "Mam'selle Tralala" in 1914 (revived the following year as "Oh! Be Careful"), two revivals of "The Girl in the Taxi" (in 1913 and 1915), and Phrynette in "L'Enfent Prodigue" (where she also played the piano accompaniment at many performances).

She also appeared in numerous movies, making her silver-screen debut opposite Dennis Neilson Terry in the 1920 British production of Honore Balzac's "Desire".

In 1930 she achieved a unique "treble" playing Emma Melton in "Canaries Sometimes Sing" in London (The Globe), New York (Fulton's) and in another British movie.