Margaret Lockwood Biography (1916

Added exclusive photos of Margaret's first & last homes (2008)

Born in India to a British railway clerk, Margaret Lockwood moved at the age of four in 1920 with her elder brother, Lyn and mother to Gipsy Hill, Upper Norwood, South London. She was educated at London's Italia Conti School. After training for an acting career at RADA (several years after her official stage debut at age 12), she made her first film in 1935, billed as Margie Day. After a series of inconsequential ingenues, she made her name as the female lead in the internationally successful comic thriller, The Lady Vanishes (1938, d. Alfred Hitchcock) for the same studio.

However, it was undoubtedly the 1940s melodramas that established her reputation, starting with her performance as the wicked Hesther in The Man in Grey and reaching a peak with the even more amoral Lady Barbara Skelton in The Wicked Lady (1945, d. Leslie Arliss), thrilling audiences with her shameless pilfering of her best friend's husband before turning to gambling and highway robbery.

This last performance in particular created an indelible impression and catapulted her to the top - in 1945 and 1946 she was unarguably the most popular homegrown female star in British cinema.

Her range was also rather wider than her two best-known roles suggest, as she also played the doomed concert pianist in Love Story (1944, d. Arliss), the nervy, haunted companion in A Place of One's Own (1945, d. Bernard Knowles) and the music-hall star in I'll Be Your Sweetheart (1945, d. Val Guest), though Bedelia (1946, d. Lance Comfort) capitalised on her popular image as a villainess by casting her as a serial-killing bride.

But after the war her career declined surprisingly rapidly. A final Gainsborough melodrama, Jassy (1947, d. Knowles) failed to recapture the old magic, though it did at least give her an opportunity to show off a whole wardrobe of vivid costumes in glorious Technicolor. But her later filmography is resolutely undistinguished, and from the mid-1950s onwards she worked almost exclusively in television. Awarded the CBE in 1981, she died a virtual recluse a decade later.

She was cremated at Putney Vale Cemetery, South London, not far from her home in Kingston. She isn't buried there as has been reported elsewhere.

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Trivia

Birth name
Margaret Mary Lockwood

Spouse
Rupert de Leon (17 October 1937 - 1949) (divorced) 1 child

Trivia
Mother of actress Julia Lockwood.

Used "Margie Day" briefly as her stage name at the very beginning of her stage career

Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where she was seen in a production and signed by a leading London agent.

In 1965 she co-starred in a popular British television "Flying Swan, The" (1965) with her actress/daughter Julia Lockwood.

Lived for many years with actor John Stone, who appeared with her in the 1959 play "And Suddenly It's Spring" and the 70s TV series "Justice" (1972).

Created CBE (Commander of the order of the British Empire) in 1980, which was her last public appearance. She lived in virtual reclusion until her death 10 years later.

From 1960 to her death in 1990, lived at Upper Park Road, Kingston Hill, UK (pictured here), which overlooks Richmond Park and is near to the Kingston Gate entrance of the park (you can find its location by clicking here).

There are plans to mark her residency in Upper Park Rd with a blue plaque. This can only come about 20 years after her death (2010).

In the 1940s she was 8 and a half stone, 5ft. 5in. high, 25 in. waist, 35 in. hips, 34 in. bust and took a five in shoes and six in gloves.

In the late 1990s, Kingston County Council named a street after her in the borough to celebrate its most famous resident. It is called Margaret Lockwood Close (pictures to follow) (you can find its location by clicking here).

Suffered from vestibulitis, a viral ear infection for much of her later life.

Named her daughter 'Julia' after Julius Caeser to commemorate her Caesarian operation.

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At the age of 4, in 1920, Margaret Lockwood moved from India with her mother and older brother, Lyn, to Upper Norwood by Gipsy Hill, Crystal Palace, South London. They rented first at 2 Lunham Road, in a large upstairs maisonette (pictured) and then moved into the next street, Highland Road, first at 18A and then to a bigger house at No. 30 in which they occupied the whole house. Unfortunately, Highland Rd was bombed during the war and though part of the road survived (pictured), Margaret's homes were lost. I have pictured what is there now (2008).

This attractive part of South London (with as pictured it's breathtaking views of the City of London) was in all her home for 17 years until her marriage in 1937 to Rupert Leon, when they moved to a flat in Dolphin Square, near Victoria.

I have photographed the surrounding area as well and if you click here you will see pictures of Crystal Palace Park which, in Margaret's day, dominated the whole neighbourhood. Here it was where her and her brother played though by the time they lived there the palace's fairy-tale reputation was a thing of the past. But they used it extensively and even today a visit to it will tell you why. It's a wonderful place though the actual Palace burned down in 1936 and all that remains are the terraces.

These photos are not to be used anywhere else without prior permission from me. Just e-mail any request.

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This was Margaret's last home at 34 Upper Park Road in Kingston, UK, by Richmond Park. She lived here from the 1960s right up to her death in 1990 and for the last 10 years or so virtually as a recluse.

These photos are not to be used anywhere else without prior permission from me. Just e-mail any request.