Sheridan Morley

Sheridan Morley
Born	Sheridan Morley (1941-12-05)5 December 1941 Ascot,Berkshire, England
Died	16 February 2007(2007-02-16)(aged 65) London, England
Nationality	British
Occupations	Broadcaster author biographer critic stage director
Spouses	Margaret Gudejko ​ ​ (m.1965;div.1990)​ Ruth Leon ​ (m.1995)​

Sheridan Morley(5 December 1941 − 16 February 2007) was an English author, biographer, critic and broadcaster. He was the official biographer of SirJohn Gielgudand wrote biographies of many other theatrical figures he had known, includingNoël Coward.Nicholas Kenyoncalled him a "cultural omnivore" who was "genuinely popular with people".

Early life

Sheridan Morley was born inAscot, Berkshire,in a nursing home oppositeAscot Racecourse,the eldest son of actorRobert Morleyand grandson, via his mother Joan Buckmaster, of the actress DameGladys Cooper.He was named after Sheridan Whiteside, the title role his father was playing in a long-running production ofThe Man Who Came to Dinnerat theSavoy TheatreinLondon.

He had close family connections with stars of the stage: in addition to his father and his maternal grandmother, his uncle was the actorJohn Buckmaster,his aunt Sally Pearson married the actorRobert Hardy,andJoanna Lumleywas a cousin. His godparents were the dramatistSewell Stokesand the actorPeter Bull;Morley's son Hugo was one ofNoël Coward's many godchildren.

Morley grew up inWargravein Berkshire, and in Hollywood and New York, where his father was working. His father placed an advertisement inThe Times,seeking a suitable school for his son: "Father with horrible memories of own schooldays at Wellington is searching for a school for his son, where the food matters as much as the education and the standards are those of a good three-star seaside hotel."

The successful reply came fromSizewell Hallin Suffolk, a coeducational preparatory school. This was owned and run in laissez-faire style by a Dutch Quaker, Harry Tuyn, although the story told in Morley's obituaries that subjects such as maths and Latin were not taught at Sizewell Hall on the grounds that they were too boring is untrue. Morley was well taught there in the full range of subjects. After the school closed in 1955, he followed the Tuyns toChâteau-d'Œx,Switzerland,as a private pupil.Having attended acrammerin Kensington High Street, Morley went on to read modern languages atMerton College, Oxford,from 1960,and became involved in student drama alongsideMichael York,David Wood,Sam Walters,andOliver Ford Davies.He graduated with third-class honours, and then spent a year teaching drama at theUniversity of Hawaii.

Career

Sheridan Morley worked as a late-night newscaster forITNfrom 1965, before moving to theBBCto presentLate Night Line-UpforBBC 2from 1967 to 1971, alongsideJoan BakewellandTony Bilbow.He also presentedFilm Nightfor BBC 2 in 1971 and 1972. He presentedKaleidoscopeforBBC Radio 4,and an innovatory arts programme forBBC Radio 2from 1990 to 2004.

He had begunThe Radio Two Arts Programmein April 1990. At first it consisted of three two-hour programmes a week: on Friday nights a regional show, on Sunday nights an arts documentary covering a single subject, and on Saturday nights the show which was to become the flagship of the series, a magazine programme tackling eight different subjects in every show, interspersed with at least eight related musical recordings. He then moved to a new programme format ofMelodies For Youin 2004, again on BBC Radio 2. He broadcast his lastMelodiesprogramme in November 2006, three months before his death in February 2007.

He also made frequent appearances as the guest in the Dictionary Corner for theChannel 4game showCountdown.

Morley's best-known work was his biography ofNoël Coward,A Talent to Amuse,first published in 1969. Coward gave his full blessing, providing Morley with a list of his friends, and another of his enemies, telling him to start with the second first – which would make for a better book.

Morley joinedThe Timesas deputy features editor in 1973, and then joinedPunchin 1975 as its drama critic and arts editor, remaining with the magazine until 1989. In the late 1980s, he became a regular arts diarist forThe Timesand was its TV critic from 1989 to 1990. He then worked as drama critic forThe Spectatorfrom 1990; he was replaced in 2001 byToby Young.Then, after a short period at theNew Statesman,where he gave way toMichael Portillo,he joined theDaily Expressin 2004, where he remained until 2007. Meanwhile, he was also a drama critic for theInternational Herald Tribunefrom 1979 to 2005, and film critic for theSunday Expressfrom 1992 to 1995. In 1990, he was Arts Journalist of the Year, and was also nominated for aGrammy.

His playNoël and Gertie,about Noël Coward andGertrude Lawrence,opened in London in 1986, starringSimon CadellandJoanna Lumley,and ran for nine years. It was performed in the US withHarry GroenerandTwiggyin the lead roles. He also wrote a show based on the songs ofVivian Ellis,Spread a Little Happiness,which played in 1992.

Morley's last work as a theatre director was in 1999 with a revival of Noël Coward'sA Song at Twilight,first atThe King's Head TheatreinIslington,and then at theGielgud Theatrein a West End run from October 1999 to March 2000, starringCorin Redgrave,Kika Markham,Mathew Bose,andVanessa Redgrave.

Legacy

Morley's life was posthumously celebrated on 22 May 2007 with a gala afternoon performance at the Gielgud Theatre,organised by his widow Ruth Leon, with contributions and performances by friends and colleagues, includingLiz Robertson,Edward Fox,Jenny Seagrove,Cameron Mackintosh,Patricia Hodge,Michael Law andAnnabel Leventon.

Morley's archive is held byKingston University,London.The Sheridan Morley Prize for Theatre Biography, last won byStephen Sondheimin 2012,was founded in his memory but ceased to function in 2014.

Personal life

Morley's first marriage was to Margaret Gudejko, whom he met in Hawaii,in 1965; the couple had three children together and divorced in 1990.Ruth Leon, the critic and television producer, became his second wife in 1995. Morley and Leon had known each other since 1960. She had gone to Oxford to meet a friend who was attending the university, and was introduced to Morley. The two maintained a platonic friendship from then on before, decades later, deciding to divorce their spouses and get married.In 2011, Leon published a memoir of her husband,But What Comes After...,in which she stated that Morley suffered astrokein November 2002, the effects of which exacerbated abipolar disorder.

Bibliography

Biographies

• A Talent to Amuse: A Biography ofNoël Coward,London: Heinemann, 1969.ISBN0-434-47895-4.Revised edition 1974; re-issued with a new Prologue, 1985. Later subtitled "The First Biography of Noël Coward".
• Oscar Wilde(1976)
• Marlene Dietrich(1977)
• Sybil Thorndike:A Life in the Theatre(1977)
• Gladys Cooper:Biography(1979)
• Gertrude Lawrence:A Bright Particular Star,London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1981.ISBN0-297-77882-X
• Katharine Hepburn,(1984)
• Ingrid Bergman(1985)
• Other Side of the Moon: The Life ofDavid Niven(1985)
• Elizabeth Taylor(1988)
• Odd Man Out: The Life ofJames Mason(1989)
• Robert:My Father,London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1993).
• Audrey Hepburn(1993)
• Shall We Dance: The Life ofGinger Rogers(1995)
• Gene Kelly(1996)
• Dirk Bogarde:Rank Outsider(1996)
• Marilyn Monroe(1998)
• Hey, Mr Producer(Cameron Mackintosh) (1998, with Ruth Leon)
• Judy Garland:Beyond The Rainbow(1999, with Ruth Leon)
• John Gielgud:The Authorized Biography,London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2001.ISBN0-340-36803-9

Theatre retrospectives and collected reviews

• Theatre 71: Plays, Players, Playwrights, Opera, Ballet,edited by Sheridan Morley (Hutchinson, 1971).ISBN0-09-109210-8
• Theatre 72,edited (Hutchinson, 1972).ISBN0-09-113780-2
• Theatre 73,edited (Hutchinson, 1973).ISBN0-09-117920-3
• Theatre 74,edited (Hutchinson, 1974).ISBN0-09-122290-7
• Review Copies: Plays & Players in London 1970-74(Robson Books, 1974).ISBN0-903895-25-0
• The Theatre Addict's Archive(Elm Tree Books, 1977).ISBN0-241-89806-4
• Shooting Stars: Plays and Players,1975-1983(Quartet Books, 1983).ISBN0-7043-2388-5
• Spread A Little Happiness: The First Hundred Years of the British Musical(Thames & Hudson, 1987).ISBN0-500-01398-5
• Our Theatres in the Eighties(John Curtis/Hodder & Stoughton, 1990).ISBN0-340-50979-1
• A Century of Theatre,with Ruth Leon (Oberon Books, 2000).ISBN1-84002-058-X
• Spectator at the Theatre: A decade of First Nights 1990-1999(Oberon Books, 2002).ISBN1-84002-247-7

Other works

• TheStephen SondheimSongbook(Chappel/Elm Tree Books, 1979).ISBN0-241-10176-X
• The Brits in Hollywood: Tales from the Hollywood Raj(UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1983).ISBN0-297-78289-4,also published asTales From The Hollywood Raj: The British, the Movies, and Tinseltown(New York: Viking, 1983).ISBN0-670-69162-3
• TheNoël CowardDiaries(withGraham Payn;Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1982).ISBN0-297-78142-1
• The Great Stage Stars(Angus & Robertson, Australia and UK, 1986)ISBN0-207-14970-4.Dedicated: "For Margaret whose book this really is.'"
• Theatrical Companion to Coward(second edition, with Barry Day, Oberon Books, 2000).ISBN1-84002-054-7
• Asking For Trouble,memoirs. (Hodder & Stoughton, 2002).ISBN0-340-82057-8
• An Evening with Sheridan Morley and Michael LawwithJudy Campbell(CD).[1]

References

• "Broadcaster and critic Sheridan Morley dies",The Times,16 February 2007
• "Broadcaster Sheridan Morley dies",BBC News,17 February 2007
• "'Insatiable curiosity' of Morley",BBC News, 17 February 2007
• Stanley Reynolds,"Sheridan Morley" (obituary),The Guardian,19 February 2007
• Obituary,The Independent,19 February 2007
• Profile by Norman Phillips

External links

• Sheridan MorleyatIMDb