Maxine Audley

Maxine Audley (29 April 1923 – 23 July 1992) was an English theatre and film actress. She made her professional stage debut in July 1940 at the Open Air Theatre. Audley performed with the Old Vic company and the Royal Shakespeare Company many times. She appeared in more than 20 films, the first of which was the 1948 adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina. Biography Maxine Audley was born in London on 29 April 1923. Her parents were Henry Julius Hecht and Katherine Arkandy, a coloratura soprano. Audley attended the Westonbirt School in Gloucestershire. She trained for the stage at the Tamara Daykharhanova School in New York City and the London Mask Theatre School. Audley was married four times, to the pianist Leonard Cassini, to company manager Andrew Broughton, to Frederick Granville the impresario, with whom she had a daughter, Deborah Jane, and to Glasgow born actor Leo Maguire 1938-1992 (not to be confused with Irish songwriter of the same name). Audley died in London on 23 July 1992. Stage work Audley made her first professional stage appearance in July 1940 at the Open Air Theatre in a walk-on role in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. From 1940 to 1942, Audley performed with repertory companies in Tonbridge, Maidenhead and Birmingham. She again performed at the Open Air Theatre in 1942 and 1943, appearing in such roles as Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice and Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night's Dream. After the Second World War, Audley toured with the Old Vic company in Arms and the Man and made her West End theatre debut in the 1948 musical Carissima.