Muriel Angelus

Kenangannya tidak jelas ketika mengingat wanita terkemuka kelahiran London ini, tetapi Muriel Angelus memang memiliki momennya. Dia berhasil tampil di beberapa pertunjukan musik klasik Broadway dan film Hollywood sebelum pensiun dini pada pertengahan 1940-an. Dari keturunan Skotlandia, mantan Muriel Findlay mengembangkan suara sopran yang merdu pada usia dini. Dia memulai debut menyanyinya pada usia 12 tahun, akhirnya mengubah namanya dan menjadi pemain aula musik yang populer. Dia memasuki dunia film menjelang akhir era bisu dengan The Ringer (1928), yang pertama dari tiga versi film drama Edgar Wallace. Film keduanya Sailor Don't Care (1928) menjadi penting karena ia bertemu dengan suami pertamanya, aktor kelahiran Skotlandia John Stuart. Perannya dikeluarkan dari film. Meskipun dalam film bersuara pertamanya Night Birds (1930), ia sempat menyanyikan beberapa lagu, sebagian besar filmnya tidak merampas bakat musiknya. Aktris manis yang memainkan peran ingenues dan 'wanita lain' ini bermain bersama suaminya Stuart dalam No Exit (1930), Eve's Fall (1930) dan Hindle Wakes (1931), dan tampil bersama bintang Inggris Monty Banks dalam beberapa komedi lucunya, termasuk My Wife's Family (1932) dan So You Won't Talk (1935). Muriel menerima peningkatan karier dengan musikal hit London "Balalaika" dan serangkaian peristiwa terjadi dengan kesuksesannya. Hal ini menyebabkan dia mendapatkan peran penting Adriana dalam "The Boys From Syracuse" dan, pada gilirannya, kontrak dengan Paramount Pictures. Bercerai dari Stuart saat ini, Muriel menetap di Hollywood dan membuat film terbaiknya selama di sana. Dia sangat menyentuh sebagai pacar pelukis buta Ronald Colman dalam The Light That Failed (1939), remake kedua dari novel Rudyard Kipling, dan muncul dalam sindiran klasik Preston Sturges The Great McGinty (1940) sebagai sekretaris _Brian Donlevy_. Setelah mencetak hit Broadway lainnya dengan "Early To Bed" pada tahun 1943, Muriel bertemu konduktor orkestra Radio City Music Hall Paul Lavalle saat tampil di radio di New York dan menikah dengannya pada tahun 1946. Dia pensiun untuk membesarkan keluarga di New England. Mereka memiliki seorang putri, Suzanne, yang kemudian bekerja untuk NBC. Muriel tidak menjadi pusat perhatian selama sisa hidupnya. Dia meninggal pada usia 95 tahun di panti jompo Virginia pada tahun 2004, sekitar tujuh tahun setelah kematian suaminya.

The memories are vague when it comes to recalling this London-born leading lady, but Muriel Angelus did have her moments. She managed to appear in a few classic Broadway musical shows and Hollywood films before her early retirement in the mid-1940s. Of Scottish parentage, the former Muriel Findlay developed a sweet-voiced soprano at an early age. She made her singing debut at 12, eventually changing her name and becoming a popular music hall performer. She entered films toward the end of the silent era with The Ringer (1928), the first of three movie versions of the Edgar Wallace play. Her second film Sailor Don't Care (1928) was important only in that she met her first husband, Scots-born actor John Stuart. Her part was excised from the film. Though in her first sound picture Night Birds (1930), she got to sing a number, most of her films did not usurp her musical talents. The sweet-natured actress who played both ingenues and 'other woman' roles co-starred with husband Stuart in No Exit (1930), Eve's Fall (1930) and Hindle Wakes (1931), and appeared with British star Monty Banks in some of his farcical comedies, including My Wife's Family (1932) and So You Won't Talk (1935). Muriel received a career lift with the glossy musical London hit "Balalaika" and a chain of events happened with its success. It led to her securing the pivotal role of Adriana in "The Boys From Syracuse" and, in turn, a contract with Paramount Pictures. Divorced from Stuart by this time, Muriel settled in Hollywood and made her best films while there. She was touching as girlfriend to blind painter Ronald Colman in The Light That Failed (1939), a second remake of the Rudyard Kipling novel, and appeared to great advantage in Preston Sturges' classic satire The Great McGinty (1940) as _Brian Donlevy_'s secretary. After scoring another long-running Broadway hit with "Early To Bed" in 1943, Muriel met Radio City Music Hall orchestra conductor Paul Lavalle while appearing on radio in New York and married him in 1946. She retired to raise a family in New England. They had a daughter, Suzanne, who later worked for NBC. Muriel pretty much stayed out of the limelight for the remainder of her life. She died at 95 in a Virginia nursing home in 2004, some seven years after her husband's death.