Renee Gertrude Gadd (22 June 1906 – 20 July 2003) was an Argentine-born British film actress.BFI Database entry She acted mostly in British films.
Early life Gadd was born on a ranch in Bahía Blanca, Argentina in 1908 to immigrants from Jersey.Sweet p. 87 Her father, Talbot Gadd, was a railway executive who abandoned the family, after which they moved to England in 1913. Gadd lived with her aunt and began to study dancing, working as a chorus girl in Brighton by the age of fourteen. In 1924, she was cast in a production of Hassan by the powerful theatrical agent Basil Dean, after which she appeared in several musical comedies, then straight plays after becoming a member of a Shakespearian company at Stratford-on-Avon. She enjoyed a series of successful West End roles. During this same period she acted, and had an affair, with Fred Astaire.Sweet pp. 87-88
Film career In 1931, Gadd signed a contract with British International Pictures and spent two years making films for them. Finding the various comedy films she was cast in uninspiring she behaved uncooperatively until she was released from her contract. In 1932, while working on the crime film White Face she began a tempestuous affair with her co-star Hugh Williams.Sweet p. 90 When her contract with British International expired in 1934 she followed Williams who had gone to Hollywood, but found he had a new lover. She appeared opposite him in the 1935 film David Copperfield, but returned to Britain the following year. Her career began to tail off and she appeared mostly in quota quickies and small roles in minor productions for the remainder of her career. Her final appearance was in the 1950 Ealing Studios film The Blue Lamp.Sweet pp. 91-92
Personal life and death Gadd married her first husband Guy Tooth, the youngest son of a family of Cork Street art dealers, in Westminster, in 1929. In 1932, Gadd began an affair with the actor Hugh Williams, which lasted until 1934, spelling the end of her marriage. In 1947, she married wealthy septuagenarian Henry "Harry" Hardman, a relationship that would also prove to be short-lived. Her third and final marriage was to insurance manager Joe Wilson in 1950. After his death, she settled in Hove in East Sussex, where she died aged 97.Obituary, independent.co.uk. Accessed 19 May 2024.
Partial filmography
Money for Nothing (1932) - Maid Josser Joins the Navy (1932) - Polly Aren't We All? (1932) - Kitty Lake The Bad Companions (1932) - Josie White Face (1932) - Janice Harman The Maid of the Mountains (1932) - Vittoria His Wife's Mother (1932) - Tony Happy (1933) - Pauline Letting in the Sunshine (1933) - Jane Uncertain Lady (1934) - Myra Spaulding The Love Captive (1934) - Valerie Loft David Copperfield (1935) - Janet The Crimson Circle (1936) - Millie Macroy Where's Sally? (1936) - Sally Tomorrow We Live (1936) - Patricia Gordon The Man in the Mirror (1936) - Miss Blake The Man Who Made Diamonds (1937) - Marianne Clothes and the Woman (1937) - Schoolmistress Brief Ecstasy (1937) - Marjorie Under a Cloud (1937) - Judy St. John Meet Mr. Penny (1938) - Mrs. Brown Murder in Soho (1939) - Woman in Police Station Unpublished Story (1942) - Miss Hartley They Came to a City (1944) - Mrs. Stritton Dead of Night (1945) - Mrs. Craig (segment "Linking Story") Frieda (1946) - Mrs. Freeman Good-Time Girl (1948) - Mrs. Parsons The Blue Lamp (1950) - Woman Driver (uncredited)
Citations The Stage, "Obituaries", 7 August 2003, p. 21
References
Bibliography Sweet, Matthew. Shepperton Babylon: The Lost Worlds of British Cinema. Faber and Faber, 2005.
External links