- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJessie Margaret Matthews
- Nicknames
- The Dancing Divinity
- The English Ginger Rogers
- Height5′ 5″ (1.65 m)
- Born to a huge, poor family in Soho in London's West End, Jessie Matthews became a big stage star in the late 1920s and 1930s, enjoying some crossover success in musical films. Her career never quite relaunched after the war, though, but she staged a comeback when she replaced the lead actress in the radio soap "Mrs Dale's Diary" in the 1960s. Her life was blighted by breakdowns of relationships and her own struggles with bad health and insecurity, and she wound up, amazingly, buried in an unmarked grave (only rectified after a TV documentary in the late 1980s brought this to light--beg, steal or borrow a copy of BBC's Timewatch (1982) documentary series episode "Catch A Fallen Star"). An amazing life.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Pete Lambert <[email protected]> (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)
- SpousesBrian Lewis(August 1945 - October 1959) (divorced)Sonnie Hale(January 24, 1931 - July 3, 1944) (divorced, 1 child)Henry Lytton Jr.(February 17, 1926 - November 21, 1929) (divorced)
- Was a personal friend of Cole Porter who had written many of his most famous songs in honor of her.
- Plans for her to sing and dance on the silver screen with Fred Astaire never came to fruition. She was first choice to co-star in A Damsel in Distress (1937), playing the part which eventually went to the non-dancing Joan Fontaine.
- She was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1970 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to drama.
- 'The Jessie Matthews Bar' is situated in the Adelphi Theatre, London, England, UK.
- Cousin of Belle Bennett.
- If I ceased to be a star, all that interest in my home life would evaporate, I believe. Perhaps it is the price one has to pay for being a star.
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