Micheline Patton

Micheline Patton (1912 – 30 June 2001) was an Irish actress who worked on radio, stage and television from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s.

Micheline Patton, c. 1938

Biography

Micheline Elizabeth Patton was born in Belfast in 1912, and died on 30 June 2001 in Godalming, Surrey. Her father was Billy Patton, a surgeon.^[1] She went to school in Malvern Girls' College, and studied Modern History at St Hugh's College, Oxford, graduating in 1935.^[2][3] One of her cousins was the Irish playwright, BBC producer and war correspondent Denis Johnston.^[1][4]

Radio

Between 1935 and 1947, Patton read several short stories for BBC Radio, including works by Katherine Mansfield,^[5] Anton Chekhov,^[6] and Helen Colvill.^[7] She acted in radio plays, including playing the role of Winifred in the 1947 BBC Radio adaptation of In Chancery from The Forsyte Saga.^[8]

Television

Patton acted in early BBC television broadcasts. In December 1937, she appeared in a backless dress in the final episode of the early fashion documentary Clothes-Line. Patton was viewed from behind, giving an illusion of nudity, which led to outraged viewers writing in to complain.^[9] The episode was titled Grandmamma Looks Back, inspiring the copresenter Pearl Binder's quip, "Grandmamma looks back but Micheline has no back to be seen."^[9]

She went on to appear in a November 1938 adaptation of Robert J. Flaherty's book The Captain's Chair (produced as The Last Voyage of Captain Grant) and in July 1939, a drama based on the Parnell Commission.

In 1947 Patton had a small role in Weep for the Cyclops, a biographical 1947 television drama on Jonathan Swift, which was written and produced by her cousin Denis Johnston.^[4]

Patton's final recorded BBC appearance was in 1958, with a role in The Ordeal of Christabel Pankhurst.

Theatre

Patton's best received role was probably as Emily Brontë in The Brontës, by Alfred Sangster, produced by the Sheffield Repertory Company.^[10] She played this role from 1946–1949, receiving generally good notices. in 1946 a reviewer for the Brontë Society noted that Patton was so "exceptionally good that one suspected (perhaps too artlessly) a spiritual affinity. What strength that pale, frigid face reflected!"^[11] A reviewer for Punch commented on the "interesting" Patton's ability to "suggest dark churnings of the soul."^[12] Less enthusiastically, in 1947, a reviewer for Theatre World commented "Micheline Patton does all that could be done with her material," calling the part "poorly written."^[10]

1936 on the London stage

• Stubble Before Swords at Globe
• A Bride for the Unicorn at Westminster Theatre

1940 in Dublin

• Roly Poly (Boule de Suif) was withdrawn under Wartime Emergency Legislation (1745 Act).^[13]

1941 in Belfast

• The Passing of the Third Floor Back (Jerome K. Jerome) was concurrent with the first Luftwaffe air-raid

1944–1945 in various provincial Scottish theatres

• Dundee Repertory Theatre
  • The Patsy
  • The Housemaster
  • A Soldier for Christmas
  • Seven Bottles for the Maestro
• Perth Repertory Theatre
  • Charley's Aunt
  • Androcles and the Lion
  • Caste
  • Hamlet
  • Sheppey

1946 English provincial theatre

• Bristol Old Vic
  • Weep for the Cyclops

1946–1949 Sheffield Repertory Theatre and touring – most saliently, St James Theatre London

• The Brontes

1949 London Players

• Aftermath

1950 St James Theatre

• Venus Observed

1951 Citizens Theatre Glasgow

• As You Like It

1954 Hythe Summer Theatre

• The Powder Magazine

1957 Piccadilly Theatre

• The Rape of the Belt

1960 Richmond Theatre

• Gracious Living

Film

Patton appeared as Mrs. Broome in The Yellow Teddy Bears in 1963.^[14]

Notes