(Poor) Kay Kendall Appreciation Thread

Beautiful and talented. RIP dear Lady.

I try to appreciate her without the haze of sentiment and nostalgia.

She looked like a model (except for her nose which was a little too long).

She was a comedienne and surrounded herself with homosexuals.

This article has some fabulous pictures of poor Kay

1. alongside balding husband Rex Harrison

2. and with Lauren Bacall at that kitchen-sink thing called 'Look Back In Anger'.

I thought Palmer was relieved that Kay came along to take Rex off her hands. She had had enough of him at that point.

Lilli Palmer (nee Peiser) was a hard-nosed émigré in the 30s who was probably using Rex to to integrate into the British establishment and, as you say R4, was probably eager for Kay to take Rex off her hands when she had landed a bigger fish—

[quote]r4 I thought Palmer was relieved that Kay came along to take Rex off her hands. She had had enough of him at that point.

Yes, and no. Palmer had a 13-year-old son with Rex Harrison and didn't want their marriage to be broken up, even though one of his mistresses (Carole Landis) had previously suicided on them, driving them to leave Hollywood.

According to her, Harrison only asked for the divorce on the condition Palmer would take him back after Kendall died in a few years. (The lukemia had already been diagnosed, though the doctor made Harrison agree neither would inform Kendall of it.) Palmer agreed to the divorce, even though she knew too much time would have passed by the time he came back. Yet she felt it wasn't something you could really say no to, as it was a really unforeseeable, one-of-a-kind situation. Plus, she might have been freaked out that Landis had killed herself when Harrison left her, and she feared Kendall would do so, as well.

Lilli Palmer wrote a really intelligent autobiography in 1975 called CHANGE LOBSTERS AND DANCE, in addition to a good novel called THE RED RAVEN. (She later wrote two other novels called A TIME TO EMBRACE and NIGHT MUSIC, which I haven't read.) She's much more articulate and insightful than your run-of-the-mill star. And she acknowledged that she liked Kendall when they met, despite not wanting to.

Palmer also did something interesting in the early 1950s. She had a 15 minute TV show where she interviewed guests she was interested in, and would line up herself.

I don't know if any other performer did that so early.

With dear, dear Angela (THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE, 1958)

Kendall's only Broadway credit is a single night in 1957, where she filled in as the Queen of Transylvania (a small role) in Harrison's "My Fair Lady".

[italic]Coincidence??

Noelie adored Kay Kendall.

He said she could play all those parts that Gertrude Lawrence originated.

I remember her in Genevieve

Her face reminds me of a '50s Barbie doll, the ones that came with the hard molded plastic eyelashes. Side-Eye Barbie is a ready-to- fight little bitch!

She was a natural comedienne. She couldn't play conventional heroines.

autograph

Poor Kay is wearing this tiny leotard