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Artefacts belonging to Fenella Fielding go on show in London
Friend and biographer Simon McKay has been cataloguing the actress's collection since her death in 2018
Fenella Fielding’s famous false eyelashes, along with frocks, wigs and even wallpaper from her Marble Arch penthouse are going on show in London this week.
They are being exhibited by Simon McKay, who met the actress famous for her sexy voice at a Pilates class and spent the nights before her death on the floor of her hospital room.
The psychotherapist-turned-biographer, as dazzled by her as Cecil Beaton, Dirk Bogarde and Federico Fellini, who came to Claridge’s after seeing her on stage to offer the actress a film role she turned down, has been planning a celebration of her life since cataloguing her vast collection in 2018: “After Fenella died I sorted through her things… it felt like she was still there telling me new stories.”
And the eyelashes, which she only removed reluctantly for a Cecil Beaton shoot, spoke loudest, he confesses: “I found them in the strangest places – a credit card wallet, a jewellery case and the last pair in the bottom of a gift bag. They felt like a gorgeous, rather knowing, present to me.”
Frocks on display include the voluminous peignoir in which she was photographed for Harper’s Bazaar. The wallpaper is the last relic of the penthouse the actress was forced to sell when she went broke, living briefly on benefits.
Dear Fenella… 90 Years, 90 Letters , the book accompanying the exhibition, celebrates the 90-year life of the former Fenella Feldman, starting with a letter from the Red Cross, for whom she organised a wartime fundraising concert at her parents’ home in Edgware at 13.
It is followed by a job offer from the local paper, briefly taken up before the actress went full-tilt for the acting career her parents did their best to talk her out of. She won a RADA scholarship and hit the West End within a decade, mentored by Miriam Karlin. Composer Sandy Wilson reassured her after a rare flop, followed by big hit in his musical Valmouth, saying: “You will never have to consider becoming a manicurist again”.
Laurence Olivier invited Fenella to sing and dance in his Night of 100 Stars at the Palladium, while Noel Coward, in whose musical version of Blithe Spirit she was cast, sacked her as “a bloody nuisance who needs knocking on the head fairly regularly”. Bernard Miles did not agree, offering her serious roles at the Mermaid Theatre; she went on to play Hedda Gabler (opposite Ian McKellen) and Colette before returning to her comfort zone in comedy.
Most poignant of the letters is an apology from the mother who never stopped discouraging her daughter and finally said sorry shortly before her death. Also revealed is the psychological assessment her father forced her to undertake at 16 in the hope of talking her out an acting career (the assessor disagreed, strongly recommending drama training).
Despite decades of film, television, theatre and advertising success, the Carry On star was forced to claim benefits in 1981, revealed for the first time in the book as a curt note from the DHSS enclosing unemployment cheques. And most pathetic of all is the 2018 invitation from Buckingham Palace to receive her OBE; the actress died before she could get there.
Fenella Fielding: Onstage, Offstage is at Gallery 286, Earls Court 31 October 14 December. fenellafielding.com
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