Muriel Angelus

Muriel Angelus

1909-03-10

Biography

The memories are vague when it comes to recalling this London-born leading lady, but Muriel Angelus did have her moments. She managed to appear in a few classic Broadway musical shows and Hollywood films before her early retirement in the mid-1940s. Of Scottish parentage, the former Muriel Findlay developed a sweet-voiced soprano at an early age. She made her singing debut at 12, eventually changing her name and becoming a popular music hall performer. She entered films toward the end of the silent era with The Ringer (1928), the first of three movie versions of the Edgar Wallace play. Her second film Sailor Don't Care (1928) was important only in that she met her first husband, Scots-born actor John Stuart. Her part was excised from the film. Though in her first sound picture Night Birds (1930), she got to sing a number, most of her films did not usurp her musical talents. The sweet-natured actress who played both ingenues and 'other woman' roles co-starred with husband Stuart in No Exit (1930), Eve's Fall (1930) and Hindle Wakes (1931), and appeared with British star Monty Banks in some of his farcical comedies, including My Wife's Family (1932) and So You Won't Talk (1935). Muriel received a career lift with the glossy musical London hit "Balalaika" and a chain of events happened with its success. It led to her securing the pivotal role of Adriana in "The Boys From Syracuse" and, in turn, a contract with Paramount Pictures. Divorced from Stuart by this time, Muriel settled in Hollywood and made her best films while there. She was touching as girlfriend to blind painter Ronald Colman in The Light That Failed (1939), a second remake of the Rudyard Kipling novel, and appeared to great advantage in Preston Sturges' classic satire The Great McGinty (1940) as _Brian Donlevy_'s secretary. After scoring another long-running Broadway hit with "Early To Bed" in 1943, Muriel met Radio City Music Hall orchestra conductor Paul Lavalle while appearing on radio in New York and married him in 1946. She retired to raise a family in New England. They had a daughter, Suzanne, who later worked for NBC. Muriel pretty much stayed out of the limelight for the remainder of her life. She died at 95 in a Virginia nursing home in 2004, some seven years after her husband's death.

Also appears in

The Great McGinty

The Great McGinty

7.0

The Way of All Flesh

The Way of All Flesh

4.0

The Light That Failed

The Light That Failed

6.0

Let’s Love and Laugh

Let’s Love and Laugh

Not yet rated

Safari

Safari

4.0

The Ringer

The Ringer

Not yet rated

Red Aces

Red Aces

Not yet rated

Detective Lloyd

Detective Lloyd

Not yet rated

My Wife’s Family

My Wife’s Family

Not yet rated

Eve’s Fall

Eve’s Fall

Not yet rated

Hindle Wakes

Hindle Wakes

Not yet rated

Night Birds

Night Birds

2.0

No Exit

No Exit

Not yet rated

So You Won’t Talk

So You Won’t Talk

Not yet rated