
Acting
Jessie Matthews
Born — Died
1907-03-11 — 1981-08-19
Place of birth
London, England, UK
Known for
Acting
Credits
33 titles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jessie Matthews, OBE (11 March 1907 – 19 August 1981) was an English actress, dancer and singer of the 1920s and 1930s, whose career continued into the post-war period. After a string of hit stage musicals and films in the mid-1930s, Matthews developed a following in the USA, where she was dubbed "The Dancing Divinity". Her British studio was reluctant to let go of its biggest name, which resulted in offers for her to work in Hollywood being repeatedly rejected. Matthews' first major film role was in Out of the Blue (1931). She was in two films directed by Albert de Courville, The Midshipmaid (1932) and There Goes the Bride (1932). Matthews enjoyed g…
Known for
6.8A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars.
Tales of the Unexpected
1979
7.0ITV Playhouse is a British comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a format that would inspire Dramarama. Actors appearing in the series included Leslie Anderson, Gwen Nelson, Ricky Alleyne, Pat Heywood, Michael Elphick, Ian Hendry, Edward Woodward, Margaret Lockwood, Jessie Matthews and Lloyd Peters.
ITV Playhouse
1967
Jubilee 1977 is a thirteen-part 1977 BBC One television limited series produced by Pieter Rogers, an anthology centred around the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the accession on Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. It was celebrated with large-scale parties and parades in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth throughout 1977, culminating in June with the official 'Jubilee Days', held to coincide with the Queen's Official Birthday.
Jubilee 1977
1977
6.440 Minutes was a BBC TV documentary strand broadcast on BBC Two between 1981 and 1994. The documentaries could be on any possible subject, the only connection being that they last forty minutes. Some documentaries in the original series were revisited and updated in a 2006 version, Forty Minutes On.
40 Minutes
1981
6.8While still the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII meets the married American socialite, Wallis Simpson. Their relationship causes furor in the palace and in parliament, especially when King George V dies, Mrs. Simpson gets divorced, and King Edward announces his intention to marry her.
Edward and Mrs Simpson
1978
6.4A boy, no bigger than a thumb, manages to outwit two thieves determined to make a fortune from him.
Tom Thumb
1958
Film credits
1980s · 2 titles
An elderly widow women named Hazel lives in a farmhouse full of antiques. When a conman named Merv Pottinger arrives he persuades her into selling him a picture at a low price.
Tales of the Unexpected: A Picture of a Place
1980
NRA portrait of Jessie Matthews, a once famous British singer, dancer and film star
Catch a Fallen Star
1987
1970s · 4 titles
4.4When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
1978
10.0While still the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII meets the married American socialite, Wallis Simpson. Their relationship causes furor in the palace and in parliament, especially when King George V dies, Mrs. Simpson gets divorced, and King Edward announces his intentions to marry her.
Edward & Mrs. Simpson
1978
1956/57 - This episode reflects the Kim Philby spy affair.
Nanny's Boy
1977
When a new arrival, a titled lady no less, arrives to shatter the genteel status quo of the St. Elmo Hotel, the entrenched residents are soon sharpening up their knitting needles for battle.
The Winter Ladies
1979
1950s · 2 titles
1940s · 4 titles
7.5In World War II, American Gates Trimble Pomfret is in London during the Blitz to sell the ancestral family house. The current tenant, Leslie Trimble, tries to dissuade him from selling by telling him the 140-year history of the place and the connections between the Trimble and Pomfret families.
Forever and a Day
1943
A young couple prepare for post-war marriage. Propaganda short encouraging women to contribute to the war effort by investing in war loans through National Savings.
Victory Wedding
1944
Jessie Matthews relives, with Alvar Liddell an appreciative listener, the delights of a holiday spent in Devonshire.
Life Is Nothing Without Music
1947
5.4A rich but miserly old man taunts his relatives about who will get his money when he dies, and is soon mysteriously murdered. It turns out that he has left his estate to a beautiful young actress whom the other relatives didn't know was related to him. Several attempts on her life are thwarted by a detective, who sets out to discover who's behind the scheme to kill her.
Candles at Nine
1944
1930s · 14 titles
5.0According to the terms of a will two strangers must marry. Leila (Jessie Matthews) is an English widow, and Fergus (Ian Hunter) is a Canadian bachelor. Both are bequeathed a fortune, but there is a condition to receive it; the two must marry within a year. To aid matters, Leila disguises herself as Fergus' maid, and the two begin to fall in love. However, when Fergus discovers the truth, he is less than pleased by the deception.
The Man from Toronto
1933
5.4In Vienna, aspiring composer Johann Strauss Jr. clashes with his domineering father, who wants him to abandon music for a steady job in a bakery. Torn between his love for the baker’s daughter, Resi, and the encouragement of a wealthy countess, Strauss finds inspiration that leads to the creation of "The Blue Danube."
Waltzes from Vienna
1934
6.5Elaine Bradford is a young singer and dancer, looking for her big break. Peter Carlton is a gossip columnist facing a deadline and a blank page. So, Peter invents "Mrs. Smythe-Smythe", a mysterious Englishwoman who spends her days hunting tigers in India, jumping out of airplanes, and generally driving men mad with her beauty. Since no one in London has ever seen Mrs. Smythe-Smythe, Elaine decides to impersonate the lady, in hopes that the publicity will land her the big break she's been looking for.
It's Love Again
1936
6.4It is pouring with rain at one minute to midnight on Friday the thirteenth, and the driver of a London bus is peering through his blurred windscreen as his vehicle sails down an empty road. Suddenly, lightning strikes, and a vast crane above topples into the path of the oncoming bus... Then Big Ben begins to wind backwards. Time recedes. And we discover the lives of all the passengers and the events that brought them to that late-night bus journey, from the con-man with a hundred-pound cheque to the businessman's distraught and elderly wife. Time flows on, inevitably, to the crash -- and past it, as some live and some die.
Friday the Thirteenth
1933
6.5A businessman's daughter runs away from an arranged marriage, only to find herself penniless and suspected of theft after she becomes the victim of a bag thief in the train. When she refuses to tell him who she really is, her accuser decides to take her home where he can keep an eye on her until 12 o'clock the next day, the time at which she has calculated that it will be safe to tell the truth! But when his fiancée arrives unexpectedly and then his 'guest' is mistaken for her, it all gets rather embarrassing...
There Goes the Bride
1932
6.4Harriet Green, a beloved and radiant music hall star of the Edwardian era, mysteriously disappears on the eve of her wedding. Years later, she reappears on the stage as young looking and beautiful as ever.
Evergreen
1934
6.4An aspiring singer quits her menial job and is talked into performing as a female impersonator by her friend. Her drag act makes her famous, which causes problems for her when a very determined young man falls in love with her. A remake of the 1933 German film Viktor und Viktoria.
First a Girl
1935
6.4Film musical taken from JB Priestley's novel about three musicians joining together to save a failing concert party, the Dinky Doos.
The Good Companions
1933
8.0Impoverished aristocrat's daughter Tommy Tucker is in love with radio announcer Bill Coverdale, but he is engaged to her more glamorous sister Angela, who he does not love. Seeking escape from this hopeless situation, and her life of genteel poverty, Tommy flees abroad to Biarritz to become a nightclub singer.
Out of the Blue
1931
7.8A barge-owner's adopted daughter falls in love with his son, and gives up her chances of stardom to be with him.
Sailing Along
1938
7.1Wealthy Nicky finds himself engaged to gold-digger Lady Constance, but he really loves scatty model Diana. Complications, slapstick and mountaineering are the result.
Climbing High
1938
7.0Sir Percy Newbiggin visits the fleet to find ways to economize Naval expenditures. Daughter Celia tags along and organizes a morale-boosting show utilizing ship-board talent. Her fiancé shows up, and romantic complications ensue.
The Midshipmaid
1932
7.0Newspaper reporter becomes involved with gang of crooks who take her for a tough American gangster.
Gangway
1937
9.0Legendary British musical-comedy favorite Jessie Matthews chalks up another winner with Head Over Heels in Love. The ever-charming Matthews plays Jeanne, a Parisian entertainer who manages to get herself in hot water with the French version of Actors' Equity and is forced to take a series of jobs under a series of assumed names. Meanwhile, a romantic triangle involving American film star Norma (Helen Whitney Bourne) and gangsters Pierre (Robert Flemyng) and Marcel (Louis Borrell) spells big trouble for all concerned -- including the plucky Jeanne. Highlighted by six sprightly song numbers, Head Over Heels in Love is our girl Jessie's vehicle all the way, and never mind the "main" plot. The film was directed by Sonnie Hale, who just so happened to be the star's husband.
Head Over Heels
1937
Series credits
6.8A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars.
Tales of the Unexpected
1979
7.0ITV Playhouse is a British comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a format that would inspire Dramarama. Actors appearing in the series included Leslie Anderson, Gwen Nelson, Ricky Alleyne, Pat Heywood, Michael Elphick, Ian Hendry, Edward Woodward, Margaret Lockwood, Jessie Matthews and Lloyd Peters.
ITV Playhouse
1967
Jubilee 1977 is a thirteen-part 1977 BBC One television limited series produced by Pieter Rogers, an anthology centred around the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the accession on Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. It was celebrated with large-scale parties and parades in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth throughout 1977, culminating in June with the official 'Jubilee Days', held to coincide with the Queen's Official Birthday.
Jubilee 1977
1977
6.440 Minutes was a BBC TV documentary strand broadcast on BBC Two between 1981 and 1994. The documentaries could be on any possible subject, the only connection being that they last forty minutes. Some documentaries in the original series were revisited and updated in a 2006 version, Forty Minutes On.
40 Minutes
1981
6.8While still the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII meets the married American socialite, Wallis Simpson. Their relationship causes furor in the palace and in parliament, especially when King George V dies, Mrs. Simpson gets divorced, and King Edward announces his intention to marry her.
Edward and Mrs Simpson
1978


