Regina Jensen

Lore & Background

Brown's early film roles included three Powell and Pressburger films: her first screen part in One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942), a memorable supporting role in I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), and the fantasy film-opera The Tales of Hoffmann (1951). She played a bitter spinster in Personal Affair (1953) starring Gene Tierney. From the early 1950s, an arthritic condition that first appeared when she was sixteen made stage work difficult, restricting her mobility and causing great pain kept at bay by drugs.

Despite this, she was a notable success as Jennet in the London production of Christopher Fry's The Lady's Not For Burning (1949), opposite Richard Burton, Claire Bloom and John Gielgud, which transferred to Broadway for an extended run (1950–51). Time magazine wrote (20 November 1950): 'As the lady, Pamela Brown proves that Fry did not write the part for her in vain. No one has a more gloriously uppity charm; no voice can simultaneously so rasp and thrill; no one ever made standoffishness more come-hitherable.'

Reader's Guide

Brown can be heard as Gwendolyn on the 1953 recording of The Importance of Being Earnest with John Gielgud and Edith Evans, as Cleopatra in the Caedmon Records production of Antony and Cleopatra, and reading excerpts from Lady Chatterley's Lover. Her career demonstrates a transition from stage to screen as her arthritic condition progressed, yet she continued to take notable roles in major films through the 1960s and early 1970s. Her personal life was marked by her divorce from Peter Copley and her long partnership with Michael Powell, which lasted until her death.

Did You Know?

• She divorced her husband Peter Copley in February 1953 for infidelity and later remarried in 1960 while he was still alive, despite her devout Roman Catholic faith.
• Brown died from pancreatic cancer in September 1975, aged 58, and was buried in Holy Cross churchyard, Avening, Gloucestershire.