Mary Jerrold

Mary Jerrold was a prominent British film and stage actress. She performed in the London theatre from 1896 until 1954 and was perhaps most famous for her long run in ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ at the Strand Theatre during WWII. Her film credits comprise 40 films, 4 TV films and 3 TV series between 1916 and 1955.

She was born Mary Jerrold Allen on 4 Dec 1877 in Bloomsbury, London, to an affluent middle-class family, with a strong literary and theatrical tradition on her mother’s side. Her mother Amy was the daughter of Henry Mayhew and Jane Matilda Jerrold. Mayhew was a prominent campaigning journalist, co-founder of ‘Punch’ and author of ‘London Labour and London Poor’, which has remained in print since publication in 1851. Jane Jerrold was the daughter of Douglas Jerrold, journalist, playwright, wit, and close friend of Dickens, Thackeray and other early Victorian writers. Mary Jerrold’s father, Philip Allen, was an agent in soft goods.

Mary Jerrold married the film actor Leonard Hubert Harben in 1905. Their daughter Joan Harben, born 1909, became famous in WWII for her role as Mona Lott in the wartime BBC show It’s That Man Again (ITMA). Their son Philip Harben, born 1906, was the first TV celebrity chef, starring in several BBC cookery series of the 1940s and 1950s, and was also a prolific author who helped to raise the standard of English domestic cooking.

There are 13 photographs of Mary Jerrold in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery and one portrait in the collection of the Garrick Club, London. She died on 3 March 1955, in London.




Filmography

Mary Jerrold - filmography

5 most recent films

The Queen Of Spades - 3.5 stars

5 highest-rated films

The Queen Of Spades - 3.5 stars

5 lowest-rated films

The Queen Of Spades - 3.5 stars

Most frequent co-stars

Yvonne Mitchell - 1 times - show films
Anton Walbrook - 1 times - show films
Edith Evans - 1 times - show films

Most frequent directors

Thorold Dickinson - 1 times - show films