Ivor Novello
Actor
Biography
Ivor Novello (born David Ivor Davies; 15 January 1893 – 6 March 1951) was a Welsh composer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century, on both screen and stage.
He was born into a musical Cardiff family and his mother, Clara Novello Davies, was an internationally known singing teacher and choral conductor. As a child, Novello was a successful singer in various eisteddfodau throughout the country. He was educated privately in Cardiff and then in Gloucester and later won a scholarship to Magdalen College School in Oxford.
The family moved to London in 1913 and here Novello's career flourished. In 1914, at the start of World War II, he wrote the words to his most popular song, "Keep the Home Fires Burning".
Novello lived in a flat above the Strand Theatre, where he remained until his death in 1951.
Since 1955 the internationally prestigious The Ivor Novello Awards ("The Ivors") for songwriting and composing are annually awarded by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA).
Filmography
Downhill
as Roddy Berwick 1927
The Lodger
as Michel Angeloff 1932
The White Rose
as Joseph 1923
I Lived with You
as Prince Felix Lenieff 1933
The Bohemian Girl
as Thaddeus 1922
The Triumph of the Rat
as Pierre Boucheron, 'the Rat' 1926
The Return of the Rat
as Pierre Boucheron 1929
Once a Lady
as Bennett Cloud 1931
Autumn Crocus
as Andreas Steiner 1934
The Man Without Desire
as Count Vittorio Dandolo 1923
The Vortex
as Nicky Lancaster 1928
Sleeping Car
as Gaston 1933
Carnival
as Count Andrea Scipione 1921
The Constant Nymph
as Lewis Dodd 1928
A South Sea Bubble
as Vernon Winslow 1928
The Rat
as Pierre Boucheron 1925