Andree Melly was born on the 15th of September 1932 in Liverpool at 22 Ivanhoe Road L17 but her arrival required a larger home and they moved a short distance to 14 Sandringham Drive L17. Her eldest brother George Melly was born at The Grange, St Michael's Hamlet, Toxteth 6 years earlier. Her father was the wool broker Francis Heywood Melly and (Edith) Maud, née Isaac was her Jewish mother who once dreamed of a career on stage and did remain a leading figure in Liverpool amateur dramatics. She made her stage début aged nine at the Little Theatre, Southport and on leaving Belvedere High School, she attended Mon Fertile, a Swiss finishing school, then acted in repertory theatre. She was on stage from 1952 at the Bristol Old Vic where she worked with Peter Finch and Robert Donat, appearing in 'Romeo and Juliet', 'The Merchant of Venice' and T.S. Eliot's 'Murder in the Cathedral'. She divided her work between stage, TV and films during this period appearing in 'The Belles of St. Trinian's' (1954), 'ITV Television Playhouse' (1955) and replaced Moira Lister as Tony Hancock's French speaking 'girlfriend' in series 2 and 3 of 'Hancock's Half Hour' on BBC radio (1955-56). At the time of her death she was the last surviving cast member.
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| In 'The Brides of Dracula' |
In 1958, she appeared with the Jamaican actor Lloyd Reckord in the Ted Willis play ''Hot Summer Night', a production which was later adapted for the Armchair Theatre series (1959) in which she was involved in the earliest known interracial kiss on television, as well as being the first interracial kiss on a British stage before the the play was made for ITV’s Armchair Theatre slot the following year. She is probably best known for her role as a vampire in Hammer's 'The Brides of Dracula' (1960). Her role in the film was as Gina, a woman who is bitten by Baron Meinster, a vampire, who when Gina is alone, appears in her room and drains her of her blood. She also appeared in 'The Horror of It All' (1964). Her other stage work included the original West End production of the farce 'Boeing-Boeing' at the Apollo Theatre (1962) with David Tomlinson and then as Alice 'Childie' McNaught in 'The Killing of Sister George' at St Martin's in 1966. From 1967 to 1976, she was a regular panellist in the BBC radio comedy 'Just A Minute' in which, along with Sheila Hancock, she was one of the most regular female contestants, appearing in fifty-four episodes between 1967 and 1976. She chaired an episode as our contribution to the women's liberation movement' in 1972 and was the first panellist to win points for talking for the prescribed 60 seconds without hesitation, repetition or deviation and was in two episodes (and one with previously unaired material) of "The Benny Hill Show" in 1971. She continued to appear on British television until 1991.
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| In 'The Benny Hill Show' |
She once had a relationship with artist Lucien Freud, and later married actor Oscar Quitak after meeting him at Elstree Studios when they were filming the romantic Second World War drama 'So Little Time' in 1952. During the 1970s the couple ran a health food shop in Cranleigh in Surrey producing most of the produce from their own smallholding where they kept hens, ducks and geese. They later moved to Ibiza. Spain where they lived for three decades. Sadly, Andrée passed away peacefully in her home in St Eulalia, Ibiza on the 31st of January, 2020, aged 87, survived by her husband Oscar, daughter Natasha and son Mark. Her death was marked with a small notice in the Daily Telegraph, which noted: '[She] died peacefully at her home in St Eulalia, Ibiza on 31st January, aged 87. Her husband Oscar, daughter Natasha and son Mark, were all with her. Her cremation, and a loving memorial gathering on a sunny day by the Mediterranean, has taken place. She was much loved and will be greatly missed.'
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/09/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-ronald.html
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