Kirkwood, Pat

▪ 2008

Patricia Kirkwood 

      British actress

born Feb. 24, 1921, Pendleton, Lancashire, Eng.

died Dec. 25, 2007, Ilkley, West Yorkshire, Eng.

was one of the West End's liveliest and most glamorous musical stars in the 1940s and '50s. Kirkwood appeared in such plays as Noel Coward's Ace of Clubs (1950), which he wrote especially for her, and Hay Fever (1970), as well as the 1955 London production of Leonard Bernstein's Wonderful Town. She made her professional debut at age 14 and achieved stardom with the musical Black Velvet (1939), in which she sang Cole Porter's “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.” Kirkwood remained active for more than 60 years, performing in revues and cabaret shows and taking both straight and musical roles in movies and on television, notably on The Pat Kirkwood Show (1954). Her one-woman show, An Evening with Pat Kirkwood, was staged in 1981. In her autobiography, The Time of My Life (1999), Kirkwood vehemently denied long-standing rumours of a youthful romance with Queen Elizabeth II's husband, Prince Philip.

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