Alma Lawton

Alma Drucilla Fleetwood Lawton was a Hollywood-based, Argentine-born actress who performed in films, on television, and on old-time radio.

Early life and career

Born in Buenos Aires to English parents, Lawton appears to have spent her formative years divided primarily between Argentina and Chile. She was the younger of two children born to Alfred Edward Fleetwood Lawton, general manager of Cable & Wireless plc, and Alma Drucilla Fleetwood Lawton Sr., herself a onetime music hall comedienne. Prior to beginning her radio career, Lawton reportedly performed in Great Britain, Australia and South America.
Evidently, the younger Lawton inherited her mother's diminutive stature, the latter having been described in 1912 as "the little British singing comedienne," while the former, at age 31, was dubbed "a diminutive redhead," who, aside from her "stage background in England and Australia," was "distinguished by her height of five feet weigh 92 pounds." On the other hand, Joe Hyams of the Citizen-News, while likewise documenting Lawton's modest dimensions, adds that "hat she lacks in size, Alma makes up for in talent, proving again that good things come in small packages."
On November 3, 1947, Lawton made her American radio debut on Lux Radio Theatre, in "Singapore," an original radio drama starring Fred MacMurray and Ava Gardner. Later that month, she costarred with Wally Maher in "Body Off Billingsgate" on The Whistler, and on December 8, she did another Lux episode, as part of a large ensemble supporting Robert Montgomery, Wanda Hendrix and Thomas Gomez, reprising their starring roles in Ride the Pink Horse.
The following spring, Lawton was tasked by Samuel Goldwyn with helping Teresa Wright achieve a reasonably authentic English accent.

Radio

Film and television

Personal life

As of no later than April 1950, Lawton was married to fellow actor Donald Morrison. In May 1951, the couple had their names legally changed; hers, from Morrison back to Lawton, and his from Ivan Donald Morrison—which was, in fact, the Americanized version of his birth name, Isaac Morduchovitch—to Donald Albert Fleetwood Lawton. Donald Lawton died on October 18, 1990.
For a period, Lawton supported her parents financially. In 1953, she appeared with her parents in court in Los Angeles, California, as they sued her estranged brother Fleetwood Lawton, a news commentator, for financial support.