Irene Handl


Irene Handl was a British character actress and novelist who appeared in more than 100 British films.

Life

Irene Handl was born in Maida Vale, London, the younger of two daughters of an Austrian-born father—Friedrich Handl and German mother, Marie. Both of Handl's parents became naturalised British citizens. Her father came to England via Switzerland and started as a bank clerk, before becoming a stockbroker, then became a private banker. He was also a descendant of the famous composer George Frideric Handel. The Handls lived a comfortable middle-class life, with a German cook and housekeeper living in the family home.
From 1907 to 1915, Handl attended the Paddington and Maida Vale High School. In the 1920s Handl travelled several times to New York with her father, with the ship's log listing her on each occasion as having no occupation and residing in the family home.
Handl studied at an acting school run by a sister of Dame Sybil Thorndike, and then made her stage debut in London in February 1937, at the relatively advanced age of 36. This delay in her pursuance of acting was primarily because she had to take care of her father who was sick for many years.
In 1939, and by now an actress, she was living with her widower father in London. She continued to live with her father until his death in 1961. He was briefly married to the psychiatrist Ida Hirschmann for citizenship purposes.
Handl appeared in supporting roles in more than 100 British films, mostly comedy character parts such as slightly eccentric mothers, grannies, landladies and servants. She was a passionate lover of rock and roll, especially the work of Elvis Presley, and was president of the Lewisham branch of the Elvis Presley fan club. She was also a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and one of Britain's most avid champions of Chihuahuas, being inseparable from the pair that she owned. She also owned a Pomeranian.

Career

Films

Handl had minor roles in such landmark films as Night Train to Munich and Brief Encounter. Her other notable roles included the wife of the union activist Fred Kite in I'm All Right Jack ; Mrs Gammon, the formidable cook, opposite Gordon Harker in Small Hotel ; Tony Hancock's landlady in The Rebel ; Sherlock Holmes's landlady, Mrs Hudson, in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes ; and Morgan's Communist mother, Mrs Delt, in Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment, and played Miss Peach in the original version of The Italian Job. She worked until 1987, the year of her death. Her last role was released posthumously the following year.

Theatre

Among her many later appearances on stage, she played Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest in 1975, in a production directed by Jonathan Miller.

Television

On television, she appeared as a guest in a number of comedy series, notably as a regular in Educating Archie and as the Cockney widow Ada Cresswell in For the Love of Ada, which was later adapted for the cinema. She also advertised Horniman's tea. In 1969 she starred in the series World in Ferment as Madame Astoria. She also appeared in Maggie and Her opposite Julia McKenzie. In the early 1980s she played Gran in the ITV children's comedy show Metal Mickey. She appeared in a rare aristocratic role as the Duchess of Sheffield in Mapp and Lucia and as another aristocratic character in Eric Sykes's television film It's Your Move, in which her chauffeur was played by Brian Murphy. She also appeared as Madame de Bonneuil in the BBC's TV film Hotel du Lac in 1986. She appeared in Super Gran as the magician The Great Ronaldo and as Tim Wylton's mother in Clinging Ivy. Her last appearance was in the BBC sitcom In Sickness and in Health in 1987, just before her death at the age of 85.

Novels

In addition to acting, she wrote two novels: The Sioux, described by Margaret Drabble as "strange and unforgettable... Highly original and oddly haunting"; and its sequel, The Gold Tip Pfitzer,,. The Sioux was reprinted as Green and Purple Dream. She began writing what became The Sioux when she was living in Paris at the age of 19, put it aside, and did not start to write again until 1961.

Death

Handl died in her flat in Kensington, west London, on 29 November 1987, aged 85, reportedly from cancer. She never married. She was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, north London.

Selected filmography

Radio

From 1959, Handl played various character parts in the radio comedy ' We're in Business ', which starred Peter Jones (actor), and Harry Worth (actor, born 1917).