Kathleen O'Regan
Kathleen O'Regan, born Elizabeth Kathleen Melville, was an Irish actress, born in Sligo, best remembered for her roles in the first London performances of Juno and the Paycock and The Plough and the Stars.
Career
O'Regan made her West End debut in a production of Persevering Pat. She was in the first London productions of the Sean O'Casey plays Juno and the Paycock and The Plough and the Stars. She starred in Gregorio Martinez Sierra's The Kingdom of God in 1927, in A Night in June, Young Woodley, and Tinker Tailor in 1928, and in comedies including the farce Two Deep in 1930. A 1928 reviewer noted that O'Regan "has already a personality that can express and convey emotion, fine eyes, repose, and beautiful movement," while suggesting that she "learn our silly way of speaking English if she is to play English parts."O'Regan also appeared in films, including Alfred Hitchcock's screen rendering of Juno and the Paycock, and the all-Irish film Ireland Through the Ages, The Shadow Between, Fires of Fate, and Rose of Tralee. On radio, she was heard in adaptations including The Four Feathers.
O'Regan was considered a stylish stage beauty. She endorsed Lux soap in print advertisements that highlighted her "satin-smooth" complexion. She continued on the stage through the 1930s and into the 1940s, appearing in Eight Bells, And a Woman Passed By... Ben Travers's farce Banana Ridge, and The Crime of Margaret Foley.