Marie Lohr (28 July 1890 – 21 January 1975) was an Australian-born actress, active on stage and in film in Britain. During a career of more than 60 years she created roles in plays by, among others, Bernard Shaw, J. M. Barrie, Frederick Lonsdale, Somerset Maugham, William Douglas-Home and Noël Coward. She appeared mainly in the West End, but toured the British provinces at intervals throughout her career, appeared in Broadway productions and toured Canada.
Biography
Marie Löhr was born in Sydney, New South Wales, to Lewis J. Löhr, treasurer of the Melbourne opera house, and his wife, the English actress Kate Bishop (1848–1923). Her maternal uncle Alfred Bishop and her godparents, William and Madge Kendal, were also actors. She married Anthony Leyland Prinsep, a theatrical producer, at St-Martin-in-the-Fields in 1912. They divorced in 1928. They had one child. On the death of Dame Madge Kendal in 1935, Lohr inherited their property at Filey.
Lohr died at the age of 84, and was buried in the Brompton Cemetery in west London.
Career
Lohr's first stage appearance was in Sydney, aged four, in The World Against Her. Her London debut (after the family's move to Britain), was at age ten, in Shockheaded Peter as well as The Man Who Stole the Castle. (Shockheaded Peter starred Lohr's mother and George Grossmith Jr., and was produced at the Garrick Theatre in 1900.) The run was curtailed by the death of Queen Victoria, and brought back in 1901, a critic commented "one little actress, 'A Child', represented by Miss Marie Lohr, I think, being particularly good". Her subsequent stage career was:
Films and television
The Real Thing at Last (1916, Short) – Murdered Woman
Victory and Peace (1918) – Barbara Rowntree
Aren't We All? (1932) – Lady Frinton
Lady in Danger (1934) – Lady Brockley
Road House (1934) – Lady Hamble
Mon Coeur t'Appelle (1934, English version: My Heart is Calling You) – Modiste
My Heart is Calling (1935) – Manageress of Dress Salon
Oh, Daddy! (1935) – Lady Linda Pye
Royal Cavalcade (1935) – Mother
Fighting Stock (1935) – Mrs. Barbara Rivers
Cock o' the North (1935) – Mary Barton
Foreign Affaires (1935) – Mrs. Cope
Whom the Gods Love: The Original Story of Mozart and His Wife (1936) – the Empress Dreams Come True (1936) – Helen von Waldenau Reasonable Doubt (1936) It's You I Want (1936) – Constance Gilbert South Riding (1938) – Mrs. Beddows Pygmalion (1938) – Mrs. Higgins A Gentleman's Gentleman (1939) – Mrs. Handside-Lane George and Margaret (1940) – Alice Major Barbara (1941) – Lady Britomart Went the Day Well? (1942) – Mrs. Fraser Kiss the Bride Goodbye (1945) – Emma Blood Twilight Hour (1945) – Lady Chetwood The Rake's Progress (1945) – Lady Angela Parks The Magic Bow (1946) – Countess de Vermond The Ghosts of Berkeley Square (1947) – Lottie Anna Karenina (1948) – Princess Scherbatsky Counterblast (1948) – Mrs. Cole The Winslow Boy (1948) – Grace Winslow Silent Dust (1949) – Lady Clandon Little Big Shot (1952) – Mrs. Maddox Always a Bride (1953) – Dowager Out of the Clouds (1955) – Rich Woman Escapade (1955) – Stella Hampden, Senior On Such a Night (1956, Short) – Lady Falconbridge A Town Like Alice (1956) – Mrs. Dudley Frost Seven Waves Away (1957) – Dorothy Knudson Small Hotel (1957) – Mrs. Samson-Fox The Last Chronicle of Barset (1959, TV Series) – Lady Lufton Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959) – Lady Carlton-Browne The Plane Makers (1964, TV Series) – Geraldine Pettifur Great Catherine (1968) – Dowager Lady Gorse (final film role)
The Noël Coward play Present Laughter was shown as a "Play of the Week" broadcast by ATV in 1967, Lohr appeared alongside Peter O'Toole and Honor Blackman.