Star Archive


Michael Denison  (1915 - 1998) and Dulcie Gray (1919 - 2011)

Usually there's just one star of the month but it's impossible to separate the names of Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray. Married for over fifty years, their careers were inextricably linked.

Dulcie Winifred Catherine Savage Bailey was born in Kuala Lumpur, the daughter of a solicitor. After being educated in Britain she returned to Malaya to teach. Following the death of her father she returned to England. After a brief spell at art school she enrolled at the Webber-Douglas drama school. 

John Michael Terence Wellesley Denison was born in Yorkshire and educated at Harrow public school and Oxford. From Oxford he too enrolled at Webber-Douglas which is where he met his future wife.

They married shortly after leaving drama school in Spring 1939, though not before Dulcie had changed changed her stage name to Gray (there was already a Dulcie Savage in the profession). Their careers got off to a healthy start but the war quickly intervened. He joined the Royal Signals and then the intelligence service. He had a quiet war for the most part, though he did get caught up in the chaos in Greece following its liberation.

By the time he got back home, Dulcie was already a star. Her big break came in the stage adaptation of Brighton Rock. This lead to a contract at Gainsborough where she scored a hit in They Were Sisters. His big break came quickly - even before he was demobilised - when one of Dulcie's old screen tests he'd helped on was viewed by producers looking for the lead of My Brother Jonathon.

From then on it was plain-sailing. Their first love was theatre and they toured in many productions. When the film work dried up Michael took to TV in the long-running series Boyd QC. Dulcie wrote plays and novels, and it wasn't until the 80s that she got a long-running series: Howard's Way.

Still from Madonna of the Seven MoonsStill of Michael Denison in The Glass MountainStill of Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray in The Franchise Affair

Filmography: Michael Denison

1940 Tilly of Bloomsbury
1946 Hungry Hill
1947 My Brother Jonathon
1948 The Blind Goddess
1949 The Glass Mountain
1949 Landfall
1950 The Franchise Affair
1951 The Magic Box
1952 Angels One Five
1952 The Tall Headlines
1952 The Importance of Being Earnest
1953 There Was a Young Lady
1955 Contraband Spain
1958 The Truth About Women
1960 Faces in the Dark
1983 The Rocking Horse Winner
1993 Shadowlands

 

Filmography: Dulcie Gray

1941 Banana Ridge
1944 A Place of One's Own
1944 Two Thousand Women
1945 They Were Sisters
1946 Wanted for Murder
1946 The Years Between
1947 A Man About the House
1947 Mine Own Executioner
1947 My Brother Jonathon
1949 The Glass Mountain
1950 The Franchise Affair
1953 Angels One Five
1953 There Was a Young Lady
1966 A Man Could Get Killed

 Michael Denison at Amazon UK

 Michael Denison at Amazon US

 Dulcie Gray at Amazon UK

 Dulcie Gray at Amazon US