Ann Stephens

Ann Stephens (21 May 1931 – 12 August 1959) was a British child actress and singer, who was popular in the 1940s. She was born in London, the daughter of Lucian and Kathleen Stephens, with an elder sister Jill and a younger sister Helen (who was also a child actor). In July 1941 she recorded several songs, including a popular version of "The Teddy Bears' Picnic", "Dicky Bird Hop" (with Franklin Engelmann) and a setting by Harold Fraser-Simson of one of A. A. Milne's verses about Christopher Robin, "Buckingham Palace," which was often featured on the BBC Light Programme's Children's Favourites. In the same year, Stephens had made her recording debut as Alice in musical adaptations of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. She was chosen for this role from some 700 applicants auditioned by the record company His Master's Voice.

Later in the 1940s, Stephens appeared in several films, including In Which We Serve (1942), Fanny By Gaslight (1944), The Upturned Glass (1947) and Your Witness (1950). In the 1950s she turned her attention to television drama. A surviving Pathé newsreel of 1945 records her visit to the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street, London, for which her gramophone recordings had raised £8,000. Stephens also appeared as a beautiful daughter of a Viking in the 1957 episode of The Adventures of Sir Lancelot titled "The Lesser Breed". She died suddenly in New York on 12 August 1959 at the age of 28.

Selected discography

Selected filmography

References

  1. ↑ Daily Telegraph, 14 August 1959, page 20 (Births, Marriages and Deaths)
  2. ↑ McFarlane, Brian; Slide, Anthony (16 May 2016). The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526111968 – via Google Books.
  3. 1 2 "Ann Stephens". BFI. Archived from the original on 27 July 2017.
  4. ↑ "Ann Stephens". IMDb.
  5. 1 2 "Ann Stephens- Teddy Bear's Picnic". Archived from the original on 13 December 2021 – via YouTube.
  6. 1 2 ""Buckingham Palace" (Ann Stephens, 1941)". Archived from the original on 13 December 2021 – via YouTube.
  7. ↑ "Ann Stephens, Richard Goolden, Florence Desmond, Molly Munks, Nancy Munks, Robertson Hare, Arthur Askey, Syd Walker - Alice in Wonderland". discogs. 1941.
  8. ↑ "Alice in Wonderland". 25 December 1944. p. 8. Archived from the original on 15 December 2019 – via BBC Genome.
  9. ↑ "Alice Through the Looking Glass" – via open.spotify.com.
  10. ↑ "Alice Makes a Record".
  11. ↑ Daily Telegraph, 14 August 1959, page 20 (Births, Marriages and Deaths)
  12. ↑ "Ann Stephens- Ann's Nursery Rhymes". Archived from the original on 13 December 2021 – via YouTube.
  13. ↑ "Ann Stephens- Christopher Robin ( Vespers )". Archived from the original on 13 December 2021 – via YouTube.
  14. ↑ "Ann Stephens- Dicky Bird Hop". Archived from the original on 13 December 2021 – via YouTube.
  15. ↑ "Ann Stephens- Alice in Wonderland. Part 1 of 6". Archived from the original on 13 December 2021 – via YouTube.
  16. ↑ "Ann Stephens- Wedding of the Gingerbreads". Archived from the original on 13 December 2021 – via YouTube.