{{Short description|Canadian-British actress (1923–2007)}} {{About|the actress}} {{Use Canadian English|date=October 2012}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Barbara Kelly | image = Barbara Kelly (cropped).png | caption = Kelly {{Circa}} 1946 | birth_date = {{birth date|1923|10|05|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Vancouver]], [[British Columbia]], Canada | death_date = {{death date and age|2007|1|15|1923|10|5|df=y}} | death_place = [[Hampstead]], [[London]], England | years_active = 1949–1987 | spouse = {{marriage|[[Bernard Braden]]|1942|1993|end=d}} | children = 3, including [[Kim Braden]] }} '''Barbara Kelly''' (5 October 1923 – 15 January 2007)<ref>{{cite book |year=1980 |editor1-last=Simpson |editor1-first=Kieran |title=Canadian Who's Who 1980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OucUAAAAYAAJ&q=%22kelly+barbara%22+1923+5 |location=Toronto |publisher=University of Toronto Press |page=510 |isbn=9780802045799 |access-date=3 April 2021 }}</ref> was a Canadian-British actress, best known for her television roles in the United Kingdom opposite her husband [[Bernard Braden]] in the 1950s and 1960s, and for many appearances as a panelist on the British version of ''[[What's My Line#United Kingdom|What's My Line?]]''<ref name="Stevens">{{cite book|last= Stevens|first= Christopher|title= Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams|publisher= John Murray|year= 2010|isbn=978-1-84854-195-5|page=412}}<!--|accessdate=11 June 2012--></ref>
==Early years== Barbara Kelly was born in [[Vancouver|Vancouver, British Columbia]] in 1923. As a child, she was given [[elocution]] lessons, and while Kelly hated the stage her mother was a frustrated actress. Kelly's first professional role was playing the [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Virgin Mary]] in a nativity play.<ref name="Daily Telegraph">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1539587/Barbara-Kelly.html|title=Barbara Kelly Obituary|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=16 January 2007|location=London, UK|accessdate=26 April 2010}}</ref> Her father, an Irishman, was a lorry driver in Vancouver. Her mother, who was from [[Manchester]], forced ballet classes and elocution lessons on her.<ref>{{Cite news |last=January 15, 2007 |first=October 5, 1924- |title=Barbara Kelly |newspaper=[[The Times]] |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/barbara-kelly-kqhfg6tt7z5 |access-date=2022-04-26 |issn=0140-0460}}</ref>
Deeply unhappy at home, in 1942 she escaped to marry the [[actor]] and [[Broadcasting|broadcaster]] [[Bernard Braden]], and she soon did much radio work and toured across Canada in a stage show. Kelly also made her television debut at this time, appearing in ''[[The Stage Show]]''. In 1949, she and her husband moved to the United Kingdom with their two children.<ref name="bbcnews">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6263709.stm|title=What's My Line regular Kelly dies|work=[[BBC News]]|date=15 January 2007}}</ref> A third child, [[Kim Braden|Kim]], was born in November 1948 in [[London]].
==Career== {{more citations needed section|date=December 2015}} Kelly made regular appearances on her husband's show, ''Bedtime with Braden'', in 1950. The next year (1951) she got equal billing with Braden in ''An Evening at Home with Bernard Braden and Barbara Kelly''. She continued to star in her husband's shows throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and in 1968 appeared in the sitcom ''[[B-And-B]]'', along with her husband and daughter.
In the early 1950s, Kelly appeared in a few films including ''[[The Desert Hawk (1950 film)|The Desert Hawk]]'', ''[[A Tale of Five Cities]]'', ''[[Castle in the Air (film)|Castle in the Air]]'', and ''[[Love in Pawn]]''. She may have been best known for her frequent appearances as a panelist on the television show ''[[What's My Line#United Kingdom|What's My Line?]]'' (1951–63), transmitted by the [[BBC]] on Sunday evenings, which was very popular, although, as Kelly reflected in later years, it had no competition: "it was the only programme on the air!"<ref name="The Oldie">{{cite news|title=Still With Us: Barbara Kelly|first=Alice|last=Pitman|publisher=[[The Oldie]]|date=May 2001}}</ref>
From 1964 to 1967, she introduced ''[[Criss Cross Quiz]]'', a general knowledge game based on [[noughts and crosses]].
Kelly was the subject of ''[[This Is Your Life (British TV series)|This Is Your Life]]'' in 1978 when she was surprised by [[Eamonn Andrews]] at the [[Tower Hotel, London]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}
==Braden's departure from the BBC== In 1972, the BBC terminated Bernard Braden's late night show, ''[[Braden's Week]]'', replacing it with a similar programme, ''[[That's Life!]]'', introduced by [[Esther Rantzen]], who had worked with Braden. The reasons seem a little complicated and may have had something to do with Braden's contract to advertise margarine on [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]]. However, although Braden himself was publicly circumspect about the decision, Kelly was forthright in condemning it and was plainly hostile towards Rantzen.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-2550523.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20110604105610/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-2550523.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 June 2011|title=Barbara Kelly Obituary|first=India|last=Knight|work=[[The Times]]|date=17 January 2007|location=London, UK|accessdate=26 April 2010}}</ref>
Almost thirty years later Kelly told Alice Pitman of ''[[The Oldie]]'' that she was "very bitter at the time, very, very bitter" and recalled that Braden's producer, [[Desmond Wilcox]], who subsequently married Rantzen, had brought together Kelly, Rantzen and newsreader [[Angela Rippon]] for a [[Television pilot|pilot]] of an afternoon show, although, in Kelly's view, "it was just a front - he wanted Esther, and Angela and I were sort of left dangling".<ref name="The Oldie"/>
At the turn of the 21st century, Kelly weighed into a spat in the press between Rantzen and her stepdaughter Cassandra Wilcox, as a result of which she received a large number of supportive letters from members of the public, who recalled her husband's usurpation by Rantzen. Kelly placed these in a folder marked "Hate Rancid File".<ref name="The Oldie"/>
==Later years== After ''B-And-B'', Kelly had few television roles although she did appear in episodes of ''[[Hawaii Five-O (1968 TV series)|Hawaii Five-O]]'', ''[[Pearl (miniseries)|Pearl]]'', the 1977 film ''[[Lust of a Eunuch]]'' and an episode of ''[[Magnum, P.I.]]'' in 1981. In 1983 she took part in a revival of ''What's My Line?'' This ran for three years, although Kelly, who thought that the original show was never the same after the death of [[Gilbert Harding]] in 1960, felt that the revival did not match it either.<ref name="The Oldie"/>
During the 1970s, the Bradens ran Adanac Productions, a company they had set up 20 years before which specialised in presentations at business conferences. After retiring from show business, Kelly established a show business agency called 'Prime Performers', which offered many actors and people from public life, including [[Barbara Windsor]], [[Joan Collins]], [[Raymond Baxter]], [[Norman Tebbit]], and [[John Harvey-Jones|Sir John Harvey-Jones]], for the after-dinner speaking circuit.<ref name="Daily Telegraph"/><ref name="bbcnews"/> In 2000, Kelly founded 'Speakerpower', a company that employed broadcasters and actors such as [[David Jacobs (broadcaster)|David Jacobs]] and [[Sylvia Syms]],<ref name="The Oldie"/> to train corporate managers how to speak publicly.<ref name="Daily Telegraph"/>
==Death== Braden died in 1993, and Kelly died from cancer in 2007, aged 83, at a [[Palliative care|hospice]] in [[Hampstead]], London. Their son, Christopher predeceased her, also having died from cancer.<ref name="bbcnews"/>
==Selected filmography== * ''[[Glad Tidings (film)|Glad Tidings]]'' (1953)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|id=0446200|name=Barbara Kelly}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Barbara}} [[Category:1923 births]] [[Category:2007 deaths]] [[Category:Actresses from Vancouver]] [[Category:British film actresses]] [[Category:British television actresses]] [[Category:Canadian film actresses]] [[Category:Canadian television actresses]] [[Category:Canadian emigrants to England]] [[Category:Canadian expatriate actresses in the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Canadian expatriates in England]] [[Category:Canadian people of English descent]] [[Category:Canadian people of Irish descent]] [[Category:Deaths from cancer in England]] [[Category:20th-century British businesspeople]]