{{Short description|English actress}} [[File:Una-Venning.png|Venning with James Carew in ''The Queen's Champion'', 1914|thumb|alt=young clean-shaven white man with neat dark hair, embracing young white woman in white lace frock]] '''Una Venning''' (12 November 1893 – 9 March 1985), {{nee}} Una Vane Baumgartner, was an English actress who had a long career on stage and in broadcasting.
She made her stage début before the First World War and continued to appear in productions into the 1960s. She was little engaged in cinema, making only a handful of films, but was a familiar voice on BBC Radio and appeared on television in plays by authors ranging from Shakespeare to Wilde, Shaw, Barrie and Maugham. One of her last stage parts was in Noël Coward's late play ''Waiting in the Wings'' (1960), in which she created the role of a retired actress.
==Life and career== ===Early years===
Una Venning was born in Bedford on 12 November 1893, the fourth child and only daughter of Harry Percy Baumgartner and his wife, Ethel, {{nee}} Vane. She was educated at Bedford and then at Kensington High School.<ref name=ww>Gaye, pp. 1267–1268</ref> She studied for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made her first professional appearance at the Theatre Royal, Ipswich, in 1911 as Viola Hood in the comedy-drama ''The Flag Lieutenant''. She subsequently toured in ''Milestones'' as the Hon Muriel Pym, a role created in the West End by Gladys Cooper. Venning sailed to the US in 1912 to play the same part. Also in the US cast was Malcolm Cherry, whom Venning married five years later.<ref name=ww/><ref>Parker, p. 146</ref>
On returning to England, Venning toured with Rutland Barrington in the comedy ''The Gilded Pill'' in the role of Kitty Tyson, created in London by Laura Cowie.<ref>"Last Night's Productions", ''The Stage'', 19 June 1913, p. 25</ref> One reviewer wrote, "Miss Una Venning is extremely sympathetic as Kitty Tyson, and is obviously an actress of good training, and, moreover, of much personal charm".<ref>"Ipswich Amusements", ''East Anglian Daily Times'', 9 September 1913, p. 10</ref> She made her first appearance in London in January 1914 at the Aldwych Theatre, playing the Queen of Dalitza in ''The Queen's Champion'', winning favourable notices in papers including ''The Morning Post'', ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', ''The Academy'' and ''The Observer''.<ref>"Aldwych Theatre", ''The Morning Post'', 2 February 1914, p. 7; "The Queen’s Champion", ''Pall Mall Gazette'', 2 February 1914, p. 7; "The Theatre", ''The Academy'', 7 February 1914, p. 183; and "The Queen's Champion", ''The Observer'', 1 February 1914, p. 12</ref>
At Wyndham's Theatre in September 1914 she played Nally in ''Outcast''. The following year she played one of her few cinema roles, appearing with Cherry in a cast that also included Edith Evans, in ''A Welsh Singer''.<ref>Low, p. 305</ref> At the Court in March 1916 she took the role of Erica Krauss in ''Kultur at Home'', a satire of life in a small Prussian town. She then left the stage for four years.<ref name=ww/> In 1917 Cherry divorced his first wife for adultery,<ref>[https://www-ancestryinstitution-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/search/collections/2465/records/161042 Decree Absolute], Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division, 8 August 1917</ref> and he and Venning married in the same year. They had a daughter, Deborah Joan, born in August 1918.<ref>England & Wales, Birth Index: 1916–2005, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Birth Register Indexes; Reference: Volume 2b, Page 1058</ref>
===1920s and 1930s=== In 1920 Venning toured the camp theatres for the Navy and Army Canteen Board. She returned to the West End stage in January 1921, playing the Neighbour in Maurice Maeterlinck's ''The Betrothal'' at the Gaiety Theatre.<ref name=ww/> Her other roles of the first half of the decade began in three successive productions with Gerald du Maurier at Wyndham's: Miss Pringle in ''The Dancers'' (February 1923), Lady Symster in ''Not in Our Stars'' (February 1924) and Ethel Holt in ''To Have the Honour'' (April 1924).<ref name=times>"Obituary: Una Venning", ''The Times'', 19 March 1985, p. 16</ref> After these she played Emma in ''The Swallow'' (Everyman, May 1925), and Lady Evelyn Lynwood in ''The Price of Silence'' (Gaiety, Dublin, August 1925).<ref name=ww/> Cherry died in 1926; Venning subsequently married the director Gordon Hamilton Gay, who died in 1973.<ref>"Obituary: Mr Malcolm Cherry", ''The Stage'',16 April 1925, p. 8; and "Memorial Services", ''The Daily Telegraph'', 10 February 1973, p. 36</ref>
At the St James's Theatre, London, in September 1926, Venning succeeded Mabel Sealby as the Hon Mrs Wynton in ''The Last of Mrs Cheyney'' and later in the run she took over from Cooper as Mrs Cheyney. At the Everyman in April 1927 she played Sylvia Dugmore in ''Common People'', before touring with Cooper, Robert Newton and Tristan Rawson the following year in Somerset Maugham's ''The Letter''.<ref>"Liverpool", ''The Stage'', 26 April 1928, p. 19</ref> Her last role of the 1920s was Mrs Harris in ''Fame'', directed by and starring du Maurier at the St James's in February 1929.<ref name=ww/><ref>"London Theatres", ''The Stage'', 28 February 1929, p. 16</ref>
Still at the St James's, in June 1930 Venning played Countess Erdelyi in ''The Swan'' after which she went to New York, and at the Shubert Theatre in September 1930 she played Porter in Ivor Novello's comedy ''Symphony in Two Flats'', in a cast that included Novello, Benita Hume, Lilian Braithwaite and Ann Trevor.<ref>Mantle, Burns. "Symphony in Two Flats", ''Daily News'', 17 September 1930, p. 41</ref> During 1932 and into 1933 she was engaged at the Playhouse, London, as understudy to Cooper;<ref name=ww/> in September 1933, she succeeded Martita Hunt as Lady Strawholme in Novello's farce ''Fresh Fields'' at the Criterion.<ref>"Fresh Fields", ''The Stage'', 30 December 1932, p. 22</ref> After this she did two further spells understudying leading roles: at the Queen's in December 1933 she understudied Marie Tempest in ''The Old Folks at Home,'' and in October 1934 she was understudy to both Tempest and Madge Titheradge in ''Theatre Royal,'' at the Lyric.<ref name=ww/>
Venning's roles during the remainder of the 1930s were Miss Kent in '' Hervey House'' at His Majesty's in May, 1935; Peacock in ''Short Story'' at the Queen's in November 1935; and Edna Randolph in Dodie Smith's ''Dear Octopus'' at the Queen's in September 1938 in a cast that included Tempest, John Gielgud, Kate Cutler and Angela Baddeley.<ref>"Queen's Theatre", ''The Times'', 15 September 1938, p. 8</ref>
===Later years===
In July 1940 H. M. Tennent revived ''Dear Octopus'', presented this time at the Adelphi. Tempest and Venning from the original 1938 production were joined by Joyce Carey, Hugh Sinclair and the young Leslie Phillips in one of his first West End appearances.<ref>"Dear Octopus", ''The Stage'', 9 May 1940, p. 6; and Gaye, p. 1061</ref> Venning's only other stage role during the Second World War years was Esme Bellingham in ''The Nutmeg Tree'' at the Lyric in October 1941.<ref name=ww/> After that she was engaged in war work until 1945.<ref name=times/>
Venning reappeared on the stage at the New in July 1945 as Cornelia Knight in ''The First Gentleman'',<ref name=ww/> which starred Robert Morley as the Prince Regent and Wendy Hiller as Princess Charlotte.<ref>"The New", ''The Stage'', 26 July 1945, p. 1</ref> Her other roles of the later 1940s were Mrs Beauclerc in ''Corinth House'' (New Lindsey, May 1948), Hera and Queen Elizabeth in ''These Mortals'' (People's Palace, November 1948), and Emily Raynor in ''Night Was Our Friend'' (Intimate Theatre, October 1949).<ref name=ww/>
In 1950 Venning made one of her few film appearances, as Miss Pigeon in ''Portrait of Clare''.<ref>Speed, p. 134</ref> ''Who's Who in the Theatre'' records eleven stage roles she played during the 1950s: Jasmine in Tyrone Guthrie's ''Top of the Ladder'' (St James's,1950); Lady Sophia Spratte in Maugham's ''Loaves and Fishes'' (New Bolton 1951); Lady McGuffie in ''Lords of Creation'' (Vaudeville 1952); Mrs Maitland in ''Pagan In the Parlour'' (on tour, 1952); the Duchess of Hampshire in ''Gossip Column'' (Q Theatre 1953); Lady Meggleton in ''All Night Sitting'' (on tour, 1954); Mme Fosco in ''The Lovers'' (Q, 1954); Grace Smith in ''A Question of Fact'' (Theatre Royal, Windsor, 1954); Mrs Chillingworth in ''Love Affair'' {Alexandra, Birmingham, 1955); and Mrs Cross in ''The Silver Whistle'' (Duchess), 1956. From November 1957 to April 1959 she was a member of the BBC Drama Repertory Company.<ref name=ww/>
Venning's penultimate stage role was Cora Clarke in Noël Coward's ''Waiting in the Wings'' (Duke of York's, September 1960). Her character, like those of Sybil Thorndyke, Marie Lohr, Nora Nicholson and others, was a former actress living in a theatrical retirement home.{{refn|Because of the machinations of Binkie Beaumont, head of Coward's producers, H. M. Tennent, Venning was deprived of a final opportunity to appear with Gladys Cooper in this play. Cooper asked Coward why he had written a play about retired actresses without a part for her and he explained that he had written it for her but Beaumont had – falsely – told him that she had turned it down.<ref>Hoare, p. 459</ref>|group=n}} During the pre-London tour a Manchester critic praised the first three and then Venning, "who has some of the funniest lines in the play and makes full use of them".<ref>P. E. N. "Great acting from a great team", ''Manchester Evening News'', 30 August 1960, p. 2</ref> Her final stage role was in Ira Levin's comedy ''Critic's Choice'' given at the Vaudeville in December 1961. Her characterisation of her part, Charlotte Orr, was "nicely acid as a mother-in-law", according to ''The Stage''.<ref>Marriott, R. B. "Week in the Theatre", ''The Stage'', 14 December 1961, p. 13</ref> Her last cinema role was Mrs Cromer in ''Hide and Seek'', filmed in 1962 and released in 1964.<ref>[https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20150035067 "Hide and Seek"], British Film Institute. Retrieved 20 May 2026</ref>
Venning died at the age of 91 on 9 March 1985. The obituarist in ''The Times'' praised "her poise and gift of evoking sympathy … Tall, deep-voiced, and utterly reliable". The paper described her as a pioneer of television drama – she appeared in plays by authors ranging from Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde, Bernard Shaw, J. M. Barrie and Somerset Maugham – and a frequent radio broadcaster.<ref name=times/><ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?order=first&filt=is_tv&q=%22una+venning%22&before=2026-12-31T23%3A59%3A59.999Z#top "Una Venning"], BBC Genome. Retrieved 20 May 2026</ref>
==Notes, references and sources== ===Notes=== {{Reflist|group=n}} ===References=== {{Reflist}} ===Sources=== *{{cite book | editor-last = Gaye | editor-first = Freda | year = 1967 | title = Who's Who in the Theatre | edition = fourteenth | location = London | publisher = Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons | oclc = 5997224 }} * {{cite book |last = Hoare |first = Philip | author-link = Philip Hoare |year = 1995 |title = Noël Coward, A Biography |location = London |publisher = Sinclair-Stevenson |isbn = 978-1-4081-0675-4 }} * {{cite book | last= Low | first= Rachael | title= The History of the British Film 1914–1918| year= 1950 | location= London| publisher= George Allen & Unwin|url=https://archive.org/details/bwb_KQ-140-039/page/304/mode/2up?q=%22Una+Venning%22 |url-access = registration| oclc= 1454980836}} * {{cite book | editor-last = Parker | editor-first = John | year = 1922 | title = Who's Who in the Theatre | location = London | edition = fourth | publisher = Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons | url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhointheatre0000john_p5n4/page/146/mode/2up|oclc = 10013276}} * {{cite book | last= Speed| first= F. Maurice | title= Film Review 1950| year= 1950| location= London| publisher= Macdonald|url= https://archive.org/details/filmreview19500000unse/page/134/mode/2up|url-access = registration| oclc= 911948497}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Venning, Una}} Category:1893 births Category:1985 deaths Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Category:English film actresses Category:English silent film actresses Category:English stage actresses Category:20th-century English actresses