{{Short description|British singer and actress (1896–1974)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Vivienne Cynthia Chatterton | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1896|06|08|df=y}} | birth_place = Paddington | death_date = {{Death date and age|1974|01|01|1896|06|08|df=y}} | death_place = London | occupation = Singer and radio actor | years_active = 1919-1974 }} '''Vivienne Chatterton''' (8 June 1896 – 1 January 1974) was a British singer and noted radio actress of the 20th century.
==Biography== Vivienne Chatterton was born in Paddington, London. Her father was English, her mother French. She was educated at the Royal College of Music, for which she won an open scholarship in 1919.<ref name="Andrews">{{cite book|title=Radio Who's Who|first=Cyrus|last=Andrews|publisher=Pendulum Publications Ltd|date=1947|page=66|url=https://archive.org/stream/radiowhoswho00andr#page/66/mode/2up/search/Chatterton|author-link=Cyrus Andrews}}</ref><ref name="BFI">{{cite web|website=BFI Films, TV and People|title=Vivienne Chatterton|publisher=British Film Institute|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2bac48a18e|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314043333/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2bac48a18e|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 March 2018|access-date=17 March 2018}}</ref> Her early career was as a singer of lieder, oratorio and opera, with roles in a number of London shows.<ref name="Andrews"/> She opened a long BBC career in 1924, appearing in ''The Rose of Persia''<ref name="Rose">{{cite web|website=BBC Genome|title=The Rose of Persia|url=http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9325f165d163483b887a3d1f8ff68a68|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317234202/http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9325f165d163483b887a3d1f8ff68a68|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 March 2018|access-date=17 March 2018|publisher=BBC}}</ref> and from the early 1930s she appeared as an actor in radio plays, and schools programmes. She appeared in several films during the 1930s including a lead role in the comedy ''Love Up the Pole'' (1936) and supporting roles in ''Mayfair Melody'' (1936) and ''Annie Laurie'' (1939). She appeared a number of times in singing roles in the first full year of regular BBC Television broadcasting.<ref name="Hansel">{{cite web|website=BBC Genome|title=Hansel and Gretal|url=http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9b67c6b995a94eac9d80b189a28d0627|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312103955/http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9b67c6b995a94eac9d80b189a28d0627|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 March 2017|access-date=17 March 2018|publisher=BBC}}</ref><ref name="Thomas">{{cite web|website=BBC Genome|title=Thomas and Sally|url=http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/d2ebea2543ea401783c48e7f7365a44c|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317233814/http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/d2ebea2543ea401783c48e7f7365a44c|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 March 2018|access-date=17 March 2018|publisher=BBC}}</ref>
She was engaged throughout the Second World War on children's programmes, and in her post-war career she became noted as radio actor, voicing the character of Mrs Mountford in the popular ''Mrs Dale's Diary'',<ref>MacNeice p.144</ref> and appearing in several hundred radio plays.<ref name="Chatterton">{{cite web|website=BBC Genome|title=Search - Vivienne Chatterton|url=http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?adv=0&q=Vivienne+Chatterton&media=all&yf=1923&yt=2009&mf=1&mt=12&tf=00%3A00&tt=00%3A00#search|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317234218/http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?adv=0&q=Vivienne+Chatterton&media=all&yf=1923&yt=2009&mf=1&mt=12&tf=00%3A00&tt=00%3A00#search|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 March 2018|access-date=17 March 2018|publisher=BBC}}</ref> She was said to have an 'unusual talent for every type of dialect'.<ref name="Andrews"/>
Chatterton married L. Stanton Jefferies, the BBC's director of music.<ref name="Lowry">{{cite book|title=Fighting Through to Kohima: A Memoir of War in India and Burma|first=Michael|last=Lowry|page=XXV|publisher=Pen and Sword Books Ltd|date=2003|isbn=9781844158027|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rq6napkYpXAC&q=Vivienne+Chatterton&pg=PR25}}</ref><ref name="Doctor">{{cite book|title=The BBC and Ultra-Modern Music, 1922-1936: Shaping a Nation's Tastes|first=Jennifer Ruth| last=Doctor|page=334|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CVCtkShvDSkC&q=Stanton+Jefferies+BBC&pg=PA334|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=1999|isbn=9780521661171}}</ref> She died in London on 1 January 1974, aged 77.<ref name="BFI"/>
==Selected filmography== * ''Squibs'' (1935) * ''Love Up the Pole'' (1936) * ''Mayfair Melody'' (1936) * ''Annie Laurie'' (1936) * ''Dinner at the Ritz'' (1937) * ''Father Steps Out'' (1937) * ''Little Miss Somebody'' (1937) * ''Down Our Alley'' (1939) * ''The Adventures of Alice'' (1960)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/5a28bb7ec5ff4568af9dc2f03f38c56e |title=The Adventures of Alice |date=23 December 1960 |publisher=BBC Genome Project |accessdate=18 March 2026}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== * MacNeice, Louis. ''Louis MacNeice: The Classical Radio Plays''. Oxford University Press, 2013.
==External links== *{{IMDb name|0154185}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chatterton, Vivienne}} Category:Year of birth unknown Category:1974 deaths Category:British stage actresses Category:British film actresses Category:British radio actresses Category:20th-century British actresses Category:20th-century British women singers Category:1896 births