(Elsie) Evelyn Laye
(1900-1996), Actress and singerSitter associated with 58 portraits
Evelyn Laye first appeared in a minor role at The Gaiety Theatre in The Beauty Spot (1917), but the following year she achieved stardom in Going Up!, one of the first aviation musicals. In 1920 she was Bessie Brent in a revival of the first Gaiety musical-comedy, The Shop Girl. A favourite on both sides of the Atlantic, when she made her Broadway debut in the first American production of Noël Coward's Bitter Sweet in 1929, a New York critic described her as 'the loveliest prima donna this side of heaven'. One of her last appearances was in Sondheim's A Little Night Music in 1979.
published by J. Millhoff & Co Ltd
bromide cigarette card, published circa 1930
NPG x196369
Evelyn Laye as Lilli in 'One Heavenly Night'
by Unknown photographer
bromide print, 1931
NPG x194034
(Elsie) Evelyn Laye as Helen of Troy in 'Helen!'
by Stage Photo Company
vintage bromide print, 1932
NPG x135856
Clifford Lely Mollison; (Elsie) Evelyn Laye; Sir Gerald Du Maurier; Nelson Keep; Gertrude Lawrence
by George Woodbine, for Daily Herald
modern bromide print from original negative, 23 February 1932
NPG x136412
(Elsie) Evelyn Laye and Gina Malo in 'Waltz TIme'
published by Raphael Tuck & Sons
bromide postcard print, 1933
NPG Ax160279
Ramon Novarro; (Elsie) Evelyn Laye
by Harold Tomlin, for Daily Herald
modern bromide print from original negative, 13 July 1933
NPG x135039
by Clarence Sinclair Bull
bromide print, 1934
NPG x34531
Ramon Novarro and (Elsie) Evelyn Laye in 'The Night is Young'
published by Ross-Verlag
hand-coloured postcard print, 1935
NPG x139729
Sir Charles Blake Cochran; Richard Tauber (né Denemy); (Elsie) Evelyn Laye
by Unknown photographer
bromide print, 1937
NPG x25918
Evelyn Laye; Isobel Morag (née Marshall), Lady Barnet
by P.A. Reuter Photos Ltd
bromide press print, 17 June 1954
NPG x182350
(Elsie) Evelyn Laye; Stanley Baxter
by Anthony Buckley
modern bromide print from original negative, 1959
NPG x76221
by Anthony Buckley
modern bromide print from original negative, 1961
NPG x76451
by Michael Ward
bromide print, 15 March 1966
NPG x88844
(Elsie) Evelyn Laye; Dinah Sheridan
by Anthony Buckley
modern bromide print from original negative, 1967
NPG x76251
by Hubert Leslie
cut paper silhouette, 1923
NPG D46536
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