View source for Noel Coward

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'''Noël Peirce Coward''' (1899-1973) was a British playwright, most active in the [[The Twenties|twenties]] and [[The Thirties|thirties]]. Known for comedies featuring the [[Genteel Interbellum Setting|upper class]].

In [[World War II]], he talked [[Winston Churchill]] into making him an agent for British inteligence, and proved to be surprisingly good at it; his reputation as a comic celebrity helped loosen a lot of lips of the enemy. In the [[The Fifties|fifties]] he had a resurgence as a singer, singing his own comic songs.

He was also an actor, mostly on stage, but with several film roles, including a memorable turn as the criminal mastermind Mr Bridger in the original ''[[The Italian Job]]''.

The other thing that's inevitably going to come up at some point is that he was as [[Camp]] as a row of tents, and although he refused to discuss his private life while he was alive, nobody was much surprised when his authorized biographer confirmed after his death that he was homosexual.

{{examples|Works by Noël Coward include}}
* ''[[Blithe Spirit (theatre)|Blithe Spirit]]''
* ''[[Easy Virtue]]''
* ''[[Private Lives]]''

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* [[Drowning Our Romantic Sorrows]]: Tom and George empty a decanter of brandy this way in ''Design for Living''.
* [[List Song]]: "I've Been to a Marvellous Party" and "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", among others.
* [[Stage Mom]]: "(Don't Put Your Daughter On The Stage,) Mrs. Worthington" is addressed to a stage mother whose aspirations are greater than her daughter's potential.

{{examples|Noël Coward in fiction}}
* Appears as a recurring character in the last two seasons of ''[[Goodnight Sweetheart]]'', set in the 1940s.
* The [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] novel ''Mad Dogs and Englishmen'' (named after one of Coward's songs) features ''time-travelling'' Noël Coward.
* The ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' episode "Meltdown" features an abandoned museum occupied by robot duplicates of famous historical figures, including Coward.
* The character Beverly Carlton in ''[[The Man Who Came to Dinner]]'' is a [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] version of Coward.
* Likewise Eric Dare from the little-known [[Cole Porter]] musical ''Jubilee''.
* Apparantly Lucifer from [[The Sandman]] and, well, [[Lucifer]] is a fan.

{{reflist}}
[[Category:Noel Coward]]
[[Category:Playwrights]]
[[Category:Actors]]