Noel Coward (1899-1973) b. Teddington, Middlesex, England.

A legendary figure in the world of entertainment, Coward made a sizeable contribution to the British cinema, particularly with In Which We Serve (1942) and Brief Encounter (1945) for which his screenplay was directed by his co-director on the former film, David Lean. Many of his plays have been filmed, some more than once. They include The Vortex (1928), Private Lives (1931), Cavalcade (1933), Bitter Sweet (1933), Design for Living (1933), This Happy Breed (1944) and Blithe Spirit (1945). He was played by Daniel Massey in the expensive Hollywood biography of Gertrude Lawrence, Star! (1968).