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 BORN 
January 15th, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH
Canton, Cardiff, WALES
DIED
March 6th, 1951
PLACE OF DEATH
Aldwych, London, ENGLAND
FAMOUS FOR
Composer, Singer and Actor
USEFUL LINKS
The Ivor Novello
Homepage
The Ivor Novello Appreciation Bureau |
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David Ivor Davies was
the son of singer and teacher, Dame Clara Novello Davies, and David
Davies, a tax collector.
At an early age, his talent for singing won him a scholarship to
study at Magdalen Choir School in Oxford. It was there that he began
to write songs, using the name 'Ivor Novello', which took his
Mother's middle name as his own surname.
Novello left school and
moved to London with his parents in 1910, and within five years had
composed the song which launched his career. 'Keep the Home
Fires Burning' could have been the next National Anthem due to it's
popularity during World War I.
After the war, he appeared on stage in the West End, in musical
shows of his own devising, the best known being The Dancing Years
(1939).
Novello's first film role was in 1919, the silent 'The Call of
the Blood'. He also starred in two films directed by Alfred
Hitchcock, The Lodger and Downhill (both made in 1927), and later
took on bigger roles in Hollywood movies.
But the stage continued to call his name and was always the source
of his major successes. He also came out as being homosexual
in his early twenties. For 35 years, he was the lover of the
British actor Bobbie Andrews, but Novello was also well known for
numerous glamorous gay affairs!
The diverse success
continued for some years, until Novello's life took a quite
different turn during World War II. In 1944, he was sent to Wormwood
Scrubs prison for two months for
misuse of petrol coupons - a serious offence in wartime Britain.
Fortunately for Novello, he served only half the sentence.
Nevertheless, this turn of events led to the downfall from his luxurious lifestyle.
It completely broke his
spirit, and he was never the same man after his release. However, he
continued to appear on stage until his sudden death from a coronary
thrombosis just a few hours after performing the lead in his own
production, King's Rhapsody. Novello was only 58 at the time
of death. 7,000 people attended his funeral (women outnumbered men
50 to one).
The Ivor Novello Award, a prize awarded for songwriting, is awarded
each year by the record industry to song writers and arrangers
rather than the performing artistes. In the film Gosford Park
(2001), Novello was portrayed by Jeremy Northam, and several of
Novello's songs were used for the
film's soundtrack.
In 2005 The Strand Theatre in London, above which Novello lived for
many years, was renamed the Novello Theatre. |
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