Violetta Farjeon

Actress Violetta Farjeon was born as Violetta Becket-Williams in London on September 27 1923 to an English father and French concert pianist mother and spent her childhood in France, studying music at the Paris Conservatoire. When the Germans invaded France in World War Two the teen-aged Violetta fled to England and became involved in Forces Entertainment, later appearing on a regular basis at London's Players Theatre, where she met her husband Gervase Farjeon. In 1953 Violetta made her West End debut in a play originally staged at the Players, the Sandy Wilson musical 'The Boyfriend', where she was a huge success as the exaggeratedly saucy French maid Hortense and reprised this role in 'The Boyfriend' sequel 'Divorce Me Darling'. Throughout the 1960s she made sporadic film and television appearances including the BBC TV 'Repondez S'Il Vous Plait' making use of her multi-lingual experience to teach viewers French. Gervase died in 2001 and Violetta at Worthing, Sussex, following a fall at her home, on July 16 2015. There were no children of the marriage.