Joyce Grenfell

Toothy, oval-faced Britisher Joyce Grenfell with her stark, equine features charmed and humored audiences both here and abroad on radio, stage, film and TV for nearly four decades. Lovingly remembered as a delightfully witty revue artist, monologist and raconteur, she inherited her bold talents from her eccentric socialite mother, who just so happened to be American and the sister of Lady Nancy Astor. Well-to-do Joyce Irene Phipps was born on February 10, 1910, in London, one of five daughters of renowned American-born architect Paul Phipps (1880-1953) and American socialite Nora Langhorne (1889-1955) after they established residence in England. She was the niece of British politician Nancy Astor and second cousin to American actress Ruth Draper. Joyce was educated both in London and Paris, attending the Francis Holland School in London, and the Claremont Fan Court School, in Surrey and Mlle Ozanne's finishing school in Paris in her late teens. Her first job in the entertainment busi