Wednesday 23 March 2016

Following Fenella.


I’ve long been curious about the actress Fenella Fielding who is best known for having played brilliantly sultry comedic vamp roles in several British comedies of the 1950s and 60s. Tonight I read this in Wiki:

A 2007 article in The Independent remarked that it was “one of the mysteries of British life that Fenella Fielding, whose wit and distinctive stage presence captivated figures such as Kenneth Tynan, Noël Coward and Federico Fellini, should have drifted into obscurity rather than being celebrated.”

I also learned that she was (and remains at the age of 88) a serious and intelligent actor who performed many classic roles in theatre to great critical acclaim. It occurs to me, therefore, that there might be no mystery. Maybe she wanted to drift into obscurity. If you have sufficient money to live comfortably in a way that suits your nature, what better place is there to be? The fact that this superficial culture of ours assumes that everybody wants to become and remain famous is no reason to be blindly acquiescent enough to believe it.

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