Sir Noël Peirce Coward

A homosexual, Cowards never spoke about his sexual orientation publicly. However, he gave Cole Lesley, his secretary, the permission to write about it in his biography after his death.

He was associated with South African-born English actor and singer, Graham Payn. They shared a long-term relationship, which lasted until the death of Coward.

The playwright died of heart failure at the age of 74. Long after his death, a statute of him was unveiled in Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in 1998

Noel was born to Arthur Sabin Coward and Violet Agnes Coward as their second child. He was sent to the Chapel Royal Choir School and used to perform in amateur concerts, which he began at the age of seven.

At the age of 12 he made his acting debut with the children’s show ‘The Goldfish’, staged in London, in January 1911. Soon after, he was cast in a number of plays and was gaining recognition as a child artist.

In 1918, during World War I, he was recruited into the British army, but was dismissed after nine months, owing to health problems. To support himself, he began selling short stories to magazines and started writing plays in collaboration with his friend Esm� Wynne, a playwright.

He appeared in his own play ‘I'll Leave It to You’, in 1920, aged 20, which received mixed reviews. After few more performances, he traveled to the U.S. in 1921, where he was introduced to Broadway.

He travelled back to London, after a good learning experience in Broadway and staged ‘The Young Idea’ in 1923, with which he tasted success for the first time as a playwright. The following year, he enjoyed great critical acclaim and commercial success with his play ‘The Vortex’.

‘Fallen Angels’, a comedy, produced in 1925, was a huge success and so was ‘Hay Fever’, another comedy by Coward. After a streak of successful plays, he involved himself in official works, at the outbreak of World War II.

On the advice of Churchill who asked him to “Go and sing to them when the guns are firing” during World War II, he toured throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and America singing and acting for the troops. Meanwhile, he also wrote some war songs, which include the popular, ‘London Pride’ and ‘Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans’.

In 1941, he wrote the hugely successful play ‘Blithe Spirit’ and in 1942, he made a patriotic film ‘In Which We Serve’ based on the war, for which he received special recognition from the film industry.

The 1924 play ‘Hay Fever’ was one of his most famous early works, which ran for 337 performances in the theatres.

He is also remembered for the comedy ‘Private Lives’, in 1930 which was adapted for a film and has been adapted for the television and radio several times.

‘Blithe Spirit’, another comic play by Coward was premiered in 1941 and was staged once again in Broadway where it ran for 657 performances. It was adapted for television and radio and was also made into a film.

‘In Which We Serve’, a patriotic war movie by the playwright, during World War I, received several awards and honors, including an Academy Award nomination.