Anthony Pelissier

Harry Anthony Compton Pelissier was born on 27 July 1912 in Barnet, north London, into a family with deep roots in the British theatrical world. His father was H. G. Pelissier, the theatre producer who founded Pelissier's Follies, and his mother was the actress Fay Compton. His uncle was the novelist Compton MacKenzie, author of Whisky Galore. Pelissier's father died when he was barely a year old, leaving his nineteen-year-old mother to pursue her acting career. He was raised largely by his grandmother, Virginia Compton, and a succession of nannies. That childhood experience of a neglected boy and an absent, ambitious mother would later find expression in his film adaptation of The Rocking-Horse Winner.

Pelissier began his acting career in the 1930s and made his Broadway appearances between 1936 and 1939. He was featured in Noël Coward's play cycle Tonight at 8:30, performing in the production both in Britain and on Broadway, and later appeared in Coward's Set to Music. His additional Broadway credits include Ways and Means and Red Peppers. In 1939, working alongside his close friend, the actor John Mills, Pelissier staged a West End revival of The Follies, the Edwardian musical revue company his father had originally founded.

He began writing for the screen in 1937 and moved into directing in 1949, ultimately working across both disciplines on several notable British films. As screenwriter and director, his credits include The History of Mr Polly (1949), The Rocking-Horse Winner (1950), and Night Without Stars (1951). He also directed Personal Affair (1953), written by Lesley Storm and starring Gene Tierney, as well as Encore (1951) and the Ealing television satire Meet Mr Lucifer (1953). He later led the experimental production unit at the BBC.

Pelissier was married four times. His first marriage, to actress Penelope Dudley-Ward on 29 December 1939, ended in divorce in 1944 and produced one daughter, actress Tracy Reed (1942–2012). His second wife, Margaret A. Hyde, whom he married in 1945, was the mother of two daughters, Harriet, born in 1945, and Marie-Louise, born in 1949. He subsequently married actress Monica Grey, with whom he had a son, Joe Pelissier, born in 1963. His fourth and final marriage was to actress Ursula Howells in 1968. Pelissier died in Eastbourne, England, on 2 April 1988, at the age of 75, survived by Howells and his four children.