Kay Hammond

Kay Hammond was the professional name of Dorothy Katherine Standing, an English stage and film actress born in London on 18 February 1909. She was the daughter of Sir Guy Standing and his wife Dorothy Hammond, née Plaskitt. Her grandfather was Herbert Standing (1846–1923), and her uncles included Wyndham, Jack, and Percy Darrell Standing. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made her first appearance on the London stage in 1927.

Hammond is best remembered for originating the role of Elvira in Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit on the London stage, a performance she later reprised in the 1945 film adaptation alongside Rex Harrison, Margaret Rutherford, and Constance Cummings. Her stage work also included productions such as Can the Leopard...? by Ronald Jeans (1931), Hollywood Holiday by John Van Druten (1931), French Without Tears by Terence Rattigan (1938), The Happy Marriage by John Clements (1952), and The Little Glass Clock by Hugh Mills (1954). On 25 February 1951, she appeared as a guest of Roy Plomley on Desert Island Discs.

Hammond's Broadway career brought her to New York in 1953, where she appeared in On Borrowed Time. Her first husband was the baronet Sir Ronald George Leon, with whom she had two sons: John Ronald Leon, who became the actor John Standing, and Timothy George Leon. Her second husband was the stage actor Sir John Clements, whose surname she carried as Lady Clements.

Hammond died in Brighton on 4 May 1980 at the age of 71. She was cremated, and her ashes were scattered in the memorial garden at Downs Crematorium in Brighton, East Sussex.