Patricia Jessel

Patricia Helen Mary Jessel (15 October 1920 – 8 June 1968) was an English actress who worked across stage, film, and television. Born in Hong Kong, then a British Crown Colony, she was the only child of army captain Clement Edward Jessel and Ursula Theodora, née Buckley. Her father was the younger son of Frank Herbert Jessel and Florence Lucy, née McCarthy, whose eldest sister was the actress Lillah McCarthy, making Jessel the grandniece of that noted performer. At the time of the 1939 register, she was staying with Lillah and her husband in Fowey.

Jessel trained at the Italia Conti Drama School, where she took on her first professional role as Wendy in the pantomime Peter Pan. She left the school at sixteen to begin her professional career in earnest. Her Broadway work spanned 1954 to 1957 and included two productions: the drama Monique and Witness for the Prosecution. Her performance in Witness for the Prosecution earned her the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 1955. Her final screen appearance was in an episode of Dr Finlay's Casebook.

Beyond her performing career, Jessel served on the committees of the Actors' Charitable Trust and the Stars Organisation for Spastics, the latter having been established by Vera Lynn in 1953.

In her personal life, Jessel married Dr. Joseph George Feinberg, an American veterinary surgeon, in London in 1948. The couple had one child, Patricia Ann, born in Marylebone in 1947, who later married Patrick John Stoner in London in 1983 and became a noted author under the name Patricia Feinberg Stoner.

Jessel died of a heart attack on 8 June 1968 at her home at Flat 2, 17 Old Church Street, Chelsea. Her funeral was held at Mortlake Crematorium on 14 June 1968. Joseph Feinberg died on 12 August 2000 at the age of 85 and was also cremated at Mortlake. In his will, he requested that his ashes be scattered in the crematorium gardens so that they might mingle with those of his wife.