Yvonne Arnaud

Germaine Yvonne Arnaud was born on 20 December 1890 in Bordeaux, France, and died on 20 September 1958. A pianist, singer, and actress, she built a career that spanned concert halls, the London and New York stages, and film, becoming particularly well known in Britain.

Arnaud was the daughter of Charles Leon Arnaud and his wife Antoinette, née Montegut, and was raised in Paris. At the age of nine she entered the Paris Conservatoire, where she studied piano under Alphonse Duvernoy. In 1905 she was awarded the conservatory's Premier Prix for piano. From that year until 1911, beginning at age fourteen, she performed with leading orchestras across Europe and the United States under conductors including Édouard Colonne, Arthur Nikisch, Willem Mengelberg, Vasily Safonov, Gustav Mahler, and Alexander Siloti.

In 1911 Arnaud turned from the concert hall to the stage, joining London's Adelphi Theatre as understudy to Elsie Spain in the role of Princess Mathilde in The Quaker Girl. She first took the stage in that role on 7 August 1911. The following year she played the lead role of Suzanne in the musical The Girl in the Taxi, a part she would reprise in revivals in 1913 and 1915. Subsequent musical engagements included the role of Noisette in Mam'selle Tralala in 1914, which was revived the following year as Oh! Be Careful, appearances in Harry Grattan's Odds and Ends in 1914, Excuse Me! in 1915, the role of Lucille in A Week-End in 1918, and Phrynette in L'Enfant Prodigue, in which she also played the piano. She also took a lead role in Kissing Time in 1919.

Following an operation that damaged her vocal cords, Arnaud shifted from musicals to straight plays around 1920. She took the role of Louise Allington in the farce Tons of Money, which ran for nearly two years at the Shaftesbury Theatre from 1922. That success led to her casting as Marguerite in A Cuckoo in the Nest, the second of the Aldwych farces, written by Ben Travers, which became a hit in 1925. She then played Mrs. Pepys in J. B. Fagan's And So to Bed in 1926.

Arnaud's Broadway career ran from 1927 to 1930. In 1927 she traveled to New York and reprised the role of Mrs. Pepys in And So to Bed at the Shubert Theatre. She also appeared on Broadway in Canaries Sometimes Sing, Frederick Lonsdale's play in which she played the role of Elma Melton in both the London and New York stage productions in 1929 and 1930, followed by the film version. During her time in New York, her likeness was drawn in caricature by Alex Gard for Sardi's, the theatre district restaurant; that caricature is now held in the collection of the New York Public Library.

Arnaud's film career began in 1920 with the role of Pauline in Desire, opposite Dennis Neilson-Terry. She appeared in numerous films through the 1930s and 1940s, including screen adaptations of several plays in which she had performed on stage, among them Canaries Sometimes Sing, Tons of Money, A Cuckoo in the Nest, and The Improper Duchess. She also took on dramatic and Shakespearean roles during this period, including several productions of Love for Love during the Second World War.

Later in her career Arnaud continued to perform occasionally as a pianist. In 1948 she appeared as soloist with the Hallé Orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli in Manchester. She was also the soloist at the premiere of Franz Reizenstein's Concerto Popolare at the 1956 Hoffnung Festival, having been chosen after Eileen Joyce declined. She continued acting on stage into the 1950s, and in 1958 appeared in the West End alongside Jack Hulbert in Ronald Millar's The Big Tickle.

In her personal life, Arnaud married the actor Hugh McLellan, son of C. M. S. McLellan, in 1920. She served as president of the League Against Cruel Sports from 1948 to 1951 and was godmother to the writer Oriel Malet, who later wrote Marraine: a portrait of my godmother, published in 1961. Arnaud lived for many years in Guildford, Surrey, where she died. Her ashes were scattered in St. Martha's churchyard on St. Martha's Hill, south-east of Guildford, and a memorial to her stands on the church grounds. In 1965 the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre was opened in Guildford in her memory.