death_date death_place years_active birth_place name birth_date spouse image article_title birth_name occupation death_cause
17 february 1996 london , england 1915 -- 1988 bloomsbury , london , england evelyn laye 10 july 1900 frank sonnie hale -lrb- m. 1926-1930 ; divorced -rrb- lawton -lrb- m. 1934-1969 ; his death -rrb- evelyn laye allan warren.jpg evelyn laye
 elsie evelyn lay actress respiratory failure
evelyn laye

evelyn laye , cbe -lrb- 10 july 1900 -- 17 february 1996 -rrb- was an english theatre and musical film actress , who was active on the london light opera stage .
born as elsie evelyn lay in bloomsbury , london , and known professionally as evelyn laye , and informally as boo .
her parents were both actors and her father a theatre manager .
she made her first stage appearance in august 1915 at the theatre royal , brighton as nang-ping in `` mr. wu '' , and her first london appearance at the east ham palace on 24 april 1916 , aged 16 , in the revue `` honi soit '' , in which she subsequently toured .
for the first few years of her career she mainly played in musical comedy and operetta , including `` going up '' in 1918 .
among her successes during the 1920s were `` phi-phi '' -lrb- 1922 -rrb- , `` madame pompadour '' -lrb- 1923 -rrb- , `` the dollar princess '' , `` blue eyes '' -lrb- 1928 -rrb- and `` lilac time '' .
she made her broadway debut in 1929 in the american première of noël coward 's `` bitter sweet '' and appeared in several early hollywood film musicals .
she continued acting in pantomimes such as `` the sleeping beauty '' and `` cinderella '' .
after the second world war , she had less success , but she returned to the west end in 1954 , in the musical `` wedding in paris '' .
she also acted several times opposite her second husband , actor frank lawton , including in the 1956 sitcom `` my husband and i '' .
other stage successes included `` silver wedding '' -lrb- 1957 ; with lawton -rrb- , `` the amorous prawn '' -lrb- 1959 -rrb- and `` phil the fluter '' -lrb- 1969 -rrb- .
she was the subject of `` this is your life '' on two occasions , in august 1959 when she was surprised by eamonn andrews at the bbc television theatre , and in december 1990 , when michael aspel surprised her at croydon 's fairfield hall .
