Sybil Thorndike - the 23rd of October, 1969

Forty-six years ago, on the eve of her 87th birthday, Sybil Thorndike gave a short television interview. Dame Sybil was appearing in her final stage role, There Was an Old Woman, at the Thorndike Theater in Surrey and is truly lovely in her cheerful honesty! We are also treated to a bit of Dame Sybil's phenomenal acting.

I fell in love with Dame Sybil when I read about this incident:

"On the evening of 20 October 1953, Gielgud, usually highly discreet about casual sex, was arrested in Chelsea for cruising in a public lavatory. Until the 1960s sexual activity of any kind between men was illegal in Britain. The Home Secretary of the day, David Maxwell Fyfe, was fervently homophobic, urging the police to arrest anyone who contravened the Victorian laws against homosexuality. Gielgud was fined; when the press reported the story, he thought his disgrace would end his career. When the news broke he was in Liverpool on the pre-London tour of a new play, A Day by the Sea. According to the biographer Richard Huggett, Gielgud was so paralysed by nerves that the prospect of going onstage as usual seemed impossible, but his fellow players, led by Sybil Thorndike, encouraged him:

She grabbed him and whispered fiercely, "Come on, John darling, they won't boo me", and led him firmly on to the stage. To everybody's astonishment and indescribable relief, the audience gave him a standing ovation. They cheered, they applauded, they shouted. The message was quite clear. The English public had always been loyal to its favourites, and this was their chance to show that they didn't care tuppence what he had done in his private life ... they loved him and respected him dearly. It was a moment never to be forgotten by those who witnessed it."

That is one of the classiest and most supportive things I've ever heard. Bravo, Dame Sybil.