Ivor Novello

Biography

Ivor Novello (born David Ivor Davies; 15 January 1893 – 6 March 1951) was a Welsh composer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century, on both screen and stage.

He was born into a musical Cardiff family and his mother, Clara Novello Davies, was an internationally known singing teacher and choral conductor. As a child, Novello was a successful singer in various eisteddfodau throughout the country. He was educated privately in Cardiff and then in Gloucester and later won a scholarship to Magdalen College School in Oxford.

The family moved to London in 1913 and here Novello's career flourished. In 1914, at the start of World War II, he wrote the words to his most popular song, "Keep the Home Fires Burning".

Novello lived in a flat above the Strand Theatre, where he remained until his death in 1951.

Since 1955 the internationally prestigious The Ivor Novello Awards ("The Ivors") for songwriting and composing are annually awarded by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA).

Known For

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

Carnival

The Constant Nymph

The White Rose

I Lived with You

The Lodger

Autumn Crocus

The Man Without Desire

The Rat

Filmography

1934 Autumn Crocus

as Andreas Steiner

1933 I Lived with You

as Prince Felix Lenieff

1933 Sleeping Car

as Gaston

1932 The Lodger

as Michel Angeloff

1931 Once a Lady

as Bennett Cloud

1930 Symphony in Two Flats

as David Kennard

1929 The Return of the Rat

as Pierre Boucheron

1928 The Gallant Hussar

as Lieutenant Stephen Alrik / Feri von Noszty

1928 A South Sea Bubble

as Vernon Winslow

1928 The Vortex

as Nicky Lancaster

1928 The Constant Nymph

as Lewis Dodd

1927 Downhill

as Roddy Berwick

1927 The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

as The Lodger Jonathan Drew

1926 The Triumph of the Rat

as Pierre Boucheron, 'the Rat'

1925 The Rat

as Pierre Boucheron

1923 The Man Without Desire

as Count Vittorio Dandolo

1923 Bonnie Prince Charlie

as Prince Charles Stuart

1923 The White Rose

as Joseph

1922 The Bohemian Girl

as Thaddeus

1921 Carnival

as Count Andrea Scipione