Singer, Actress. A pretty brunette, she is remembered as Hortense, the ditzy maid of Sandy Wilson's 1954 smash hit "The Boy Friend". Born Violetta Beckett-Williams to a well-off family, she was raised in a small village in the Pyrenees, studied at the Paris Conservatory, at 16 came back to London just in time for the Blitz, and upon her return to France, joined the Free French Army. Assigned to entertainment, she was, by her own estimation, not very good at it, but persevered in order to gain experience. Violetta made her 1947 professional bow in one of the Late Joys Victorian revues at the Players Theatre and while there refined her skills in a number of productions and married director Gervase Farjeon (deceased 2001). In 1954 she moved on to the West End where she was always billed simply under her first name and started her five year run in the blockbuster "The Boy Friend" which eventually logged 2,084 performances, her rendition of "It's Nicer in Nice" never failing to bring down the house. In 1956 she found time for a bit part in the Marilyn Monroe-Sir Laurence Olivier feature "The Prince and the Showgirl", a gig she enjoyed because the performers got paid by the day whether there was any work or not and the notoriously unreliable Marilyn was a frequent no-show. Violetta was seen the television series "Harpers West One", appeared in the 1962 movie "The Creative Impulse", returned to the small screen for "Sergeant Cork", and in 1965 reprised Hortense for "Divorce Me, Darling", a sequel to "The Boy Friend" in which she had another hit with "Paradise Hotel". In the 1970s Violetta, who was fluent in English, French, German, and Spanish, was a hostess on the BBC One series "Repondez S'il Vous Plait", an effort to teach French via the radio; keeping both her looks and ability into advances years, at 66 she won acclaim with a London concert presentation of "The Boy Friend", then continued appearing at the Players Theatre until she was 75. Violetta remained sharp and active, lived out her days in West Sussex, and died of the effects of advanced age.
Singer, Actress. A pretty brunette, she is remembered as Hortense, the ditzy maid of Sandy Wilson's 1954 smash hit "The Boy Friend". Born Violetta Beckett-Williams to a well-off family, she was raised in a small village in the Pyrenees, studied at the Paris Conservatory, at 16 came back to London just in time for the Blitz, and upon her return to France, joined the Free French Army. Assigned to entertainment, she was, by her own estimation, not very good at it, but persevered in order to gain experience. Violetta made her 1947 professional bow in one of the Late Joys Victorian revues at the Players Theatre and while there refined her skills in a number of productions and married director Gervase Farjeon (deceased 2001). In 1954 she moved on to the West End where she was always billed simply under her first name and started her five year run in the blockbuster "The Boy Friend" which eventually logged 2,084 performances, her rendition of "It's Nicer in Nice" never failing to bring down the house. In 1956 she found time for a bit part in the Marilyn Monroe-Sir Laurence Olivier feature "The Prince and the Showgirl", a gig she enjoyed because the performers got paid by the day whether there was any work or not and the notoriously unreliable Marilyn was a frequent no-show. Violetta was seen the television series "Harpers West One", appeared in the 1962 movie "The Creative Impulse", returned to the small screen for "Sergeant Cork", and in 1965 reprised Hortense for "Divorce Me, Darling", a sequel to "The Boy Friend" in which she had another hit with "Paradise Hotel". In the 1970s Violetta, who was fluent in English, French, German, and Spanish, was a hostess on the BBC One series "Repondez S'il Vous Plait", an effort to teach French via the radio; keeping both her looks and ability into advances years, at 66 she won acclaim with a London concert presentation of "The Boy Friend", then continued appearing at the Players Theatre until she was 75. Violetta remained sharp and active, lived out her days in West Sussex, and died of the effects of advanced age.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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