Nigel Lovell

Nigel Tasman Lovell (27 January 1916 – 13 December 2001) was an Australian stage and radio actor and producer of opera and both stage and radio drama.

History

Lovell was born in Sydney, a son of H(enry) Tasman Lovell, Professor of Psychology and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sydney University, living at Honda Road, Neutral Bay. He was educated at "Shore" (Sydney Church of England Grammar School)[1] and studied Law at Sydney University, graduating BA in 1938, and was an active member of the Sydney University Dramatic Society under director May Hollinworth. While with SUDS he was spotted by the director of drama for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Frank Clewlow, who gave him small roles in several radio plays. Handsome, well-connected and gregarious, his name frequently cropped up in Sydney's social pages.[2][3] In 1950 he joined the Metropolitan Theatre, again under Hollinworth, and when she fell ill he took over production. In 1951 he won a Commonwealth Jubilee Arts Scholarship in Drama, a travelling scholarship awarded by the British Council to study production in England.[4] He continued acting for the ABC under producers Eric John and Frank Zeppel in the last decade of Australian radio drama, and in several ABC-TV historical plays. He was also a regular in Crawford Productions for commercial TV. In 1972 he joined the staff of ABC Radio as a producer of education programmes.[1]

Selected performances

Stage

With Sydney University Dramatic Society

• As You Like It (Shakespeare) as the servant Adam
• Don Juan (James Elroy Flecker's 1925 play) as Lord Frantingham (and the statue) in April 1936
• Death Takes a Holiday (Walter Ferris, based on Alberto Cassela's play La Morte in Vacanza and a 1934 film)
• The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare) as Bassanio in June 1938 with Lyndall Barbour as Portia
• Hotel Universe (Philip Barry) in September 1938 opposite Marion Johns.[5]
• Tuttifäntchen (Hindemith) as the puppet-master; Collegium Musicum Sydney, Christmas, 1938

Professionally

• French Without Tears (Terence Rattigan) at the Minerva, May 1940.[6]

(as producer/director)

• Raymond, Lord of Milan (a hundred-year-old Australian drama by Edward Reeve[7][8]) by the Metropolitan Theatre 1950
• A Masked Ball (Verdi) for the New South Wales Opera / National Opera Company in 1951, starring June Bronhill[9]
• The Flying Dutchman (Wagner) in July 1953, the orchestra conducted by Eugene Goossens.[10]
• Il Trovatore — Lovell's June 1954 production of the Verdi opera at the Empire Theatre for the National Opera of Australia / National Opera Company received a caustic review from at least one critic.[11]
• Faust (Gounod) at the Empire Theatre in July 1954.[12]
• Winter Journey (Clifford Odets) at the Independent Theatre in September 1955, starring Diana Perryman and John Meillon[13]
• The Big Knife (Clifford Odets) at Independent Theatre in 1957

Radio

• Radio adaptation of The Wild Ass's Skin (Balzac)
• Hands Across the Table (the Viña Delmar play behind the 1935 film) for Lux Theatre March 1939[14]
• Those We Love (the Agnes Ridgeway serial — not the George Abbott play behind the 1932 film), with Peter Finch, John Cazabon, Theresa Desmond and others, April 1939
• Magnificent Obsession based on the story by Lloyd C. Douglas in April 1939
• By Wire (mystery play by Mary Penelope Lucy, a Sydney author) May 1939[15]
• Smilin' Thru from the Jane Cowl and Jane Murfin play Smilin' Through February 1940
• Four Daughters, adapted from the 1938 film, first of a series for Harry Dearth's "Radio Theatre" by arrangement with Warner Bros.[16]
• Big Sister serial starring Thelma Scott, Peter Finch, Peter Dunstan and Bettie Dickson on 2UW in 1946
• Crossroads of Life serial with a similar cast on 2UW in 1946–1947
• Danger Unlimited (Max Afford) serial with Lovell and Barbour as Jeffery and Elizabeth Blackburn on 2UE 1946–1948[lower-alpha 1]
• Perfect Strangers (the Clemence Dane play behind the 1945 film) May 1948
• A Bill of Divorcement (Clemence Dane, and filmed several times), also with Camilla Ley, in April 1949
• The Cure for Love, (the Walter Greenwood play behind the 1949 film) also with Frances Worthington, in August 1953

Family

Lovell was a brother of Dr Bruce Tasman Lovell (1910 – 19 September 1986) and Guy Tasman Lovell (15 August 1919 – ). Geoff Lovell is a nephew.

Lovell married Sue Dalton in 1941 and had a daughter Catherine Mary Lovell on 1 January 1947. He is reported as being widowed, but no details have yet been found. He married again, to Patricia Anna Parr (1929 – 26 January 2013) in 1956, having met through work with Sydney's Metropolitan Theatre. They had two children: Simon Lovell, a helicopter pilot, and Jenny Lovell, an actress known for her role in the television series Prisoner.

Patricia Lovell had an significant career in radio and film both before and after their divorce.

References

1. Richard Lane (31 January 2002). "At home on radio, on stage, directing opera or Tarzan". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 38. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
2. "Glow Of Tropic Color At Cuba Ball". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). IV, (84). New South Wales, Australia. 28 June 1939. p. 12. Retrieved 3 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
3. "Social and Personal". The Sydney Morning Herald (31, 871). New South Wales, Australia. 22 February 1940. p. 19. Retrieved 3 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
4. "Jubilee Arts Awards". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). XVI, (7). New South Wales, Australia. 31 March 1951. p. 7. Retrieved 7 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
5. "People on Parade". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). III, (143). New South Wales, Australia. 5 September 1938. p. 6. Retrieved 1 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
6. "Well-known Crowd Premiere At Minerva". The Sun (Sydney) (9481). New South Wales, Australia. 24 May 1940. p. 11. Retrieved 3 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
7. "Review". Freeman's Journal (46). New South Wales, Australia. 8 May 1851. p. 11. Retrieved 7 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
8. "Mr E. Reeve, Founder of the N.S.W. Academy of Art". Illustrated Sydney News. VII, (89). New South Wales, Australia. 10 July 1871. p. 3. Retrieved 7 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
9. "Fine Singing Heard In Verdi Opera". The Sydney Morning Herald (35, 336). New South Wales, Australia. 24 March 1951. p. 2. Retrieved 7 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
10. "Wagner opera opening". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). XVIII, (107). New South Wales, Australia. 25 July 1953. p. 8. Retrieved 8 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
11. "Opera's New Singers". The Sydney Morning Herald (36, 338). New South Wales, Australia. 9 June 1954. p. 6. Retrieved 5 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
12. "Faust Was Not Really Well Done". The Sun (Sydney) (13, 855). New South Wales, Australia. 9 July 1954. p. 22. Retrieved 8 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
13. ""Urnmali" (?!) (30 September 1955). "At Sydney Theatres". Le Courrier Australien. , (39). New South Wales, Australia. p. 7. Retrieved 8 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
14. "Advertising". The Sun (Sydney) (1878). New South Wales, Australia. 26 March 1939. p. 7. Retrieved 1 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
15. ""By Wire"". The Sydney Morning Herald (31, 622). New South Wales, Australia. 8 May 1939. p. 13. Retrieved 3 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
16. "Next Week's Radio Attractions". The Advertiser (Adelaide). South Australia. 16 March 1940. p. 9. Retrieved 3 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia. The film was in turn based on a play, Sister Act by Fannie Hurst
17. "Radio Roundup". The Sun (Sydney) (11, 358). New South Wales, Australia. 19 June 1946. p. 6. Retrieved 8 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia.

1. The Mysterious Mr Lynch also by Afford, with the same two sleuths, but played by Finch and Dickson, was broadcast on ABC radio around the same time.[17]