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RIP: Sheridan Morley
John Gielgud once telephoned Morley with urgent news: "You'll never believe this: in America they are actually about to name a theatre after a drama critic." Then, remembering whom he was talking to, Gielgud exclaimed: "Oh my God, you are one!" and slammed down the receiver.
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Was it true, Morley asked, that Niven and Oberon had been lovers? Yes, it was, Lawrence Olivier replied; "but there's one thing you have to understand - that although both Niven and I were deeply in love with Merle Oberon, I was the one who married her." "Er, no you didn't", Morley replied. "It wasn't Merle Oberon you married, it was Vivien Leigh." "My dearest boy," Olivier exclaimed, "you are so right!"
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Noël Coward, whose diaries Morley also co-edited in 1982, was famously indiscreet. Once, crossing Leicester Square, Morley and Coward saw a poster for an adventure movie starring Michael Redgrave and Dirk Bogarde entitled The Sea Shall Not Have Them. "I fail to see why not," Coward remarked. "Everybody else has."
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Morley recalled an occasion in the 1980s when, walking along Piccadilly with Gielgud, they spotted Margaret Thatcher, then at the height of her powers, coming towards them. As they both knew her slightly, they stopped. Gielgud asked where she was now living. "No 10, Downing Street," replied the Prime Minister with some surprise. "Oh, you women!" exclaimed Gielgud, full of admiration. "Always so clever at buying the right kind of property!"

Sheridan Morley
Last Updated: 2:09am GMT 17/02/2007

Sheridan Morley, the author, critic and broadcaster who died yesterday aged 65, was the son of the actor Robert Morley and the grandson of Dame Gladys Cooper, and thus grew up intimately acquainted with the theatre; he wrote or edited more than 30 books, including biographies of Audrey Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor and James Mason, as well as the first authorised biographies of David Niven, John Gielgud and Noël Coward.
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