Martyn Green - Life and Career

Life and Career

Martyn Green was born in London. His father, William Green, a singer, was his first singing teacher. He had a sister, Julia. Green was educated at Latymer Upper School. He served in the army during World War I, and was wounded in his left leg by shrapnel. After the war, he entered the Royal College of Music in 1919, studying singing with Gustave Garcia. Green was married three times, first to Ethel Beatrice Andrews, then to Joyce Mary Fentem and later to Yvonne Chauveau, a model 22 years his junior. He had a daughter from the first marriage, Pamela, who married Geoffrey John Farrer Brain in 1950. His grandchildren are Joanna Elizabeth Brain (b. 1953) and Philippa Carol Brain (b. 1956).

Green's first stage appearance was in Nottingham in 1919 in the chorus of A Southern Maid. After he left the Royal College in 1921, he first joined a touring company, where he played Paul Petrov in Sybil and decided that Martyn Green would be his stage name. He also appeared in the provinces in the revue Shuffle Along. His first appearance in London was at the London Palladium in Thirty Minutes of Melody in September 1921.