Dorothy Hyson

Dorothy Hyson

Dorothy Hyson, Lady Quayle (December 24, 1914 – May 23, 1996) was an American film and stage actress, born Dorothy Wardell Heisen in Chicago, Illinois. She was the daughter of actress Dorothy Dickson and matinée idol Carl Hyson (né Heisen). She led a successful stage career.

She was married twice:

• The actor Robert Douglas (1936 – 1945)
• The actor and director Sir Anthony Quayle (1947 – 1989); (two daughters Jenny and Rosanna, and a son Christopher).

She worked at the secret codebreaking establishment Bletchley Park during World War II, and though married to Robert Douglas was visited there by her (later) second husband Anthony Quayle. Quayle recalled that:

She had gone to work as a cryptographer at Bletchley Park. I went to see her there and found her ill and exhausted with the long night shifts.

She was a byword for theatrical West End glamour and after the war returned to the West End, joining John Gielgud’s Haymarket Company in 1945. She married Quayle in 1947 after divorcing Douglas, and soon after retired from the stage to concentrate on bringing up their children.

She was widowed in 1989 and died from a stroke on May 23, 1996, in England, a year after the death of her mother, who died at age 102.

It is not known whether she ever relinquished her American citizenship and/or became a British subject.