Dame Marie Tempest DBE (15 July 1864 – 15 October 1942) was an English singer and actress known as the "queen of her profession".Tempest became the most famous soprano in late Victorian light opera and Edwardian musical comedies. Later, she became a leading comic actress and toured widely in North America and elsewhere. She was, at times, her own theatre manager during a career spanning 55 years. Tempest was also instrumental in the founding of the actors' union Equity in Britain.
In ill health, she was forced to sell her art collection after losing her home in a German air raid during WWII. She told her friends that she considered herself lucky, "Hitler has taken nearly everything from me but my life, but you can't live on regret. You've got to live for the present and future, not the past.".
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Said that at first acting in movies "frightened her".
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Switched to more dramatic roles after gaining stardom in musical comedy and light opera.
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Her admirers called her the "Queen of Her Profession".
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She was awarded the DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Coronation Honours List of 1937 for her services to drama.