BLACK COUNTRY MOVIE STAR GETS NAME UP IN LIGHTS

21-02-2007

Black Country movie star Madeleine Carroll is being honoured today, with the unveiling of a memorial in her home town of West Bromwich.

Carroll appeared in more than 40 British and US movies, with her best known role coming in the classic 1935 version of Hitchcock's thriller 39 Steps, where she played opposite Robert Donat. She also proved her versatility starring in the 1942 comedy My Favourite Blonde.

Her film career alone would make Carroll worthy of commemoration, but it was her humanitarian work during and after the war that gives her such a special place in people's affections.

After losing a sister was killed in the Blitz in London in 1940, the actress travelled throughout Europe entertaining the troops, and later worked in a field hospital in Italy for the Red Cross.

She then broadcast to the French during liberation, and opened her chateau in that country as an orphanage - work which later won her the Legion D'Honneur, which is now proudly displayed in West Brom Central Library.

Carroll, who was born in 1906, grew up in Herbert Street in West Brom in a house which is still standing, and went to Birmingham University before her acting career took off. She died in 1987.

A black and grey granite monument in her honour will be unveiled in the new town square later today, close to The Public building.

Most of the credit for getting it erected must go to local historian Terry Price who has fought tirelessly for years to get Carroll's great contribution recognised.

Who else should be remembered in the West Midlands?

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