Renée Houston
Actor
Biography
Renée Houston (24 July 1902 - 9 February 1980) was a Scottish comedy actress and revue artist who appeared in television and film roles.
Born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, as Katherina Houston Gribbin she toured music halls and revues with her sister Billie Houston as the "Houston Sisters".
In 1926, the sisters made a short musical film, the script of which Renée had written. It was produced by Lee De Forest, whose process, Phonofilm, enabled a soundtrack to be played alongside the film (a year before The Jazz Singer).
Houston married three times, the second was to the actor Pat Aherne, the brother of Brian Aherne. Her third husband was the actor Donald Stewart.
In her later years, she specialised in "battleaxe" roles, notably as shop steward Vic Spanner's (Kenneth Cope) formidable mother in Carry On at Your Convenience (1971). She published her autobiography in 1974 which was entitled Don't Fence Me In.
Houston was also in the early episodes of radio's The Clitheroe Kid and a regular guest on radio panel show The Petticoat Line chaired by Anona Winn.
She died in London at the age of 77 on 9 February 1980.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Filmography
Cul-de-sac
as Christopher's Mother 1966
The Phantom of the Opera
as Mrs. Tucker 1962
Carry On Cabby
as Molly 1963
Carry On Spying
as Funhouse Madame 1964
Carry On at Your Convenience
as Agatha Spanner 1971
The Belles of St. Trinian's
as Miss Brimmer 1954
The Flesh and the Fiends
as Helen Burke 1960
Time Without Pity
as Mrs. Harker 1957
The Horse's Mouth
as Sara Monday 1958
A Town Like Alice
as Ebbey 1956
The Key
as Canteen Worker (uncredited) 1958
Legend of the Werewolf
as Chou-Chou 1975
Nurse on Wheels
as Mrs. Beacon 1963
Tomorrow at Ten
as Masie Maddox 1963
Two Thousand Women
as Maud Wright 1944
Lady Godiva Rides Again
as Beattie 1951