Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton CBE (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre.
Cecil Beaton
18 January 1980 (aged 76)
All Saints' church graveyard, Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, England
- Photographer
- interior designer
- socialite
- writer
- costume designer
Baba Beaton (sister)
Nancy Beaton (sister)
Last public interview[edit]
The last public interview given by Sir Cecil Beaton was in January 1980 for an edition of the BBC's radio programme Desert Island Discs. The interviewer was Roy Plomley. The recording was broadcast on Friday 1 February 1980 following the Beaton family's permission. Owing to Beaton's frailty, the interview was recorded at Beaton's 17th-century home of Reddish House in Broad Chalke in Wiltshire (near Salisbury).
Beaton, though frail, recalled events in his life, particularly from the 1930s and 1940s (the Blitz). Among the recollections were his associations with stars of Hollywood and British Royalty notably The Duke and Duchess of Windsor (whose official wedding photographs Beaton took on 3 June 1937 at relatively short notice); and official portraits of Queen Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) and Queen Elizabeth II on her Coronation day on 2 June 1953. The interview also alluded to a lifelong passion for performing arts and in particular ballet and operetta.
The Beaton programme is considered to be almost the final words on an era of "Bright Young Things" whose sunset had taken place by the time of the abdication of Edward VIII. Beaton commented specifically on Wallis Simpson (later titled The Duchess of Windsor after her marriage to the former King Edward VIII). The Duchess of Windsor was still alive at the time of the original Beaton interview and broadcast.
Beaton said that the one record that he would retain on the desert island should the others get washed away would be Beethoven's Symphony No 1, and his chosen book was a compendium of photographs he had taken down the years of "...people known and unknown; people known but now forgotten".[24]
In film and television[edit]
In the 1989 Australian film Darlings of the Gods, Beaton was portrayed by Shane Briant. In the 2010 series "Upstairs Downstairs", S1E3, Beaton was portrayed by Christopher Harper. In Netflix's 2016 series The Crown, Beaton was portrayed by Mark Tandy.