Doreen Wonfor

(b. Johannesburg, **/**/1914? – d. Salisbury, Rhodesia, 12/10/1960). Actress. Doreen Wonfor was the young girl who acted the part of the shipwrecked Emmeline as a child in the 1923 version of H. De Vere Stacpoole’s novel The Blue Lagoon, directed by William Bowden and Dick Cruikshanks. Her young co-star was Val Chard as Dick and in the film they grew up to be replaced by Molly Adair and Arthur Pusey respectively. A Stage & Cinema of 29 April 1949 compares the 1923 and 1949 versions of The Blue Lagoon. It uses the following caption with one of the photographs: “At the time, the child actors’ families became friends and the children’s education was continued under one governess. Today they are married, have a child of their own, and live in Johannesburg.” In fact, they were married in St. Patrick's Church, Johannesburg probably in 1938. Thelma Gutsche quotes Chard’s mother as saying “He has never looked at another girl since 1922”. Apparently they featured in a full page advert for Old Gold cigarettes in a Look Magazine of 30 August 1938. They subsequently moved to Salisbury in what was then Rhodesia and had two more children. (FO)

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