Re: Congratulations Dame Emma Thompson
Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2018 9:14 am
I think they meant more when they were given out much more sparsely.
May Whitty was the only one who was always billed with her title after receiving it. Sybil Thorndike, Edith Evans and Peggy Ashcroft were sometimes billed with it, but more often weren't, although all three of Evans' Oscar nominations were announced prefaced with the title even though she wasn't billed under it in any of the three films.
It really reached a superfluous level last year when Olivia de Havilland was awarded the title less than a month before her 101st birthday.
Joan Plowright's DBE surprised me as she already had a higher title, that of Lady Olivier, but that was based on her marriage, whereas she earned the DBE on her own merits. Gladys Cooper had also held a higher title, that of Lady Pearson during her second marriage to Sir Neville Pearson (1927-1936), but lost it in her divorce and wasn't made a Dame until thirty-one years later.
May Whitty was the only one who was always billed with her title after receiving it. Sybil Thorndike, Edith Evans and Peggy Ashcroft were sometimes billed with it, but more often weren't, although all three of Evans' Oscar nominations were announced prefaced with the title even though she wasn't billed under it in any of the three films.
It really reached a superfluous level last year when Olivia de Havilland was awarded the title less than a month before her 101st birthday.
Joan Plowright's DBE surprised me as she already had a higher title, that of Lady Olivier, but that was based on her marriage, whereas she earned the DBE on her own merits. Gladys Cooper had also held a higher title, that of Lady Pearson during her second marriage to Sir Neville Pearson (1927-1936), but lost it in her divorce and wasn't made a Dame until thirty-one years later.