Dawn Addams fishing the River Lee

Dawn Addams fishing the River Lee

Cork Film Festival, Dawn Addams, River Lee, Sullivan's Quay, South Mall, Cork

This is a black and white photo of the English actor Dawn Addams fishing on the River Lee along the South Mall in Cork. Wearing a light-coloured summer dress accessorised with a coloured headband tied into her dark hair, Addams is facing the river and smiling as she casts the fishing rod overhead. On the ground by her feet lies an open tin-can probably used for bait. She might be reeling in the line as we can see a fish swinging at its end, while above in the clear sky a solitary gull passes over.

Across the river, we can see a detached two-story building, originally the Christian Brother's School, located at the end of Sullivan's Quay. We can just make out the start of the inscription on the wall at the junction with Sober Lane: 'Founded A.D. 1828'. In the distance, on the far right, the Gothic spires of Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral rise above the horizon beyond the stone facade of the South Gate Bridge, which links the south side of Cork to the city centre.

Dawn Addams (1930-1985) was an English actor whose work in Hollywood coincided with the early years of the Cork Film Festival. Born Victoria Dawn Addams in England she spent her early life in Calcutta, India after her Cork-born mother, Ethel Mary (née Hickie) passed away when she was a child. Her beauty and talent brought her to the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios to whom she signed a seven-year contract in 1950. For the next two decades, she worked incessantly in film and television including the MGM films Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1952), the then-controversial The Moon is Blue (Otto Preminger, 1953), A King in New York (Charlie Chaplin, 1957) which was screened at the Cork Film Festival that year, as well as the television series The Saint (1962-69) with Roger Moore as Simon Templar.

Addams had a tumultuous personal life and her marriage to Prince Don Vittorio Emanuele Massimo of Roccasecca in 1954, when she was age 23 and he 43, was the subject of a cover story in Life magazine. She separated from Prince Massimo some four years later although divorce was not granted by the Italian courts until 1971 after which she married Jimmy White. She lived in Paris and America and died from cancer in 1985, age just 54.

University College Cork, Cork Film Festival, Ambrose O'Mullane

Cork Film Festival Collection

University College Cork

1957

Ambrose O'Mullane

Photo
TIFF
JPEG

English, eng

1957
Cork, Ireland

Photo

216 x 168mm