Nora Francisca Blackburne
British casting director and civil servant
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The basics
Quick Facts
| Intro | British casting director and civil servant | |
| Places | United Kingdom Great Britain | |
| was | Casting director | |
| Work field | Film, TV, Stage & Radio | |
| Gender |
| |
| Birth | 21 April 1914 | |
| Death | 7 July 2009 (aged 95 years) |
The details
Biography
Nora Lee (21 April 1914 – 7 July 2009) was a British casting director and civil servant.
Biography
Lee was Born as Nora Francisca Blackburne in Buenos Aires, Argentina daughter of a banker John Devereaux Blackburne and Francisca Nazaria López. She was educated at South Hampstead High School and then RADA (class of 1935). As a striking young woman amongst a very exciting and creative and mostly male crew at the minister of information's Crown film unit its leader Ian Dalrympal saw she needed a challenge and made her the Assistant to the pioneering documentary film-maker Humphrey Jennings. She met her future husband Jack lee there. He was the elder brother of Laurie Lee, and became a film director post war. Her two sons survive her. Later she had a series of jobs including working at the National Coal Board's staff college, The Vache, Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, former home of her first husband, Adam Alexander Dawson.
Personal life
She was first married to Adam Alexander Dawson, and secondly to film director Jack Lee. Both of her marriages ended in divorce, the first in 1946 and the second marriage ended in divorce in 1963.