Ivor Novello born 15 January 1893 (d. 1951)David Ivor Davies, better known as Ivor Novello, was a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the early 20th century.
He first became well known as a result of the song, Keep the Home Fires Burning, which he composed during World War I. After the war, he appeared on stage in the West End, in musical shows of his own devising, the best known being The Dancing Years (1939). Novello starred in two early films directed by Alfred Hitchcock, The Lodger (1927) and Downhill (1927). He later went to Hollywood and appeared in numerous successful films, but the stage remained his first love and the medium for his major successes.
Novello wrote his musical shows in the style of operetta, and was one of the last major composers in this form. He generally composed his music to the librettos of Christopher Hassall.During World War II, Novello was sentenced to eight weeks in prison (he served four) for misuse of petrol coupons, a serious offence in wartime Britain. This downfall from his luxurious lifestyle completely broke his spirit, and he was never the same man after his release. However, he continued to appear on stage until the day before his sudden death from a coronary thrombosis on March 6, 1951, aged 58.
Novello was well known for some of his more glamorous affairs. For 35 years, he was the lover of the British actor Bobbie Andrews, and he had an affair with the British poet and writer Siegfried Sassoon. It is alleged that Sir Winston Churchill had once been to bed with Novello - later describing the experience as 'musical'.The Ivor Novello Award, a prize awarded for songwriting, is awarded each year by the record industry to song writers and arrangers as well as the performing artistes.
In 2005 The Strand Theatre in London, above which Novello lived for many years, was renamed the Novello Theatre. On 27 June 2009, a statue of Novello was unveiled outside the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. Plaques detailing some of his best-known songs are fitted to the pedestal, along with a dedication to Novello.