Irene Handl (27 December 1901 – 29 November 1987) was a British author and character actress who appeared in more than 100 British films. Life Irene Handl was born in Maida Vale, London, the younger of two daughters of an Austria-born father -- who came to England via Switzerland and started as a bank clerk working his way up into the stock exchange as a stockbroker, then became a private banker -- Friedrich (later Frederick) Handl (1874–1961), who became a naturalised British subject. Her German mother, Marie ( Schiepp or Schuepp; 1875–before 1924), was also a naturalised British subject. Theirs was a comfortable middle-class life, with a German cook and housekeeper living in the family home. From 1907 to 1915, Irene attended the Paddington and Maida Vale High School. In the 1920s, Handl travelled several times to New York with her father, with the ship's log listing her on each occasion as having no occupation and residing in the family home. Handl studied at an acting school run by a sister of Dame Sybil Thorndike, and then made her stage debut in London in February 1937, at the relatively advanced age of 36. Among her many later appearances on stage, she played Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest in 1975, in a production directed by Jonathan Miller. In 1939, and by now an actress, she was living with her widower father in London. She continued to live with her father until his death in 1961. It was common at this time for younger daughters not to marry in order to stay with and take care of their widower fathers. Her older sister Liane (1898 – 1977) had married Russian electrical engineer and photographer Victor Kraminsky (born Viktor Azar'evich Kraminskii; later known as Victor Kennett; 1894-1980) in 1920 in Marylebone, Middlesex (now London). They had at least one child, a son, Charles Kennett. She appeared in supporting roles in more than 100 British films, mostly comedy character parts such as slightly eccentric mothers, grannies, landladies and servants. She was a passionate lover of rock and roll, especially the work of Elvis Presley, and was president of the Lewisham branch of the Elvis Presley fan club. She was also a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and one of Britain's most avid champions of Chihuahuas, being inseparable from the pair that she owned. Career Films Handl had minor roles in