Chili Bouchier


Dorothy Irene "Chili" Bouchier was an English film actress who achieved success during the silent film era, and went on to many screen appearances with the advent of sound films, before progressing to theatre later in her career.

Career

She made her first appearance as a child dancer at a charity performance. She became a typist on leaving school and later a model at Harrod's. Her first appearance was as a bathing belle in Shooting Stars. Bouchier won a contest run by the Daily Mail in 1927 to become a film star. In 1928, she appeared in a short film made in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process, Ain't She Sweet, with Dick Henderson. She was known as Britain's "It girl", and the answer to Clara Bow in Hollywood, who was famous for the tag.
She achieved success in the 1930s with the films Carnival, directed by Herbert Wilcox and Gypsy. The latter was made by the British arm of Warner Brothers at Teddington Studios, but, like a number of her films, is considered to be lost. She also played the supporting role of Cleopatra in The Ghost Goes West, starring Robert Donat. During this period, she was brought over to Warner Brothers in Hollywood but broke her contract after being kept hanging around. This caused her to be blackballed and unable to make another film. Hollywood film producer and business magnate Howard Hughes proposed to her, but Bouchier's great love was the bandleader Teddy Joyce, whom she was engaged to before his premature death.
Despite this setback, she continued to appear in British films until 1960, albeit often in supporting roles in B-movies. Amongst her later films were Murder in Reverse, a successful thriller starring William Hartnell, and Old Mother Riley's New Venture, part of the successful series of Old Mother Riley comedy films.
Bouchier combined her film career with a great deal of stage work in the UK. From 1950, onwards most of her appearances were on stage in dramas, comedies and revues, where she continued to work until well into her eighties.

Later years

In 1996, Bouchier published her autobiography, Shooting Star, and received some media attention: she was a guest on the BBC Radio 4 series Desert Island Discs in January, and was the subject of This Is Your Life in February, when she was surprised by Michael Aspel at a book signing session at Harrods. Featured guests were Patricia Roc, Sian Phillips, Peggy Mount, Avril Angers, Lionel Blair, Mary Millar, Dorothy Tutin, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Leslie Ash and Petula Clark.

Death

Bouchier died three days short of her ninetieth birthday in her ground floor flat in Marylebone, London after having fallen and hit her head on a radiator. She had no children, and it was reported that towards the end of her life that she was alcoholic, drinking three litres of whiskey a week.

Selected filmography