Noël Coward was an English actor, playwright, and composer of popular music.
Born in 1899 at Teddington, Middlesex, he wrote his first successful play in 1920. Throughout the next thirty years, he enjoyed enormous popularity, turning out comedies and musicals such as Hay Fever (1925), Bitter Sweet (1929), Private Lives (1930) and Blithe Spirit (1941), several of which were made into films. He also appeared in and produced films such as In Which We Serve, Brief Encounter and The Italian Job. He received a knighthood shortly before his death in 1973.
Parodies of him and his style include:
- Eric Idle's "Penis Song" from The Meaning of Life.
- Charles and Fiona, (Dame Celia Molestrangler and Aging juvenile Binkie Huckaback) characters in Round the Horne.