Iris Lockwood

Published Tuesday 18 March 2008 at 11:05 by Patrick Newley

Singer and revue artist Iris Lockwood enjoyed a successful career in the West End, and later in her career, became well known as the wife of Robert Nesbitt, the director noted for his spectacular London floorshows and leading pantomime productions.

Born Iris Lockwood on March 18, 1915, she left home at the age of 12 to become a Sherman Fisher girl. She then went on to become one of CB Cochran’s Young Ladies appearing in London revues and cabaret in the thirties. After marrying Nesbitt, she gave up the stage but became a successful model for royal couturier Sir Norman Hartnell.

From the forties until the seventies Nesbitt reigned supreme in the world of light entertainment, directing Palladium revues for George Black and staging cabaret at the Latin Quarter nightclub in London. Lockwood played an integral part of her husband’s career and numbered many stars among her close friends. Nesbitt co-founded, with Bernard Delfont, the Talk of the Town, London’s famous theatre restaurant which flourished in the sixties. Lockwood was a well known and much admired theatrical hostess. She and her husband travelled widely and he died in 1995.

For the past few years, Lockwood had been a resident of Brinsworth House, the actors retirement home in Middlesex. She died on February 11, aged 92.