Background
Byron was born in West Ham – now in the London Borough of Newham. Her father was a railway clerk who later became a Labour mayor of the County Borough of East Ham.
Byron was born in West Ham – now in the London Borough of Newham. Her father was a railway clerk who later became a Labour mayor of the County Borough of East Ham.
She attended the local grammar school and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
She had her first speaking film role in Carol Reed"s The Young Mr Pitt (1942), in which she had two lines as a maid opposite Robert Donat. The director Michael Powell persuaded her to return to Britain where she made her best remembered films. Her success in Black Narcissus eventually led her to Hollywood, which resulted in a supporting role in Young Bess (1953).
She found the experience an unrewarding one and soon returned to Britain.
Her subsequent roles of the time were mostly in B-movies. She had an occasional role in the 1957-1967 soap Emergency Ward 10, playing the alcoholic wife of the consultant gynaecologist Harold de la Roux (John Barron).
In the 1960s and 1970s, she did extensive television work, including a small role as Queen Louise of Denmark in Edward the Seventh (1975), Mme Celeste Lekeu in two episodes of the British Broadcasting Corporation drama Secret Army (1977), a brief stint on the soap opera Emmerdale Farm in 1979. Byron continued to act into the new millennium, her film, theatre and television work included Agatha Christie"s The Mousetrap (1990), an adaptation of Jane Austen"s Emma (1996), Steven Spielberg"s Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Stephen Poliakoff"s series, Perfect Strangers (2001).
She died 18 January 2009 in Northwood, London.