Chili Bouchier

Chili Bouchier
Born	Dorothy Irene Boucher (1909-09-12)12 September 1909 Fulham, London, England[1]
Died	9 September 1999(1999-09-09) (aged 89) Marylebone, London, England
Other names	Dorothy Bouchier
Years active	1927–1960

Dorothy "Chili" Irene Bouchier (12 September 1909 – 9 September 1999)^[2] 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.

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.

Bouchier combined her film career with a great deal of stage work in the U.K. 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.

She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1996 when she was surprised by Michael Aspel at a book signing session at Harrods.

In 1996, Bouchier published her autobiography Shooting Star.

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 who was drinking three litres of whiskey a week^[3][4]

Filmography

References

External links

• Chili Bouchier at the Internet Movie Database
• The archives of Chili Bouchier are held at The Women's Library at the Library of the London School of Economics, ref 7CHB
• Obituary in The Independent
• Chili Bouchier's appearance on This Is Your Life