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Felicity spent the first eighteen years of her life in India touring the country with her family's "Shakespeareana" road show. From the time she was nine months old until twelve years old she had a caring native nanny named Mary. Mary was most dedicated to Felicity and treated Felicity as if she was her own. Felicity was Mary's "Missy Baba" and would take her for treks into villages for pony rides and ice cream and strolls along the beach. When Felicity turned twelve she decided she didn't need an "Ayah" and left Mary at the dock for the last time before returning to England with the family. This parting affected Mary the most as she watched the departure through tears of sorrow. |
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Civil unrest and the transistion from British rule forced The Kendals to migrate back to England but only soon to return to India as was the passion of Geoffery Kendal. Geoffery did not fancy structured life along with all the problems that go with it. The company was forever traveling sleeping wherever they could, playing at palaces and poor houses, and Geoffery loved every minute of it. India was their home. |
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Felicity's first acting job came when she was an infant. She played a changeling boy in "A Mid- summer Night's Dream". She played the same part at five years old but with disasterous results. She was so absorbed in marching back and forth protecting the sleeping "Titania" she missed her exit line and was dismissed by "Oberon" with a "Bogger off!" I wonder if Shakespeare thought to say that? |
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The family was of mixed faith or lack of it as was Felicity's sister Jennifer. She was agnostic. Laura was Catholic and would take the two girls to mass where Jennifer would immediatly faint as if on cue. Geoffery favored Hindu practice. Felicity was a great memorizer of Scripture which won her a place of honor in school after she had been punished for forming a brute squad to knock down her class- mates. Felicity claims to be of Jewish faith. |
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Felicity and Jennifer would have had a brother if all went well. The Kendal's were in England during a air raid where half the side of their house was blown off. Laura lost her unborn baby the next day. There is a thirteen year gap between Jennifer and Felicity. No mention was made of this fact until years later. |
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The parents. Felicity got her great looks from her mother and her spunk from dad. |
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Felicity's first pet was a baby deer. Then one Christmas she wanted a kitty and ended up with a CAT. This cat liked everybody but Felicity which it proceeded to maul her face every chance it got. The cat was named "Sheba" and for five years it unleashed it's venom on Felicity. It really fancied Laura the best. Felicity got along better with dogs. |
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At nine years old Felicity entered acting on a more full time basis starting with "Macbeth" and "The Merchant Of Venice". She also was in charge of seeing that the props and baggage were all accounted for before departures. |
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Jennifer fell in love with an Indian actor by the name of Shashi Kapoor. These two were later married much to the disgruntlment of Geoffery. Geoffery being liberal minded didn't mind Shashi so much as he minded loosing Jennifer from the cast. Jennifer continued in the theatre with Shashi and his family and did a movie "Bombay Talkie". The Kendals did not attend the wedding and there were hard feelings for years. |
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| 1999 Good Wrench | ||||||||||||||||||||||