Pauline Stroud Obituary

Pauline Stroud was a veteran British actress. She was best known for her appearance in Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951), a film satire on beauty queens, where she was cast in the lead role over Audrey Hepburn, Diana Dors and Joan Collins.

She was born on 21 March 1930 and died in Sept. 2022 at age 92 from cancer.

Stroud was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, to Leslie Stroud, an accountant, and Daisy (née Waters) and was the only child.

Stroud initially attended a convent school – until her mother suspected that she was being considered as a possible recruit to the sisterhood. Thereafter she was educated privately, and her lessons included ballet and horse riding.

Stroud was selected nation-wide from 200 other women (some say 500 screen-tested) for her first role, given as ‘honey-haired, blue-eyed and 5ft 4in tall’. She had been a dancing stand-in.

In 1974, two years after she stopped making movies, she began working at Covent Garden as an extra in ballet and opera.

Her favourite job was the John Copley production of La Bohème – starting as Rudolfo’s nude model in 1974 and finishing as the little old lady in Café Momus 41 years later, aged 85.