The Sunderland film star who had a unique link to D-Day

She was the Sunderland-born screen idol with a unique link to the Second World War and D-Day.

Christine Norden, who was often described as Britain’s first post-war sex symbol, is said to have been the first entertainer to perform for the troops after the Normandy landings.

Christine’s terror as she crossed to Normandy

She recalled her terror in making the Channel crossing shortly after D-Day, to entertain the troops in a wartime review. It was also in the 1940s when Christine got her big break into films.

She was standing in the queue for a Sunday afternoon cinema in London, in August 1945, when she was spotted by friends of film producer Alexander Korda.

A femme fatale in big screen productions

She was given a seven-year contract, a new name, and an invented biography as the daughter of a Norwegian sea captain.

As Christine Norden, she played femme fatale roles in Korda films until 1951. Christine was born Mary Lydia Thornton in Sunderland, in 1924, the daughter of a bus driver.

She made her radio debut singing on BBC radio in 1938.

Back in England in 1979

She was offered Hollywood roles, and topped the bill at the London Palladium in 1950.

But by 1952 she left for the USA where, abandoning film, she developed a stage career in controversial roles.

Christine returned to England in 1979 and made a return to the British stage after 27 years. She was in the Broadway comedy The Marriage Go Round at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh.

She also featured in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography which is the national record of men and women who shaped all walks of British life.

Christine died in 1988, aged 63.

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