Renée Houston

Who was Renée Houston?

Renée Houston was a Scottish comedy actress and revue artist who appeared in television and film roles.

Born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, as Katherina Houston Gribbin, she toured music halls and revue with her sister Billie Houston as the Houston Sisters.

In 1926, the sisters made a short musical film, the script of which Renée had written. It was produced by Lee De Forest, whose process, Phonofilm, enabled a soundtrack to be played alongside the film.

Houston married three times, the second was to the actor Patrick Aherne, the brother of Brian Aherne. Her third husband was the actor Donald Stewart. With a Jack Poulter from Surrey she also had 2 children, Jean and Alan, who had few meetings with their mother.

In her later years, she specialised in "battleaxe" roles, notably as shop steward Vic Spanner's formidable mother in Carry On at Your Convenience. She published her autobiography in 1974 which was entitled Don't Fence Me In.

Houston was also in the early episodes of radio's The Clitheroe Kid and a regular guest on radio panel show The Petticoat Line chaired by Anona Winn.

She died in London at the age of 77 on 9 February 1980.