Marilyn and Anthony Beauchamp 1951

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Photographs by Anthony Beauchamp. All photos are copyrighted by their respective owners & should not be used for commercial purposes.

Focus on Marilyn: Anthony Beauchamp

Tony and Vivienne

Anthony Beauchamp Entwistle was born in England towards the end of World War I, in 1917 or 1918. His father was Ernest George Entwistle, who established an art school at St Pancras, London, with the illustrator, J.H, Valda, from 1895-1912.

Anthony’s mother, Florence Vivienne Mellish – better known as ‘Vivienne of London’ – married Entwistle in 1913, and they had one other son, Clive, who became an architect, and also designed a rocket used as a secret weapon during World War II.

“Tony was always very brilliant as a little boy,” Vivienne told ‘Australian Women’s Weekly’ in 1971. “He left grammar school when he was just under 15 with an ‘excellent’ in every subject.”

Vivienne, an accomplished miniaturist, joined Anthony as a photographer’s assistant in 1934. She became one of the eminent society portraitists of her era, counting Winston Churchill and Vivien Leigh among her many distinguished subjects.

Of her son’s big break, Vivienne recalled: “He had a bit of luck, because he met Vivien Leigh just when she had first made her name - she was so lovely then, you've no idea - and his picture of her became famous all over the world.”

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Vivienne helped to retouch Antony’s early photos, but then she found success in her own right. This made them rivals for a time. “My son was very angry,” she admitted. “Well, you can't blame him...He was still very young, and you know what it's like sometimes with young men and older women. This was a very sad part of my life and of his.”

After opening his studio in 1939, Antony adopted the professional name of Beauchamp. “He changed his name by deed poll,” Vivienne confirmed. “I suppose he thought it would shock me, but I never alluded to it, not once…Then one morning at three o'clock the phone went and a voice said ‘Mother, it's Tony. I'm so unhappy, Mother dear, I can't tell you the trouble I ran into.’ So I said, ‘Come back,’ and he came back and we never, ever discussed it from that day on.”

During World War II, Antony became Official War Artist to the 14th Army in Burma. “I didn't take glamour pictures in Burma, Mother dear,” he retorted. “I took the bloody sights!”

After the war ended, Tony returned to London. “One day the phone rang and my assistant said, ‘Mrs. Entwistle, it's Tony!’” Vivienne recalled. “I said, ‘Where are you?’ and he said, ‘At Paddington Station!’ After four years, just like that! So he moved in and, of course, being Tony, he took over. Well, he went on, he was very handsome, of course, all the glamour girls fell for him.”

Of Antony’s artistic style, Vivienne commented, “He never took a man - did you notice, dear?” Creatively at least, Tony was driven by his passions - and his demons. As Vivienne recalled, “I used to say to my husband, ‘Tony at his best, I couldn't take one as good, but at his worst I couldn't take one as terrible!’”

Beauchamp in Hollywood

In 1949, Antony married Sarah Churchill, the actress daughter of Sir Winston Churchill, Britain’s Prime Minister from 1940-45 and again from 1951-55. Antony had first photographed her years before. ‘He couldn't bear her at first,’ Vivienne remembered. ‘Then she came back and one day he said to me, "I've got very friendly with Sarah Churchill, Mother dear, I saw her in a very different light at the Dorchester (Hotel) the other night." It's my belief she'd been in love with him all along!’