Blackpool stages to Hollywood glamour - Stewart Granger, Greer Garson and Joan Greenwood were the stars who made the big time

They are Stewart Granger, Greer Garson and Joan Greenwood. Readers may Google them but only Retro can pinpoint their local theatre visits.

Stewart Granger (1913-94) was the handsome star of many British and Hollywood films but was seen in Blackpool in two gloomy Russian plays.

In 1938 he came to the Grand Theatre with Flora Robson in Autumn, adapted from the Russian of Ilya Surguchev.

The actor's film career kept him busy through the 1940s before the Grand saw him again in Tolstoy's The Power of Darkness in March 1949.

The Gazette's Bill Burgess said it was an evening of brilliant acting in a startling play but added: "There are no easy concessions to the film public."

A distinguished cast included the actor's future wife Jean Simmons.

A few weeks later Bill Burgess received a bitter letter from Stewart Granger, saying the London critics had been unfair to the play. It lasted only a few performances at the Lyric Theatre.

Mr Granger and Miss Simmons departed for Hollywood, each becoming big stars, he in swashbucklers like King Solomon's Mines, Scaramouche and The Prisoner of Zenda.

Greer Garson (1903-96) was another British actor to win Hollywood success, starring with Oscar-winning Robert Donat in Goodbye Mr Chips, with Laurence Olivier in Pride and Prejudice, while other successes were Mrs Miniver and Random Harvest.

She had twice visited Blackpool in plays, both at the old Opera House. In 1932 she was with Donald Wolfit in Shaw's Too Good to Be True and in 1937 was in a French drama titled Madamoiselle.

Joan Greenwood (1921-87) is remembered for her husky voice and latent sexiness. Her career skipped between stage and cinema - and one of her screen roles was with Stewart Granger, in 1948's Saraband for Dead Lovers.

That same year she was at the Grand, prior to London, in a chiller titled Frenzy, with Peter Ustinov, before appearing as Peggy in the Ealing film Whisky Galore.

Her best film role was Sibella, the seductive vamp in 1949's Kind Hearts and Coronets.

Grand Theatre audiences saw her in other plays. In March, 1953, she was with John Mills in The Uninvited Guest, by Mary Hayley Bell (the actor's wife) and in December, 1955, was with Robert Flemyng and Athene Seyler in Bell, Book and Candle, the witchcraft comedy by John Van Druten.

It's G for Freddie! Garrity, that is! The whacky comedy-rock act Freddie and the Dreamers appeared in Blackpool over a period of 35 years.

Freddie Garrity (1936-2006) and his group were well-billed in the 1965 summer show at the old Queen's Theatre and did several summer seasons at the North and South piers.

They starred in the 1989 festive pantomime at the Grand Theatre, where they also did a series of Sunday shows in 2000. Next week we will be leaping forward to the initial letter H in our A to Z series of stars who appeared in Blackpool.