Early life Malleson was born Constance Mary Annesley on 24 October 1895 at
Castlewellan Castle in
Castlewellan, Northern Ireland. She was the youngest child of
Hugh Annesley, 5th Earl Annesley, and his second wife Priscilla Cecilia Armytage-Moore. Annesley's sister,
Lady Clare Annesley, was a feminist and pacifist who stood as a
Labour Party parliamentary candidate in the 1920s and 1930s. She also had two half siblings,
Lady Mabel Annesley and
Francis Annesley, 6th Earl Annesley, from her father's first marriage to Mabel Wilhelmina Frances Markham. Malleson was home schooled by tutors until her father's death in 1908, at which time she was sent to
Down House in Kent. Unimpressed with the school, she referred to it in her 1931 autobiography,
After Ten, as "Damned Hell", demonstrating an early contempt for aristocratic decorum. While there she met
Miles Malleson, whom she married on 12 April 1915 at the age of 19. The couple divorced in December 1922 after Miles failed to comply with a decree for
restitution of conjugal rights obtained by Constance on 15 May the same year. After graduating she spent the 1922 season with the Plymouth Repertory Theatre as lead actress. Malleson took up acting because she believed "that every woman ought to be able to earn a living." She was concerned with fair wages for all actors, going on to speak publicly about the importance of securing the minimum wage of 3 pounds a week and payment for rehearsal for everyone, not just lead actors. and at least one film,
Hindle Wakes. She joined the
Hull Repertory Theatre Company for the 1925 season appearing in several productions including
Peter and Paul and
Advertising April, alongside actor
Colin Clive, and a C. K. Munro production of ''At Mrs. Beam's''. Malleson believed that the short run plays that define repertory theatre were important for the development of young dramatists because they provided an opportunity to see how an audience reacts to one's work. In March 1928, Malleson produced a stage version of her three-act play
The Way at the Arts Theatre Club in London. The cast, which included
Una O'Connor and
Charles Carson, was headed by
Moyna Macgill in the role of Rosaleen Moore, a part written for her by Malleson. The play, which debuted on 25 March, was performed twice and was reviewed by
The Times as a "pretentious sham!" Having mutually agreed to an open marriage with her husband, Malleson and Russell carried on a relationship until 1920. During that time Russell struggled with how seriously Malleson took her career and her continued involvement with other men. The pair remained friends and corresponded until Russell's death in 1970. He didn't feel that acting made sufficient use of her talents and encouraged a writing career after she rejected his suggestion to become more politically active. It was Russell who submitted Malleson's first published short story, "The End", which was released in the September 1919 edition of the English Review under the
pseudonym Christine Harte. Malleson eventually sold her letters from Russell and other mementos to
McMaster University for inclusion in the
Bertrand Russell Archives. In 1941, while working in Finland assist with relief efforts in response to the
Russo-Finnish War, Malleson found herself stranded in a remote area of the country when the Germans took control of the country to fight Russian forces. She escaped by rowing 25 miles to Helsinki in a boat, where she was held for several days, before securing passage to Stockholm aboard a Swedish warship. Her time in the Nordic countries resulted in the publication of
In the North: Autobiographical Fragments in Norway, Sweden, Finland in 1946.
Death Malleson died in a nursing home near
Bury St Edmunds on 5 October 1975. ==Stage roles==