Biography
Isolde Cazelet, nee Hughes, was the eldest child of Isa Lawler and Hector Hughes. Her mother spent 15 yrs as secretary and manager of The Gate, Dublin. Isolde's father was a noted barrister, Queen's Counsel and Labour MP for Aberdeen, Scotland.
Cazelet was educated at Alexandra College, Dublin and Bouffémont, Paris, followed by RADA, London. Isolde had one other sibling, Fionnuala, a pharmacist who had her own dispensary on Dublin's Dawson Street.
Isolde's early acting work included a critically successful tour of Egypt with The Gate in the late 1930s. Around the same time, she married Sgt. John 'Jack' Byrne, with whom she had two children, Sylvia and Denise.
Widowed at the age of 25, following the sudden death of her husband, Isolde spent much of the late 40s and 50s in repertory, touring every part of Ireland, where she met her second husband, Billy Quinn, of Dungarvan, Co. Waterford. Three further children followed, Mark, Clement and Benita. Cazelet's marriage to Billy Quinn ended in divorce and from the 1960s onward, Isolde was based more-or-less full time in London.
Her acting work ranged across stage, film, readings and pop videos.
While filming Neil Jordan's High Spirits, it was discovered she had cervical cancer. She died not long after.
