Sylvia Ashley

• Name — Princess Sylvia Jorjadze • Birth Name — Edith Louisa Hawkes • Born — 1 April 1904 • Birthplace — Paddington, London, England • Died — 29 June 1977 (aged 73) • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Other Names — Sylvia Hawkes Lady Ashley • Occupation — * Model • actress • socialite

Ashley was born Edith Louisa Hawkes on 1 April 1904, at 112 Hall Place, Paddington, London, England, the elder daughter of Edith Florence Hyde and Arthur Hawkes. The family moved to nearby Wharncliffe Gardens, Lisson Grove, before 1910. She later renamed herself Sylvia and preferred giving her year of birth as 1906. Her 1927 marriage certificate records her name as Edith Louisa Sylvia Hawkes and her father as Arthur Hawkes (deceased), gentleman. Her father was a livery stable employee, latterly porter in a block of flats and doorman at a restaurant. When he died, his younger daughter administered his estate. Ashley's sister, Lilian Vera Hawkes married British film producer Basil Bleck on 18 December 1929.

As Sylvia Hawkes, she worked as a lingerie model and became a Cochran Dancer. After this brief career in the chorus line of musical comedy, she appeared in West End plays. In 1924, she debuted in Midnight Follies. She appeared in Primrose. In 1925, she acted in Tell me More at London's Winter Garden Theatre, and in The Whole Town's Talking. In the 1920s, Ashley regularly appeared on stage with American writer Dorothy Fields in the comedy duo "Silly and Dotty" in "Midnight Follies" at the London Metropole. On 1 March 1941, Lady Ashley filed articles of incorporation to establish an organisation known as the British Distressed Areas Fund. Organised along with her sister, Vera Bleck, Constance Bennett, and Virginia Fox Zanuck, as directors, the Fund focused on soliciting financial support to provide food, clothing and medical aid for refugees of World War II. The headquarters of the organisation was located in Los Angeles, California.

In their joint memoir Bring on the Girls!, P. G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton relate the story of Ashley's audition for George Grossmith Jr. for the 1924 musical Primrose:

Ashley was married five times: • Major Lord Ashley (married 3 February 1927 – 28 November 1934; divorced). • Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., American actor (married 7 March 1936 – 12 December 1939, his death). • The 6th Baron Stanley of Alderley (married 18 January 1944 – 1948; divorced). • Clark Gable, American actor (married 20 December 1949 – 21 April 1952; divorced). • Prince Dimitri Jorjadze, hotel executive and race-car driver (married 1954). • Illustration — Lord Ashley and Sylvia Ashley Lady Ashley died of cancer on 29 June 1977 at age 73 in Los Angeles. She is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood.