Molly Kerr was born in London in May 1904, the younger daughter of the character actor Frederick Kerr and sister of Geoffrey Kerr, who also became an actor and a playwright.

Molly made her debut on the London stage aged 17 in 1921 in Threads, a minor play at the St. James’s Theatre, but was a great hit in her next play, The Faithful Heart by Monckton Hoffe, which brought her to wider attention.

Her big opportunity came in late 1924 when the 24-year-old Noël Coward cast 20-year-old Molly to play a major role in his breakthrough play, The Vortex. The play ran for over 250 performances in London then transferred to New York for some 150 performances, with Molly in the cast. While in the USA Molly was photographed modelling French fashions for Vogue magazine.

Molly was a tall, beautiful and stylish modern woman in the mid-1920s in London who went to night clubs to drink cocktails and dance with actors and writers. She is thought to have had an affair with the 19-year-old Daphne du Maurier.

Molly was cast in three plays written by John Galsworthy, a major playwright of the day, and returned to Broadway in 1926 to star in another play, Loose Ends. The eminent theatre critic and impresario J.T. Grein saw Molly in The Peaceful Thief and wrote: ‘I think that she is destined to be an emotional actress of much power.’

In 1927, aged only 23, Molly became the youngest ever female producer of plays in London.