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Cannon Hall, Hampstead, painted by A. R. Quinton, 1911, where du Maurier spent most of her childhood
Daphne du Maurier was born at 24 Cumberland Terrace, Regent’s Park, London, the middle of three daughters of the prominent actor and manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and the actress Muriel Beaumont.[3] Her paternal grandfather was the author and Punch cartoonist George du Maurier, who created the character of Svengali in the 1894 novel Trilby. Her paternal uncle, Guy du Maurier, was a playwright. Her mother was the paternal niece of the journalist, author and lecturer Cummins Beaumont.[4] Her elder sister, Angela du Maurier, also became an actress and then a writer, and her younger sister, Jane du Maurier, was a painter.[5] She was a cousin of the Llewellyn Davies children, who were the inspiration for J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan characters; Or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up.[5] She was also a cousin of director Gabrielle Beaumont.[6]

As a child, du Maurier met many prominent stage actors, due to her father’s fame. On meeting Talulah Bankhead, du Maurier was quoted as saying that Bankhead was the most beautiful creature she had ever seen.[7]