British Actors Archives - Page 97 of 131

Michael Crawford

Michael Crawford was born in 1942 in Salisbury, England. He is fondly remembered for his role of Frank Spencer in “Some Mothers Do Have Them” which began its run on British television in 1973. Already Crawford had been on film, “”The War Lover” in 1963 with Steve McQueen and Shirley Anne Field and in Hollywood, “Hello Dolly” with Barbra Streisand in 1969. He played the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” to enormous acclaim.

TCM Overview:

An enormously gifted singer-actor, Michael Crawford became a child star of radio, stage and screen thanks to his soprano voice and innate acting talent. Maturing into a gifted adult performer, he charmed in such films as “The Knack and How to Get It” (1965), “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (1966) and “Hello, Dolly!” (1969). Crawford became a sitcom star and household name as the accident-prone Frank Spencer on “Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em” (BBC1, 1973-78), but found even more success as a musical theater actor, winning an Olivier Award in “Barnum” and becoming a worldwide icon as the titular star of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera.” An unprecedented global phenomenon, “Phantom” defined an era, earning Crawford another Olivier Award, a Tony and the status of Officer of the British Empire. Buoyed by all the adulation, Crawford launched a Grammy-nominated solo recording career, headlined the Las Vegas musical spectacular “EFX,” and filmed his own Emmy-nominated special, “Michael Crawford in Concert” (PBS, 1998). A born performer who only became more likable and charismatic with age, Michael Crawford continued to build upon his status as a beloved international icon and as one of the most respected English entertainers of all time.

Born Jan. 19, 1942 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, Michael Patrick Dumbell-Smith experienced a childhood of extreme highs and lows against the backdrop of wartime England. After his mother died young, he left his abusive stepfather and dedicated himself to the theater, going from performing in school plays to professional productions, due in part to his beautiful soprano singing voice. Adopting the stage name of Michael Crawford, he built an impressive career as a child star on the stage, television and radio before essaying his first teenage lead in the comedy “Two Left Feet” (1963), as an awkward young man who attempts to seduce a waitress. After an impressive stint on the satiric sketch show “Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life” (BBC1, 1964-65), he followed with a series of charming performances as clumsy, callow young men learning about love in the Richard Lester comedies “The Knack and How to Get It” (1965) and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (1966), winning the Variety Club of Great Britain’s award for Most Promising Newcomer.

As the high-spirited Cornelius Hackl, he took lessons in love from matchmaker Dolly Levi (Barbra Streisand) in the Oscar-winning musical “Hello, Dolly!” (1969) and reteamed with director Richard Lester to star as an inept British Army officer who inadvertently kills off all of his men, including John Lennon, in “How I Won the War” (1967). That same year, he made his Broadway debut in “Black Comedy” opposite Lynn Redgrave and Geraldine Page and he went on to make a name for himself on the London stage as well in the sex farce “No Sex Please, We’re British” (1971) and the short-lived musicals “Billy” and “Flowers for Algernon.” After playing the White Rabbit in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” (1972), the actor achieved U.K. pop culture immortality as the hilariously unlucky, lovable loser Frank Spencer on “Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em” (BBC1, 1973-78), which proved not just a popular series, but an enduring U.K. cultural institution. For his wonderful work on the series, Crawford earned two BAFTA TV Award nominations, as well as the respect of cast and crew for doing his own stunts and pratfalls on the physical comedy-heavy series.

Back onstage, Crawford’s exuberant, Olivier Award-winning performance in the boisterous Cy Coleman musical “Barnum” helped him shed the trappings of his sitcom superstardom, transforming the actor into a popular musical theater star. Working tirelessly to train himself in circus arts like tightrope walking and juggling, Crawford so completely embodied the famed showman P.T. Barnum that he became synonymous with the show’s monstrous success and was even tapped by British ice dancing legends Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean to help them perfect a routine to music from the show. Still very much associated with his charming sitcom character, however, Crawford completed the transition to serious actor and saw his star flash supernova with his sensitive, captivating portrayal of the tormented, masked antihero of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “The Phantom of the Opera.” Although he was not Webber’s first choice for the role, Crawford’s opera-trained voice won the producer over when he and star Sarah Brightman overheard the actor in a music lesson, and it soon became obvious that this part of a lifetime was destined for Crawford.

Now a household name, the enormously influential “Phantom” proved to be a smash in both the West End and on Broadway, with its soundtrack becoming a worldwide sensation and “Phantom Mania” sweeping the media. Fans fell deeply in love with the swooningly romantic story of the titular disfigured musical genius (Crawford) who went to murderous lengths to win the heart of the angelic Christine (Brightman), and the lush, dramatic production captured the imagination of millions. Gifted with dreamy numbers that showcased his soaring voice, Crawford was the heart of Phantom mania for millions, becoming a global sex symbol and icon. For giving unforgettable life to the “Phantom,” Crawford won a slew of awards from both sides of the pond, including an Olivier, a Tony, a New York Drama Desk Award, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and the Variety Club of Great Britain’s Personality of the Year. So popular and acclaimed was Crawford’s performance that Queen Elizabeth II named him an Officer of the British Empire, and he launched a successful solo recording career, including 1991’s multiplatinum Michael Crawford Performs Andrew Lloyd Webber and 1993’s A Touch of Music in the Night, which included a Grammy-nominated duet with Barbra Streisand.

He went on to star in the enormously ambitious, special effects-laden musical spectacular “EFX” in Las Vegas, which cast Crawford in five starring roles: the EFX Master, Merlin the wizard, famed showman P.T. Barnum, magician Harry Houdini and science fiction author H.G. Wells. The show proved so demanding, however, that Crawford, who still insisted on doing his own stunts, had to leave early in the run due to injuries sustained while performing. When he left the intense “EFX,” the actor went on to star in his own Emmy-nominated special, “Michael Crawford in Concert” (PBS, 1998) and to pen his autobiography, 1999’s Parcel Arrived Safely: Tied with String. Continuing his lucrative recording and touring careers, Crawford scored further stage success in the musicals “Dance of the Vampires” and Webber’s “The Woman in White,” earning an Olivier Award nomination for his work. Crawford and Webber reteamed yet again for another hit when the actor played the titular role in Webber’s 2011-12 production of “The Wizard of Oz.”

By Jonathan Riggs

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

James Faulkner. TCM Overview.

James Faulkner was born in 1948 in Hampstead, London. In 1972 he made his flm debut in “The Great Waltz”. He starred in “Conduct Unbecoming” with Michael York and Susannah York. He has had a very extensive career on television and the stage.

TCM Overview:
In a career that spanned several decades, English actor James Faulkner appeared in numerous television series and films, primarily as a supporting actor in small character roles. With a wide degree of versatility, the classically-trained thespian tackled everything from Shakespeare to Japanese anime, and boasted a resume that included roles in Hollywood blockbusters like “X-Men: First Class” (2011).

James Sebastian Faulkner (who on occasion was credited by his full name on screen) was born on July 18, 1948 in Hampstead, London, England. Before he went into acting, Faulkner attended Caldicott Preparatory School, followed by Farnham Royal. After he finished his years at Wrekin College, Faulkner enrolled himself at London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (now part of the University of London). For three years between 1967 and 1970, Faulkner honed his acting skills in preparation for tackling the English theater. Near the tail end of his academic career as an actor, Faulkner was cast in a regional adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” For a couple of years, Faulkner continued take on small roles on the British theater circuit before he was cast in the key role of Appollodaurus in an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s “Caesar & Cleopatra” in 1971.

The very next year, Faulkner began acting in feature films. His first film was a musical biopic of Austrian classical composer Johann Strauss, “The Great Waltz” (1972), in which he played Strauss’s son, Josef. His first role on the small screen came when he appeared in an episode of the gritty Glasgow-based TV police drama “The View from Daniel Pike” (BBC 1971-73). Faulkner continued to land supporting roles in both film and television, interspersed with theater work that explored Shakespeare’s tragedies and histories. Having spent his cinema career in front of the camera, Faulkner was credited as a co-producer of the historical war film “Zulu Dawn” (1979), the prequel to the hugely successful “Zulu” (1964). Depicting the events of the Battle of Isandlwana in southern Africa during the 19th century, the drama starred Peter O’Toole and Burt Lancaster. Along with his production duties, Faulkner also played the supporting role of British military officer Lt. Melvill.

In the 1980s and ’90s, Faulkner’s prolific career expanded to an international audience. He played Baron John Mullens in an American-made television drama set in the Middle Ages, “Covington Cross” (ABC 1992). Faulkner also lent his voice to bring animated characters to life, such as Franc in the Japanese anime “Najica: Blitz Tactics” (2001). Faulkner’s vocal talents continued to land him jobs for other popular anime shows. “Noir” (2001), “Full Metal Panic!” (2002) and “Gantz” (2004) are just few of the anime shows that featured Faulkner’s distinct voice in between his supporting roles in a diverse portfolio of genres. He appeared alongside fellow British actors Hugh Grant and Colin Firth in the hit comedy “Bridget Jones’s Diary” (2001). Faulkner was seen in the kid-friendly adventure “Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London” (2004), the drama “The Good Shepherd” (2006), and the action-packed “Hitman” (2007) based on the eponymous video game. Faulkner’s versatility garnered the attention of screenwriter David S. Goyer. In “Da Vinci’s Demons” (Starz 2013-), Goyer cast Faulkner as Pope Sixtus IV in his fictional depiction of the Renaissance man’s life.

TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

“The Guardian” obituary:

David McGillivray
The Guardian, Wednesday 29 June 2005 00.02 BST

The actor Michael Billington, who has died of cancer aged 63, achieved minor cult status as Colonel Paul Foster in UFO (1969), the first live action adventure series produced by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, the creators of Thunderbirds. This, and similar roles, resulted in the tough-guy actor being tipped, for more than 10 years, as “the next James Bond”.His failure to succeed first Sean Connery, then Roger Moore, was the biggest disappointment of Billington’s career. His compensation, a brief part as the agent killed off before the main titles of The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), was not enough to keep him in Britain.Deciding that he no longer wanted to be an action hero, he went to the United States, where he studied acting with Lee and Anna Strasberg. But the roles that followed, in episodes of series such as Hart To Hart and Magnum, PI, were not that different to what had gone before. He tried, unsuccessfully, to sell the screenplays he had written, and, after returning to the UK, worked mostly as a teacher.A fine actor with star quality – and a very funny man to boot – Billington could, if fate had decreed it, have become a British Burt Reynolds. I first met him when I was a teenager in 1965, working in a film library he visited regularly, and was awestruck by his charisma, and later by his generosity. He played himself in an amateur film I made and, soon afterwards, got me my first professional job as a screenwriter. He was defeated by bad luck and his uncertainty about what he wanted to achieve.Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, Billington loved the cinema from childhood and came to London to work for the film distributor Warner-Pathé. Connections made at the gym got him work as a chorus boy in such West End musicals as How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (Shaftesbury, 1963) and Little Me (Cambridge, 1964). He also stooged at Danny La Rue’s nightclub.

His first film was the short Dream A40 (1964), banned by the censors because of a scene in which male lovers kissed. In 1965, he made his television debut, as Neil Hall in the football soap opera United, and his stage debut in Incident At Vichy at the Phoenix theatre.

Sylvia Anderson spotted Billington in an episode of The Prisoner and cast him in UFO. “I cringe when I see it,” he claimed later (but attended UFO conventions almost until the end of his life). His other major TV role at this time was as Daniel Fogarty, in the seafaring drama The Onedin Line (1971-4), which he left after one series. He was credited in the film Alfred The Great (1969), but was a glorified extra. He also had a small part in a television production of War And Peace (1972).

Throughout the 1970s, and into the 1980s, Billington waited for the call that never came to play Bond. In 1980, he sold his only filmed screenplay, Silver Dream Racer. In the US, he had a gag role in a parody, Flicks (1981), and was uncomfortably Russian in KGB The Secret War (1985), two films that were shelved for years before release on video. Back in the UK, he had his last decent role as co-star, with Peter McEnery, of The Collectors (1986), a television series about HM Customs and Excise.

Billington worked on the book of a stage musical about Jack the Ripper, and his last stage appearance was in the highly regarded Never Nothing From No One (Cockpit theatre, 2000). He enjoyed his work at the Lee Strasberg Studio in London, where he was a popular tutor in the mid-1990s. He wrote enthusiastically on his website about the craft of acting that he was able to practise, to his satisfaction, all too rarely.

After eight years as the partner of Barbara Broccoli, daughter of the Bond producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, Billington married Katherine Kristoff in 1988. She died in 1998, after which he devoted himself to raising their son, Michael Jr, who survives him.

· Michael Billington, actor, born December 24 1941; died June 3 2005

The above obituary from the “Guardian” can also be accessed online here.

Michael Billington

Peggy O’Neil was born in New York in 1894 and died in London in 1960. Her film career was based mainly in the U.S. and her stage career in Britain.

Lita Roza was born in Liv erpool in 1926. She was a very popular recording artist in Britain before the advent of rock’n’roll in the mid 1950’s. Her most famous song was “How Much Is that Doggy in the Window”. She made just the one film “Cast A Dark Shadow” a very good thriller with Margaret Lockwood and Dirk Bogarde. Lita Roza died in 2008 aged 82.

Lita Roza’s “Guardian” obituary by David Laing:

Lita Roza, who has died aged 82, was one of Britain’s most versatile, accomplished and glamorous popular singers in the 1950s. In March 1953 she was also the first Liverpool-born musician to have a No 1 hit, albeit with Bob Merrill’s novelty ballad the much-derided (How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window. It was a hit despite competition from the US version by Patti Page and one by Carole Carr, with children’s choir and Rustler the Dog. Roza resolutely refused to include it in her live shows, observing that it should be on a Lita Roza Sings Rubbish album. When told it was Margaret Thatcher’s favourite song, she retorted: “Well, I suppose she had to like something!”

She was born Lilian Patricia Roza in Liverpool, the second of seven children of a Spanish-born marine engineer and his English wife. At Granby Street school her classmates included Jean Alexander, later to play Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street. Her own showbusiness aspirations were inspired by her father, an accordionist who also played piano in night clubs and hotels.

Her early professional career was as a child and teenage dancer. At 12, having answered an advertisement for young dancers, she passed the audition and trained in London at the Ken Moore School of Dancing. This led to membership of the 52 Bright Eyes 26-child dance troupe, which played in pantomime in Norwich in 1938. In the early war years, she danced in pantomime at Chester and the Liverpool Empire, appearing in Aladdin and Cinderella (1941-42) before touring as one of the 16 Hippodrome Lovelies in the variety show Black Velvet.

There was a change of direction when, after a brief period cutting and packing butter at the Home & Colonial Stores, she found work as a singer in a Stockport club. There her first name was shortened to Lita. This led to a spell with the London-based dance band of clarinettist Harry Roy. In wartime London she met and married an American officer serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force and moved with him to the US. She was out of the music business for five years.

The marriage ended in divorce: Roza returned to England and resumed her career. She had taken the precaution of sending a demonstration disc of her singing and photographs to Ted Heath, who led Britain’s leading dance band. Heath asked her to call him and then recruited her, beginning with one of his Sunday Swing nights at the London Palladium. He also gave her a five-year contract with his talent agency, intending her to make a career in cabaret.

Then, in July 1950, his own female singer fell ill and Roza became a regular soloist with the Heath orchestra, joining it for a BBC audition which was successful, although the head of light entertainment was lukewarm. “She has no special vocal talent,” he said, “but will look good sitting on the bandstand.”

Her appearances and broadcasts with Heath brought a Decca recording contract. Between 1951 and 1957, Decca issued more than 50 singles by Roza, many of them covers of American hits that competed with both the US version, or versions, and other British covers. She was required to sing in a range of styles including the folksy for her cover of Jo Stafford’s Allentown Jail, a western theme for High Noon in 1952, which was a hit for Frankie Laine, and even rock’n’ roll – she gamely attempted Bill Haley’s Crazy Man Crazy in 1955. And then there was That Doggie in the Window. Roza’s own favourite of her records from this era was Hey There (You With the Stars in Your Eyes) from Richard Adler and Jerry Ross’s show The Pyjama Game and a 1955 top 20 hit.

That year Roza left the Heath agency and embarked on a solo career managed by Joe Collins, father of Joan and Jackie. As well as cabaret and nightclubs, there was television with the Lita Roza Show (1956) and appearances on Six-Five Special, the show that introduced skiffle and rock’n’roll to the BBC. She had a cameo in Lewis Gilbert’s Cast a Dark Shadow (1955) and played Digby Wolfe’s girlfriend in the sitcom Sheep’s Clothing (1957). After Decca, Roza recorded for Pye, Ember and EMI’s Columbia.

Then came the 1960s, guitar groups and that wave of female vocalists – Dusty Springfield, Marianne Faithfull, Sandy Shaw et al – which washed away torch-singers such as Roza, and indeed, as she lamented, saw intimate cabaret venues replaced by the Batley Variety and other giant clubs.

Yet she found appreciative audiences abroad, travelling to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Las Vegas. She also toured for Combined Services Entertainment to Singapore, Cyprus and the Middle East. Then, in 1982, she became a linchpin of the annual Ted Heath orchestra reunions, masterminded by trombonist and arranger Don Lusher – Heath had died in 1969. For almost two decades Roza and fellow vocalist Denis Lotis helped to recreate the sound of the Heath band in its 1950s heyday.

After those concerts ended in 2000, Roza made only one more appearance, in 2002, at a celebration of BBC Radio Merseyside’s 30th anniversary. It showed that her home city had not forgotten her, as did the invitation the previous year to open the Wall of Hits in Matthew Street, home of the Cavern Club. The wall was studded with bronze discs of every No 1 to emanate from Liverpool, beginning with her own and ending with Atomic Kitten. And this year, Roza has been amply represented in the Beat Goes On, an exhibition devoted to the city’s musical heritage which is part of the European City of Culture programme. And she has also been served well by the CD reissue industry.

Both her marriages ended in divorce. She is survived by a niece.

· Lita (Lilian Patricia) Roza, singer, born March 14 1926; died August 14 2008

The above “Guardian” obituary can also be accessed online here.

Madge Hindle was born in 1938 in Blackburn. She has worked several times in the dramas of Alan Bennett including “On the Margin”, “Sunset Across the Bay” and “Intensive Care”. She starred in “Coronation Streeas Renee Roberts, wife of Alf but in 1980 was written out in a car accident. She has also been in the tv series “Porridge”.

“Wikipedia” entry:

Hindle’s big break came when her good friend, playwright Alan Bennett, asked her to appear in his 1966 BBC comedy series On the Margin.^[1]

From 1968 to 1973, she played the role of Lily Tattersall on the series Nearest and Dearest. When the series’ director, Bill Podmore, took over as producer of Coronation Street, he thought of her when he created the role of the feisty shopkeeper, Renee Bradshaw.^[2]

Hindle joined the cast as Renee Bradshaw in 1976. In 1978, Renee was married to the character Alf Roberts (played by Bryan Mosley). However, in 1980, Renee was killed when her car was struck by a lorry. Hindle remains philosophical about her character’s death in Coronation Street, saying that if they had to write her out, at least they killed her, which meant she would never be tempted to return, thus risking typecasting.

In 1972 she appeared on This Is Your Life as a guest for her Nearest and Dearest co-star, fellow Lancashire actress Hylda Baker.

She has appeared in two of Alan Bennett‘s television plays: Sunset Across the Bay (1975) and Intensive Care (1982). She has worked in several productions with Ronnie Barker, playing the governor’s secretary Mrs Hesketh in the BBC sitcom Porridge and also made two appearances in Barker’s other sitcom Open All Hours. She co-starred with Barker again in The Two Ronnies’ 1982 almost-silent TV film By the Sea.

Most recently, Hindle had a recurring role alongside Gwen Taylor in the 1990s sitcom Barbara.^[3] She played the role until 2003.

In addition to being an actress, Hindle was Mayoress of Blackburn when her mother became Mayor.

Her daughter, Charlotte Hindle, rose to prominence in the 1980s as a presenter on the Saturday morning children’s show Get Fresh.

Hindle is also the Honorary Vice-President of Blackburn Arts Club, an amateur dramatic society. Along with her husband Michael, she appeared in many productions for the club during the 1960s.

She now lives, with her husband Michael, near Settle in North Yorkshire, in a converted farmhouse that she originally bought with good friend Russell Harty.

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

Thomas Baptise was born in 1936 in Georgetown, British Guiana. His acting career was based entirely in Britain. His films include “Beyond this Place” in 1959, “No Flames in the Street”, “Guns at Batasi” and “The Ipcress File” in 1966.

Jean Anderson was born in 1907 in Eastbourne. Her films include “Bond Street” in 1948, “White Corridors”, “The |Kidnappers” and “Robbery Under Arms”. She had two very successful television series “The Brothers” and “Tenko”. She died in 2001 at the age of 93.

“The Guardian” obituary:

Eric Shorter
The Guardian, Thursday 5 April 2001 16.14 BST

Tipsy aunts, querulous matrons, fearsome matriarchs, plucky parents, condescending aristocrats, taciturn chaperones, tight-lipped nannies, crusty aunts, gossipy grandmas, suspicious wives, elderly gamblers, theatrical dames, snooty dowagers, nosy spinsters and rural snobs – Jean Anderson, who has died aged 93, had a way of giving to each a singular presence, vitality, dignity and truth.

Yet, as a character actress of her quality, she had had far fewer opportunities than a star or leading performer to establish herself in our imagination, especially in the kind of depth which the musically trained Anderson liked to plumb. In the late 1920s, it was hard for a serious-minded young actress who was not arrestingly pretty to get a training in the classics, which was the only way to get on without backstage influence.

Born in Eastbourne of a Scottish family, she grew up in Guildford. After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, her first professional role was on a 50-week tour of Many Waters, alongside a fellow RADA student, Robert Morley. After a stint in rep at Cambridge, where the director was Peter Powell, whom she later married, she landed the part of the mother in an Irish revival by the Gate Theatre Company, Dublin, of Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness! which visited the West End in 1936. When the company returned to Dublin, Anderson joined it for three years as leading lady.

In the 1940s, Anderson found herself working at London’s Players Theatre Club, then in King Street, Covent Garden, now under Charing Cross Station, where so many other theatrical luminaries (notably Peter Ustinov) first got their footing in the theatre. Anderson enjoyed the atmosphere, camaraderie and hard work of the so-called Late Joys and had a gift for the kind of satirical, nostalgic material which continues to be sung in tribute to the Victorian music hall. She became so popular that during the absence of Leonard Sachs, the legendary founder and co-director with Peter Godfrey of the Players, she proved a most stirring substitute.

Whether in the West End or provinces, or with the newly subsidised National Theatre or Royal Shakespeare Company, she made her mark, however briefly, in plays by Rattigan or Fry, Chekhov or Ibsen, Ben Travers or EM Forster, Somerset Maugham or William Douglas Home, Jean-Jacques Bernard or Frank Wedekind – and in particular as Mme Rosamunde in Les Liaisons Dangereuses for the RSC, in which she went to Broadway (1986).

Was there a likelier Charley’s Aunt (for the same company) or a haughtier dowager in Travers’ Corkers End (at Guildford) or a funnier Dame Maud Gosport (looming but listing squiffily) in Rattigan’s send-up of actor-managers, Harlequinade? They were typical examples of her familiar character work.

Anderson’s quiet authority, vocal poise and invisible technique saw her safely through countless parts on stage, screen and television. In the 1950s and 1960s she juggled with all three mediums simultaneously, lending her dependably distinctive gallery of cousins, aunts, mothers, nurses, policewomen, social workers, teachers and officials to the big screen in A Town Like Alice, Heart of a Child, Lucky Jim, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Spare the Rod, The Inspector, Half a Sixpence, Country Dance and The Lady Van ishes, as well as to the theatre and television.

It was the small screen, however, which seemed to bring out the best in her art; perhaps because it had more scope for the kind of kindly if sometimes curt characterisation to which Anderson brought such a compelling restraint. My favourites are still the stoic Mum in The Railway Children, the awful matriarch in The Brothers, the series about a road haulage company, and the eccentric old gambler in Trainer.

In its elegance, observation, timing and emotional insight, another gem was Molly Cowper, the ageing English social snob in Julian Mitchell’s Survival of the Fittest. Herself as old as the 80-year-old character, Anderson brought out all the private suffering, loneliness, intransigence and maternal possessiveness of an old lady who refused to acknowledge reality.

Among scores of other “types” which she turned into individuals for the small screen were Jocelyn Holbrook in Tenko, the series about the experiences of European women interned by Japanese militia, Mrs Fortescue in Keeping Up Appearances, Mrs Spencer Ewell in House of Elliot, Dr Goldrup in GBH, Lady Anne in Do Not Disturb, the Dowager in Circles of Deceit, Belle in Campion, Great Aunt Anne in Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop, Jo March in Little Women, and Frau Buddenbrook in Buddenbrooks. Her final television role came last year in Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, back at the Gate Theatre, Dublin.

Her marriage to Peter Powell ended in divorce. They had one daughter, Aude Powell, a theatre agent.

• Mary Jean Heriot Anderson, actress, born December 12 1907; died April 1 2001.

The above “Guardian” obituary can also be accessed online here.

Collection of Classic Brittish Actors

Michael Crawford

James Faulkner

James Faulkner. TCM Overview.

Michael Billington

Peggy O’Neil

Harry Ellis

Lita Roza

Madge Hindle

Thomas Baptise

Jean Anderson

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