Barbara Windsor
| Barbara Windsor MBE | |
|---|---|
 Windsor in 2010 |
|
| Born | Barbara Ann Deeks 6 August 1937 Shoreditch, London, England |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1950–present |
| Spouse | Ronnie Knight (1964–85) (divorced) Stephen Hollings (1986–95) (divorced) Scott Mitchell (2000–present) |
Barbara A Windsor, MBE (born 6 August 1937),[1] better known by her stage name Barbara Windsor, is an English actress. Her best known roles are in the Carry On films and as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.[2]
Born in Shoreditch, London in 1937,[3] Windsor was the only child of John Deeks, a costermonger, and his wife, formerly Rose Ellis, a dressmaker. Windsor is of English and Irish ancestry.[4] She passed her 11-plus exams with the highest marks in North London, and won a place at Our Lady’s Convent in Stamford Hill. Her mother paid for her to have elocution lessons, and she trained at the Aida Foster School in Golders Green, making her stage debut at 13 and her West End debut in 1952 in the chorus of the musical Love From Judy.
Her first film role was in The Belles of St Trinian's in 1954. She joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, coming to prominence in their stage production Fings Ain't Wot They Used to Be and Littlewood's film Sparrows Can't Sing in 1963, achieving a BAFTA nomination for Best British Film Actress. She also appeared in the 1964 film comedy Crooks in Cloisters, the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and in the sitcoms The Rag Trade and Wild, Wild Women.
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[edit] Carry On films
Windsor came to real prominence with her portrayals of a 'good time girl' in nine Carry On films. Her first was Carry On Spying in 1964 and her final Carry On... film acting role was in Carry On Dick in 1974. She also appeared in several Carry On... television and compilation specials between 1964 and 1977.
Her most famous scene was in Carry On Camping where, during outdoor aerobic exercises, her bikini top flew off to reveal her breasts.[5]
From 1973 to 1975 she appeared with several of the Carry On team in the West End revue Carry On London! During this time she had a well-publicised affair with her co-star, Sid James.[6]
She was strongly identified with the Carry On films for many years which restricted the variety of roles she was chosen to play later.
[edit] Theatre career
She also starred on Broadway in the Theatre Workshop's Oh, What a Lovely War! and received a 1965 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She also appeared in Lionel Bart's musical flop Twang! (directed by Joan Littlewood) and in the musical Come Spy with Me with Danny La Rue.
In 1970 she landed the role of music hall legend Marie Lloyd in the musical-biopic Sing A Rude Song. In 1972 she appeared in the West End in Tony Richardson's The Threepenny Opera with his then wife, Vanessa Redgrave. In 1975, she toured the UK, New Zealand and South Africa in her own show, Carry On Barbara!, and followed this with the role of Maria in Twelfth Night at the Chichester Festival Theatre.
In 1981 she played sex-mad landlady Kath in Joe Orton's black comedy Entertaining Mr Sloane at the Lyric Hammersmith, directed by her friend Kenneth Williams. She reprised the role for a national tour in 1993.[citation needed]
She starred as Fairy Bowbells in the pantomime Dick Whittington at the Bristol Hippodrome during Christmas 2010.[7]
[edit] EastEnders
Windsor once claimed that her biggest professional regret was that they only wanted unknown faces in TV's EastEnders.[8]
In 1994 Windsor was cast in the series. She took over the role Peggy Mitchell (previously played by Jo Warne in 1991), for which she received the Best Actress award at the British Soap Awards in 1999 and a Lifetime Achievement award from the same source in 2009.[citation needed]
A debilitating case of the Epstein-Barr virus forced a two year absence from EastEnders from 2003 to 2005.[citation needed] During this period she made a two episode appearance in 2004. She rejoined the cast in mid 2005 on a one year contract. The Doctor Who episode "Army of Ghosts" broadcast on 1 July 2006 included a specially recorded clip from a fictional episode of EastEnders featuring her appearing in character.
In October 2009 Windsor announced she was to quit her role as Peggy Mitchell, saying she wanted to spend more time with her husband.[9] On 10 September 2010 her character left Albert Square after a fire at The Queen Victoria pub, of which she was the owner. Following her on-screen departure, she ruled out ever returning to the series.[10]
[edit] Recent years
Although Windsor recorded the single "Don't Dig Twiggy"/"Swinging Londondon" (arranged by Mark Wirtz in 1967, it wasn't until 1999 that she made her UK Chart debut with fellow EastEnders cast member Mike Reid with "The More I See You", which reached number 44. In 2000, she was made an MBE in the Millennium Honours List, was inducted into the first BBC Hall of Fame and had a waxwork of her unveiled at Madame Tussauds. She also published her autobiography, All of Me.[citation needed]
Windsor examined her family tree in the first episode of the third series of the documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?, which aired on 6 September 2006, in which she traced her family tree back 11 generations to John Golding, the great-great-grandfather of the painter John Constable, making him Windsor's fourth cousin six times removed.[11]
Windsor provided the voice of the Dormouse in Walt Disney's 2010 live action adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, directed by Tim Burton. The cast of the film also included Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway.[12][13]
Windsor will be appearing in the pantomime Dick Whittington at the Bristol Hippodrome over the Christmas/New Year period of 2010/2011.[14]
On 8 September 2010 it was announced that Windsor will be fronting a TV campaign for online bingo site Jackpotjoy.[15]
On 9 October 2010 Windsor appeared on Piers Morgan's Life Stories[16] and revealed she has become teetotal to help Mitchell with his "terrible alcohol problem".[17]
In November 2010 she was awarded a top variety gong for her contribution to showbusiness.[18]
In January 2011 she appeared as herself in series 1, episode 4 of BBC comedy series Come Fly With Me, where she was insulted by the character Moses played by David Walliams.
Since 2011 she has occasionally stood in for Elaine Paige on her BBC Radio 2 show on Sunday afternoons between 1pm and 3pm.
[edit] Relationships and personal life
Windsor has married three times:
- Ronnie Knight (married 2 March 1964,[19] divorced January 1985)
- Stephen Hollings (married 12 April 1986 in Jamaica,[20] divorced 1995)
- Scott Mitchell (married 8 April 2000)[21]
During the 1960s she also had a brief relationship with footballer George Best.[22]
In her autobiography, All of Me, Windsor talks about her five abortions, the first three of which took place before the age of 21, the last when she was 42. She has said that she never wanted children as a result of her father rejecting her.[23]
She was a real-life landlady when she ran a pub called The Plough at Winchmore Hill, Buckinghamshire with her second husband, Stephen Hollings.[2]
Over the years Windsor has made her home in a variety of locations. Amongst them, Sunday Times photographer Michael Ward's autobiography records her as living in Grand Parade, Harringay, in the early 1960s.[24]
In August 2010 Windsor was given the Freedom of the City of London,[25] and in November 2010 she was honoured by the City of Westminster at a tree planting and plaque ceremony.[26][27]
Windsor has been a keen supporter of the British Conservative Party.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Carry On films
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1964 | Carry On Spying | Daphne Honeybutt |
| 1967 | Carry On Doctor | Nurse Sandra May |
| 1969 | Carry On Camping | Babs |
| Carry On Again Doctor | Goldie Locks | |
| 1971 | Carry On Henry | Bettina |
| 1972 | Carry On Matron | Nurse Susan Bell |
| Carry On Abroad | Sadie Tomkins | |
| 1973 | Carry On Girls | Hope Springs |
| 1974 | Carry On Dick | Harriet |
[edit] Other films
| Year | Film |
|---|---|
| 1954 | The Belles of St Trinian's |
| 1955 | A Kid for Two Farthings |
| 1956 | Lost |
| 1959 | Make Mine a Million |
| 1960 | Too Hot to Handle |
| 1961 | Flame in the Streets |
| On the Fiddle | |
| 1962 | Death Trap |
| Hair of the Dog | |
| 1963 | Sparrers Can't Sing |
| 1964 | Crooks in Cloisters |
| 1965 | San Ferry Ann |
| A Study in Terror | |
| 1968 | Chitty Chitty Bang Bang |
| 1971 | The Boy Friend |
| 1973 | Not Now, Darling |
| 1987 | It Couldn't Happen Here |
| 2010 | Alice in Wonderland |
[edit] References
- ^ "Barbara Windsor at 70". BBC (BBC). 6 August 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6930031.stm. Retrieved 21 February 2011.
- ^ a b " Ten Things You Never Knew About Barbara Windsor" Digital Spy May 23, 2007
- ^ GRO Register of Births: SEP 1937 1a 176 STEPNEY - Barbara A. Deeks, mmn = Ellis
- ^ BBC - Who Do You Think You Are? - Past Stories - Barbara Windsor
- ^ Ross, Robert; Collins, Phil (2002), The Carry on companion (40 ed.), Batsford, p. 80, ISBN 9780713487718
- ^ The Daily Mail (online edition), Todd, Ben, 9th October 2010
- ^ "BBC News - Barbara Windsor signs on to Dick Whittington". BBC Online (BBC Online). 31 March 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8596696.stm. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
- ^ Hibbin, Sally and Nina Hibbin. What a Carry On: The Official Story of the Carry On Film series, Hamlyn, 1988. ISBN 0-600-55819-3 p. 43
- ^ "Actress Windsor Quits EastEnders". United Kingdom: BBC News. 28 October 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8329637.stm. Retrieved 3 December 2009.
- ^ Connolly, Lucy (30 September 2010). "Babs: I'll never return to Enders". The Sun (London). http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/soaps/3159093/Actress-Barbara-Windsor-73-says-she-wont-return-to-soap-opera-Eastenders.html. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
- ^ Barbara Windsor - Who Do You Think You Are?
- ^ New Alice in Wonderland images, BBC Newsbeat
- ^ Alice in Wonderland at imdb.com
- ^ "Barbara Windsor signs on to panto". BBC News. 31 March 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8596696.stm.
- ^ Barbara Windsor to Front Jackpotjoy Bingo TV Ad Campaign,
- ^ "Piers Morgan's Life Stories: Barbara Windsor appears on TVGuide.co.uk - TV Guide UK TV Listings". TV Guide. http://www.tvguide.co.uk/titlesearch.asp?title=Piers%20Morgan%27s%20Life%20Stories:%20Barbara%20Windsor. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
- ^ "Eastenders' Barbara Windsor and Jessie Wallace 'erupt' on set in real -life battle". Mail Online (London: Daily Mail). 3 October 2010. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1317277/Eastenders-Barbara-Windsor-Jessie-Wallace-erupt-set-real-life-battle.html. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
- ^ "BBC News - Windsor receives top variety gong". BBC Online (BBC Online). 14 November 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11754117. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
- ^ GRO Register of Marriages: MAR 1964 5e 828 EDMONTON - Ronald J. Knight = Barbara A. Deeks
- ^ Windsor, Barbara (2000). All of Me: My Extraordinary Life. Headline Book Publishing. ISBN 0747270074.
- ^ GRO Register of Marriages: APR 2000 258 284 WESTMINSTER - Scott Mitchell = Barbara A Windsor
- ^ Yahoo News 9 October 2010
- ^ "Barbara Windsor: Body of evidence". London: The Guardian. 1999-03-15. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/1999/mar/15/features11.g21. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
- ^ Mostly Women: A Photographer's Life, Michael Ward, Granta, 2006, ISBN 978-1862078499
- ^ "Barbara Windsor given freedom of the City of London". BBC News. 4 August 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-10866207.
- ^ BARBARA WINDSOR'S PEAR TREE, 5 November, 2010, a short film available on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRT1OQkOmMU
- ^ Barbara Windsor completes the planting of new trees on Weymouth Street Marylebone Association web site, Thursday, 11 November 2010
[edit] External links
- Barbara Windsor at the Internet Movie Database
- Barbara Windsor at bbc.co.uk
- Barbara Windsor Local research for "Who do you think you are" at Bures, Suffolk
