Beryl Reid
Beryl Reid OBE | |
---|---|
![]() Reid in 1974 | |
Born | Beryl Elizabeth Reid 17 June 1919 Hereford, Herefordshire, England |
Died | 13 October 1996 Buckinghamshire, England | (aged 77)
Cause of death | pneumonia and osteoporosis |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1940–1994 |
Spouse(s) | Bill Worsley (1949–1953; divorced) Derek Franklin (1954–1966; divorced) |
Beryl Elizabeth Reid, OBE (17 June 1919 – 13 October 1996) was a British actress of stage and screen. She won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for The Killing of Sister George, the 1980 Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance for Born in the Gardens, and the 1982 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for Smiley's People. Her film appearances included The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954), The Killing of Sister George (1968), The Assassination Bureau (1969) and No Sex Please, We're British (1973).
Early life
Born in Hereford in 1919,[1] Reid was the daughter of Scottish parents and grew up in Manchester, where she attended Withington and Levenshulme High Schools.
Career
Leaving school at 16, she made her debut in 1936 as a music hall performer at the Floral Hall, Bridlington. Before and during the Second World War, she took part in variety shows and pantomimes. She had no formal training but later appeared at the Royal National Theatre in London as a comedy actress. Her first big success came in the BBC radio show Educating Archie as naughty schoolgirl Monica and later as the Brummie, "Marlene."
Her many film and television roles as a character actor were usually well received. She reprised her Tony Award-winning performance of a lesbian soap opera star in The Killing of Sister George for the 1968 screen version and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Drama. The tour of the play was not a success; people in shops refused to serve her and other performers due to the gay characters in the play.[2]
She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1976 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the car park of Thames Television’s Teddington Studios.
In both Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley's People, Reid played Connie Sachs. For Smiley's People she won a BAFTA for Best Actress on Television. She also wrote an autobiography, So Much Love, which was well received[citation needed]. She played the part of an elderly feminist and political subversive in the 1987 television drama, The Beiderbecke Tapes.
Always a big personality, character actress, gifted in comedy, she appeared in many situation comedies and variety programmes on TV including BBC TV's long running music hall show, The Good Old Days.
Between 1981 and 1983, she co-presented the Children's TV programme Get up and Go for Yorkshire Television, her co-presenter "Mooncat" being a green, talking, puppet cat. Stephen Boxer was her human co-star. After she left the show it became titled simply Mooncat and Co.
She married twice, but had no children.
An authorised biography, Roll Out the Beryl, was published by Fantom Films on 22 August 2016. Written by Kaye Crawford, it was the first biography to be written of the actress and coincided with the twentieth anniversary of her death.
Death
Beryl Reid died on 13 October 1996 from pneumonia and osteoporosis at a South Buckinghamshire hospital following knee surgery. She was 77 years old.[3][4]
Filmography
Year | Film | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1954 | The Belles of St Trinian's | Miss Wilson | |
1956 | The Extra Day | Beryl | |
1960 | Two-Way Stretch | Miss Pringle | |
1962 | The Dock Brief | Doris Fowle | |
1968 | Inspector Clouseau | Mrs. Weaver | |
1968 | Star! | Rose | |
1968 | The Killing of Sister George | June 'George' Buckridge | Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama |
1969 | The Assassination Bureau | Madame Otero | |
1970 | Entertaining Mr Sloane | Kath | |
1970 | The Beast in the Cellar | Ellie Ballantyne | |
1971 | Psychomania | Mrs. Latham | |
1972 | Father, Dear Father | Mrs. Stoppard | |
1972 | Dr. Phibes Rises Again | Miss Ambrose, Harry's Cousin | |
1973 | No Sex Please, We're British | Bertha Hunter | |
1977 | Joseph Andrews | Mrs. Slipslop | |
1978 | Rosie Dixon - Night Nurse | Matron | |
1978 | Carry On Emmannuelle | Mrs Valentine | |
1979 | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy | Connie Sachs | Episode "Smiley Tracks the Mole" Nominated - British Academy Television Award for Best Actress |
1980 | Rhubarb Rhubarb | Home Owner's Wife | |
1981 | Late Flowering Love | segment "Invasion Exercise on the Poultry Farm" | |
1981 | Worzel Gummidge (TV series) | Sarah Pigswell | Series 4 Episode 1 "Muvver's Day" |
1982 | Doctor Who: Earthshock | Briggs | (Episodes Two, Three, Four) |
1982 | Smiley's People | Connie Sachs | (Episode No. 1.3) British Academy Television Award for Best Actress |
1983 | Yellowbeard | Lady Lambourn | |
1983 | The Wind in the Willows | Ms. Carrington Moss | |
1983 | The Irish R.M. | Mrs Knox of Aussolas Castle | |
1984 | Minder | Ruby Hubbard | Series 5, Episode 4 "The Second Time Around" |
1985 | The Doctor and the Devils | Mrs. Flynn | |
1985 | Bergerac | Miss Broome | Series 4, Episode 4 "Low Profile" |
1985 | The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole | May Mole | (5 episodes) |
1987 | The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole | Grandma Mole | (6 episodes) |
1987 | The Beiderbecke Tapes | Sylvia | (1 episode) |
References
- ^ GRO Register of Births: SEP 1919 6a 720 HEREFORD, Beryl E. Reid mmn=McDonald
- ^ Daily Telegraph obituary, also featured in Chin Up Girls! (2005)
- ^ GRO Register of Deaths: Oct 1996 B17A 59 Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire, Beryl Elizabeth Reid, DoB 17 June 1919, aged 77.
- ^ MEL GUSSOWPublished: 15 October 1996 (15 October 1996). "Beryl Reid, Actress, 76, Dies; Gave Life to Varied Eccentrics - New York Times". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
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External links
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- Use dmy dates from April 2012
- 1919 births
- 1996 deaths
- Actresses from Manchester
- BAFTA winners (people)
- Deaths from pneumonia
- Disease-related deaths in England
- English film actresses
- English people of Scottish descent
- English stage actresses
- English television actresses
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire
- People from Buckinghamshire
- People from Hereford
- 20th-century English actresses
- Laurence Olivier Award winners
- Tony Award winners