Tuesday, 5 July 2011

More R.I.P.s

Two distinguished British actresses, and a lively Hollywood starlet !

Anna Massey, aged 73. She began as the debutante in the original '50s production of THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE, her first movie role was as Jack Hawkins' daughter in John Ford's GIDEON'S DAY in '58. Then of course there was Michael Powell's notorious clasic PEEPING TOM in 1960, and her role as Babs in Hitch's FRENZY in 1972 - that chilling moment when the camera backs away down the stairs and out of the building from what is going on upstairs ... Anna was very prolific with lots of other movie roles in films like BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING, DE SADE and a tv REBECCA as Mrs Danvers, with her ex-husband Jeremy Brett as Max. She had a happy late second marriage and was always among the first to be called for a costume drama where she excelled as aunts and spinsters of every type. She was the daughter of Raymond Massey, and sister of Daniel Massey - she and Daniel must have had great fun doing their segment of VAULT OF HORROR. RIP indeed.


Margaret Tyzack,79, so memorable in so many BBC productions like THE FORSYTH SAGA, the still terrific I CLAUDIUS as Antonia, that very noble Roman matron - and as COUSIN BETTE, the malevolent heroine (?) of the 1971 adaptation of Balzac's great novel. I also saw her on stage a few times, as Elizabeth I in Robert Bolt's VIVAT REGINA and with Maggie Smith in the hit comedy LETTICE AND LOVAGE. Margaret kept going to the end and did a few episodes of the soap EASTENDERS recently. Below, with Helen Mirren in COUSIN BETTE.



Elaine Stewart, 81, had a few bright spots in the '50s, in Minnelli's THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL and that memorable scene in Vincente's BRIGADOON when we are back in that nightmarish New York, as the ritzy girlfriend Gene Kelly is not listening to .... her other roles included a rather good James Stewart western I liked as a child, 1957's NIGHT PASSAGE.

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