PEGGY ASHCROFT

'Dame Peggy Ashcroft' DBE (22 December 1907 – 14 June 1991) was an acclaimed Academy Award-winning English actress.

Contents

Career

Life

Selected Appearances

Film

Television

Stage

External links

Career

Born 'Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft' in Croydon, Peggy Ashcroft attended the Central School of Speech and Drama. A prolific stage actress from a young age, she first gained notoriety playing Naemi in ''Jew Suss'' in 1929 and Desdemona opposite Paul Robeson's Othello in 1931. True stardom came in 1934 when she played Juliet in a legendary production of ''Romeo and Juliet'' at the New Theatre in which Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud alternated in the roles of Romeo and Mercutio. She stayed at the top of the British theatrical profession for the remainder of her career, with some of the highlights ''The Three Sisters'' (1937}, ''The Heiress'' (1949}, ''Antony and Cleopatra'' (1953), ''As You Like It'' and ''Cymbeline'' (as Imogen) (1957), ''The Taming of the Shrew'' (1960), and ''The War of the Roses,'' the Royal Shakespeare Company's massive landmark compendium of the three ''Henry VI'' plays and ''Richard III'' directed by Peter Hall for the RSC in 1963.
Her film and television appearances were rare but memorable. One of her earliest film roles was the minor part of the crofter's wife in the Robert Donat version of ''The Thirty-Nine Steps''.
In 1937 she appeared in a thirty-minute excerpt of ''Twelfth Night'' on the BBC Television Service, alongside Greer Garson, the first known instance of a Shakespeare play to be performed on television.
Possibly her best known celluloid role was that of Mrs. Moore in the film version of ''A Passage to India'' — a role for which she won an Oscar in 1984 for Best Supporting Actress. To this day, Ashcroft remains the oldest person ever to win this award; she was 77 years old at the time. Although she did not appear in person at the telecast to accept the Oscar, Angela Lansbury accepted it on Ashcroft's behalf.
On television, 1984 saw Peggy Ashcroft appear in the role of Barbie Batchelor on the internationally acclaimed British mini-series ''The Jewel in the Crown'', for which she won a BAFTA Best Television Actress award.
She was painted by Walter Sickert.

Life

Peggy Ashcroft was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1951, and raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1956.
She was thrice-married and divorced, with 2 children by her last husband, Jeremy Hutchinson, whom she married in 1940 and divorced in 1965. Her first husband (married 1929) was Rupert Hart-Davis, and her second husband was Theodore Komisarjevsky.
She reportedly had an affair with African-American actor and activist, Paul Robeson, during a production of ''Othello'' .
She died in London, following a stroke, aged 83.

Selected Appearances

Film

★ ''The Wandering Jew'' (1933) — Olalla Quintana

★ ''The 39 Steps'' (1935) — Margaret Crofter

★ ''The Nun's Story'' (1959) — Mother Mathilde

★ ''A Passage to India'' (1984) — Mrs Moore

★ ''Madame Sousatzka'' (1988) — Lady Emily

Television

★ ''Twelfth Night'' (1937)

★ ''The Wednesday Play: Days in the Trees'' (1967)

★ ''Play of the Month: The Cherry Orchard'' (1971)

★ ''Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures'' (1978)

★ ''Edward and Mrs Simpson'' (1978) — Queen Mary

★ ''Caught on a Train'' (1980) — Frau Messner

★ ''Play of the Month: Little Eyolf (1982) - The Rat Wife

★ ''The Jewel in the Crown'' (1984) — Barbie Batchelor

★ ''She's Been Away'' (1991) - Lillian Huckle

Stage

★ ''The Duchess of Malfi'' (John Webster); 1946; 1960.

External links

★

★ Dame Peggy Ashcroft biography at BFI Screenonline

★ Entry #1 and Entry #2 for Peggy Ashcroft on Find-A-Grave