Dame Edith Evans DBE
Born	Edith Mary Evans (1888-02-08)8 February 1888 London, England, UK
Died	14 October 1976(1976-10-14) (aged 88) Cranbrook, Kent, England, UK
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1910–1976
Spouse	George Booth (1925-1935)

Dame Edith Mary Evans, DBE (8 February 1888 – 14 October 1976) was a British actress.^[1] She was known for her work on the British stage. She also appeared in a number of films, for which she received three Academy Award nominations, plus a BAFTA and a Golden Globe award.

Evans was particularly well known at portraying haughty aristocratic ladies, as in two of her most famous roles: Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest (both on stage and in the 1952 film), and Miss Western in the 1963 film of Tom Jones. By contrast, she played a poverty-stricken old woman in one of her most acclaimed film roles, in The Whisperers (1967).

Theatre[link]

Edith Evans was born in London, the daughter of Edward Evans, a civil servant, and his wife, Caroline Ellen Foster. She was educated at St Michael's Church of England School, Pimlico, before being apprenticed at the age of 15 in 1903 as a milliner.

Her first stage appearance was with Miss Massey's Shakespeare Players in the role of Viola in Twelfth Night in October 1910. In 1912 she was discovered by the noted producer William Poel and made her first professional appearance for Poel in August of that year, playing the role of Gautami in a 6th century Hindu classic, Sakuntala. She received much attention with her performance as Cressida in Troilus and Cressida in London and subsequently at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Her career spanned sixty years during which she played over 150 different roles, in works by Shakespeare, Congreve, Ibsen, Wycherley, Wilde and dramatists of her era including George Bernard Shaw, Enid Bagnold, Christopher Fry and Noël Coward. She created six of Shaw's characters: the Serpent, the Oracle, the She-Ancient, and the Ghost of the Serpent in Back to Methuselah (1923); Orinthia in The Apple Cart (1929); and Epifania in The Millionairess (1940). Other performances which many considered definitive were as Millamant in The Way of the World (1924), Rosalind in As You Like It (1926 and 1936), the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet (1932-35 and 1961), and, most notably, as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest (1939), a role with which she became identified in the public's mind (in particular for her drippingly sarcastic delivery of the line: "A handbag?"). In 1964 she appeared as Judith Bliss in a revival of Hay Fever by Noël Coward, directed by the playwright himself, for the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic.

Film[link]

Edith Evans had begun her film career in 1915, but was noted mostly for her stage work until she appeared in the 1949 films The Queen of Spades and The Last Days of Dolwyn. She was the Ghost of Christmas Past in the 1970 musical version of Scrooge starring Albert Finney. Edith Evans made her American television debut in 1961 in Jean Anouilh's comedy, Time Remembered with Christopher Plummer.

In 1925, Edith Evans married George (Guy) Booth. He died a decade later from a brain tumour. There were no children of this marriage, and Evans never remarried.

Portraits[link]

Walter Sickert painted Edith Evans as Katharina, the lead character in Shakespeare's romantic comedy, The Taming of the Shrew. Henry Glintenkamp painted Edith Evans in 1922; the portrait was sold as part of her estate at Sotheby's in 1977. A sculpted head of her was for many years on display at the Royal Court Theatre, London.

Edith Evans was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1946. She also received four honorary degrees from the universities of London (1950), Cambridge (1951), Oxford (1954) and Hull (1968).

Her ashes rest at St Paul's, Covent Garden, London. There is a blue plaque outside her house at 109 Ebury Street, London.

Theatre[link]

• 1909-10: Bad Girl of the Family, Grand Theatre, Southampton
• 1912-13: Elizabeth Cooper, Haymarket
• 1917-18: Manfred, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
• 1919: Merchant of Venice, Royal Court Theatre
• 1920-21: Mother Eve, Ambassadors Theatre
• 1920-21: Witch of Edmonton, Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith
• 1922-23: Rumour, Globe Theatre
• 1923-24: Way of the World, Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith
• 1923-24: Adding Machine, Strand Theatre
• 1924: Midsummer Night’s Dream, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
• 1924-25: Midsummer Night's Dream, Drury Lane
• 1925: The Painted Swan, Everyman Theatre
• 1925-26: Much Ado About Nothing, Old Vic
• 1925-26: She Stoops To Conquer, Old Vic
• 1925-26: Julius Caesar, Old Vic
• 1925-26: As You Like It, Old Vic
• 1925-26: Romeo and Juliet, Old Vic
• 1925-26: Shoemaker's Holiday, Old Vic
• 1925-26: Taming of the Shrew, Old Vic
• 1925-26: Antony and Cleopatra, Old Vic
• 1925-26: Measure for Measure, Old Vic
• 1925-26: Child in Flanders, Old Vic
• 1925-26: Everyman, Old Vic
• 1925-26: Merchant of Venice, Old Vic
• 1925-26: Richard III, Old Vic
• 1925-26: Merry Wives of Windsor, Old Vic
• 1925-26: Shakespeare Birthday Festival, Old Vic
• 1926-27: Rosmersholm, Kingsway Theatre
• 1927: The Way of the World, Wyndham's Theatre
• 1927-28: Shakespeare Birthday Festival, Old Vic
• 1928-29: Apple Cart, Malvern Theatre, Worcestershire
• 1929-30: Shakespeare Birthday Festival, Old Vic
• 1931: O.H.M.S., Arts Theatre, New Theatre
• 1931-32: Twelfth Night, Old Vic
• 1931-32: Shakespeare Birthday Festival, Old Vic
• 1931-32: Othello, Old Vic
• 1933: The Late Christopher Bean, St.James's Theatre
• 1935-36: Romeo and Juliet, New Theatre
• 1936-37: Taming of The Shrew, New Theatre
• 1936-37: Witch of Edmonton, Old Vic
• 1936-37: As You Like It, Old Vic; New Theatre
• 1936-37: Country Wife, Old Vic
• 1937: The Taming of The Shrew, New Theatre
• 1937-38: Robert's Wife, Globe Theatre
• 1938-39: Importance of Being Earnest, Globe Theatre
• 1939-40: Importance of Being Earnest, Prince's Theatre, Bristol
• 1946: Anthony and Cleopatra, Theatre Royal, Newcastle upon Tyne; Piccadilly Theatre
• 1949: Daphne Loreola, Wyndham's Theatre
• 1951: Waters of the Moon, Theatre Royal, Haymarket
• 1954: The Dark is Light Enough, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; Opera House, Manchester; Aldwych Theatre
• 1957: The Chalk Garden, Theatre Royal, Haymarket
• 1962 (4 March): Programme of Poetry and Music, Aldwych
• 1963: Gentle Jack, Queen's Theatre
• 1964: Hay Fever, Old Vic National Theatre
• 1965: The Chinese Prime Minister by Enid Bagnold, Globe Theatre
• 1968 (Feb):Aerial Football and The Black Girl in Search of God, Mermaid Theatre
• 1974: Edith Evans and Friends, Theatre Royal, Haymarket

Filmography[link]

Notes[link]

• 1977 - Ned's Girl by Bryan Forbes, Elm Tree Books

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Edith Evans

• Edith Evans at the Internet Movie Database
• Edith Evans at the Internet Broadway Database
• Edith Evans biography and credits at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Performances by Edith Evans listed in The Theatre Collection, University of Bristol

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Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was an English comic actor and comedian. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the Carry On films, and appeared in numerous British television shows, and radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne.

Life and career[link]

Kenneth Charles Williams was born on 22 February 1926 in Bingfield Street, King's Cross, London,^[1] the son of Louisa ("Lou" or "Louie") and Charles Williams, a barber. Williams had a half-sister, Alice Patricia, born before Louie had met Charlie Williams. He was educated at Lyulph Stanley School, later becoming apprenticed as a draughtsman to a mapmaker. He joined the Army in 1944 at 18. As part of the Royal Engineers survey section in Bombay, he first performed on stage in the Combined Services Entertainment alongside Stanley Baxter and Peter Nichols.^[2] He was a voracious reader able to quote poems or literary extracts from memory. Excerpts from the diaries he kept as an adult show he adored his supportive, theatrical mother but despised his homophobic, morose and selfish father.

Comic performer[link]

His professional career began in 1948 in repertory theatre. Failure to become a serious dramatic actor disappointed him, but his potential as a comic performer gave him his break when he was spotted playing the Dauphin in George Bernard Shaw's St Joan in 1954 by radio producer Dennis Main Wilson. Main Wilson was casting Hancock's Half Hour, a radio series starring Tony Hancock. Playing mostly funny voice roles, Williams stayed in the series almost to the end, five years later.^[3] His nasal, whiny, camp-cockney inflections (epitomised in his "Stop messing about...!" catchphrase) became popular with listeners.^[4] Despite the success and recognition the show brought him, Williams thought theatre, film and television were superior forms of entertainment.

When Hancock moved the show away from what he considered gimmicks and silly voices, Williams had less to do on the programme. Tiring of his reduced status, he joined Kenneth Horne in Beyond Our Ken (1958–1964), and its sequel, Round the Horne (1965–1968). His roles in Round the Horne included Rambling Syd Rumpo, the eccentric folk singer; Dr Chou En Ginsberg, MA (failed), Oriental criminal mastermind; J. Peasemold Gruntfuttock, telephone heavy breather and dirty old man; and Sandy of the camp couple Julian and Sandy (Julian was played by Hugh Paddick). Their double act was notable for double entendres and Polari, the homosexual slang.