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Felicity Ann Kendal, CBE (born 25 September 1946) is an English actor known for her television and stage work.

Born in 1946, Kendal spent much of her childhood in India, where her father managed a touring repertory company. First appearing on stage at the age of nine months, Kendal appeared in her first film, Shakespeare Wallah, in 1965. Kendal began playing Barbara Good in The Good Life, the BBC sitcom in 1975. This made Kendal a household name. Later sitcoms where she was the lead did not achieve the popularity of The Good Life. In 2003, Kendal first played Rosemary Boxer in Rosemary & Thyme, a murder mystery drama that aired for three series ending in 2006.

Early life and career[link]

Felicity Kendal was born in Olton, Warwickshire (now West Midlands), England, in 1946, and is the younger daughter of Geoffrey Kendal and his wife Laura (née Liddell). Her elder sister, Jennifer Kendal, also became an actress. Their father, Geoffrey, was an English actor-manager who made his living leading a repertory company on tours of India after the Second World War. They would perform Shakespeare before royalty one day, and in rough rural villages the next where audiences included many schoolchildren.^[1][2] Her father had adopted his birthplace of Kendal, (then Westmorland now Cumbria), as his stage name, his original surname being Bragg. Felicity Kendal was educated at six convents in India.^{[citation needed]}

Kendal made her stage debut aged nine months, when she was carried on stage as a changeling boy in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Later she started her career proper at the age of 19 and starred in the Merchant Ivory film, Shakespeare Wallah (1965), loosely based on her family's real-life experiences. At 21, Kendal returned to Britain against her father's wishes, where she found that her film appearance was not a passport to immediate success. She made her London stage debut in Minor Murder (1967), and went on to star in a number of well regarded plays.

Television[link]

In 1975 she received her big break on television with the BBC sitcom The Good Life, in which Kendal and Richard Briers played Tom and Barbara Good, a middle-class couple who decide to quit the rat-race and become self-sufficient, much to the consternation of their snooty, but well-meaning neighbours, played by Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington. When the series ended in 1978, she starred in several other BBC sitcoms, including Solo, The Mistress and Honey for Tea, but none was as successful.

1980s and 1990s – stage work[link]

Kendal's stage career blossomed during the 1980s and 1990s when she formed a close professional association with Sir Tom Stoppard, starring in the first productions of many of his plays, including The Real Thing (1982), Hapgood (1988), Arcadia (1993), and Indian Ink (1995). This last was originally a radio play and the role was written for her.

She won the Evening Standard Theatre Award in 1989 for Much Ado About Nothing and Ivanov.

In 2002 Kendal starred in Charlotte Jones's play Humble Boy when it transferred from the National Theatre to the West End. In 2006 she starred in the West End play Amy's View by David Hare.

Ongoing work[link]

In 2008 she made a guest appearance in Doctor Who alongside David Tennant and Catherine Tate in the episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp". Also in 2008 she appeared in the West End in a revival of Noël Coward's play The Vortex.

In 2009 she appeared in the play The Last Cigarette (by Simon Gray) and in 2010 in Mrs Warren's Profession (by Shaw). Both played at the Chichester Festival Theatre and subsequently in the West End.

In 2010, Kendal competed in the eighth series of BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing.^[3] partnered with Vincent Simone; the couple were eliminated in the eighth week when the competition was staged in Blackpool.

Awards[link]

• 1976 – Most Promising Newcomer - Variety Club
• 1979 – Best Actress - Variety Club
• 1980 – Clarence Derwent Award
• 1981 - Rear of the Year^[4]
• 1984 – Woman of the Year - Best Actress - Variety Club
• 1989 – Best Actress - Evening Standard Theatre Awards

Publication[link]

• White Cargo (memoirs) - 1998

Personal life[link]

Kendal's first marriage to Drewe Henley (1968 to 1979) and her second to Michael Rudman (1983 to 1990) ended in divorce. She converted to Judaism at the time of her second marriage. Kendal has two sons: Charley, from her marriage to Henley, and Jacob, from her marriage to Rudman. In 1991 she left Rudman to start a relationship with playwright Tom Stoppard who purportedly left his second wife (Miriam Stoppard) to start the relationship with Kendal.^{[citation needed]} The affair with Stoppard ended in 1998 and Kendal has since reunited with Michael Rudman.^[5]

Kendal was made a CBE in 1995.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Felicity Kendal at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview in The Daily Telegraph