Rachel Roberts (actress, 1927)

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Rachel Roberts

Rachel Roberts (born September 20, 1927 in Llanelli , Wales , † November 26, 1980 in Los Angeles , California ) was a British actress .

life and career

Rachel Roberts studied at the University of Wales and then completed her acting training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art . In 1951 she made her professional stage debut, two years later she appeared in a movie for the first time in the Welsh comedy Valley of Song . In total, Roberts then played in about two dozen films, where she initially embodied often sexually accessible, sometimes neglected women of the lower class. From the 1970s, however, she was often seen in authoritarian and independent, occasionally rogue roles.

She gained fame as a film actress in the 1960s through her collaboration with several directors from the British New Wave . In 1960 she was seen in Karel Reisz's social drama from Saturday night to Sunday morning as the housewife Brenda , who cheats with her husband's younger work colleague and who becomes pregnant by him. For this performance she was awarded the BAFTA Award for Best Actress . She received this award a second time for her portrayal of a widow alongside Richard Harris in the film drama Alluring Laurel (1963) directed by Lindsay Anderson . She also received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress at the 1964 Academy Awards for Alluring Laurel . With director Anderson she worked again in 1973 on The Successful at the side of Malcolm McDowell . 1974 Roberts was a German maid in the star-studded Agatha Christie film version Murder on the Orient Express of Sidney Lumet to see. Two years later she played in the successful Australian film Picnic on Valentine's Day by Peter Weir, a cold-hearted and relentless- looking boarding school director in Victorian Australia, who dies with her boarding school after mysterious incidents. Roberts had one of her last film roles in 1979 in John Schlesinger's drama Yanks - We Were Strangers Yesterday .

In addition to film work, Roberts was also a prominent stage actress, for example she played the title role of a Liverpool prostitute in the world premiere of Alun Owen's musical Maggie May at London's West End . In 1974 she was awarded for her performances in the plays Chemin de Fer and the visit of the old lady was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Actress . In 1976 she received the Drama Desk Award for her performance in Alan Bennett's play Habeas Corpus .

In her roles, Rachel Roberts was often subscribed to tragic characters and her private life was similarly unhappy. She was married to her fellow actor Alan Dobie from 1955 to 1961 and her second marriage to Rex Harrison from 1962 to 1972 . Despite moving from England to Los Angeles, she did not cope with the divorce from Harrison and tried several times in vain to win him back. Roberts became increasingly alcoholic and was found dead in her home in November 1980. After an investigation by the coroner , it was announced in January 1981 that the cause of death was suicide with an overdose of barbiturates (sleeping pills). Alexander Walker posthumously processed her detailed diary entries for the book No Bells on Sunday: The Journals of Rachel Roberts , published in 1984 .

Filmography (selection)

literature

Web links

Commons : Rachel Roberts  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rachel Roberts | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos. Retrieved April 3, 2019 (American English).
  2. ↑ Rachel Roberts | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos. Retrieved April 3, 2019 (American English).
  3. ↑ Rachel Roberts (IMDb biography). Retrieved April 3, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Rachel Roberts at Find A Grave
  5. ↑ Rachel Roberts Ruled a Suicide . In: The New York Times . January 6, 1981, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed April 3, 2019]).
personal data
SURNAME Roberts, Rachel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actress
DATE OF BIRTH September 20, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Llanelli , Carmarthenshire , Wales , United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1980
Place of death Los Angeles , California , United States