Rosemary Leach

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Rosemary Anne Leach (born December 18, 1935 in Much Wenlock , Shropshire , England - † October 21, 2017 in London , England) was a British actress .

Life

Family and education

Rosemary Leach was born as the second daughter of the teacher couple Sidney and Mary Leach (née Parker). Her father was rector (Headteacher), while organist and choirmaster at the village school in Diddlebury , near Ludlow . Her parents were followers of the British ethnosociologist and social anthropologist Edmund Leach . She attended the Oswestry School, where she was particularly well received in the theater class. After graduating from school, she worked briefly as a shoe seller at the department store chain John Lewis in their branch in Reading . At the age of 18 she went to London to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). In 1955 she completed her training there.

theatre

After her degree in acting, she was immediately several small, regional repertory theater (Repertory Companies) in Amersham , Buckinghamshire , and then in Coventry committed, where they played a total of about two years. In the early 1960s she got major roles at repertory theaters in Liverpool and Birmingham , where u. a. Bernard Hepton and Derek Jacobi were their partners. In the 1960s she had engagements at the Birmingham Repertory Theater (1961/62 season), the Liverpool Playhouse (1962) and, in the 1964/65 season, at the Little Theater in Bristol .

After working mainly for television , she resumed her stage career in the 1970s. In 1973 she appeared at the Birmingham Repertory Theater as a dancer Miss Adelaide in the musical Guys and Dolls ; 1974 followed there the title role in Hedda Gabler . In 1976 she was part of the initial ensemble of the British actor and director George Murcell newly founded St George's Theater, in Tufnell Park in north London, which was mainly dedicated to the maintenance of the work of William Shakespeare . There Leach played a. a. the nurse in Romeo and Juliet (1976), Queen Elisabeth in Richard III. (1976) and Rosalinde in As You Like It (1979). She also had engagements at the Queen's Theater, London (1977) and the Greenwich Theater, London (1979).

In the 1981/82 season she took on the female lead in Ambassadors Theater, London in the two-person play 84 Charing Cross Road , which depicts the pen friendship of the American playwright Helene Hanff with the London antiquarian bookseller Frank Doel from 1949 to 1969. In 1982 she received the Olivier Award for “Best Actress” in the “Best Actress in a New Play” category for her portrayal .

After a hiatus of more than ten years, she returned to the theater stage in London's West End in the 1990s. Directed by Sir Peter Hall , she played in Terence Rattigan's play Separate Tables (English title: Separate tables , also Separate from table and bed ) the role of Mrs. Railton-Bell, who went from being an upright advocate of morality to being bigoted Figure transforms; their partners in this production were u. a. Peter Bowles , Patricia Hodge , Ernest Clark , Rachel Gurney and Miriam Karlin . In this production she also made guest appearances at the Theater Royal, Bath in the theater season 1992/93 . In the 1998/99 season she appeared again at the Theater Royal, Bath, in The Kingfisher by William Douglas-Home .

Movie and TV

Leach has taken on numerous film and television roles. The Internet Movie Database lists 126 productions with Leach's involvement. She made her television debut in 1962 in two episodes of the British television series Task Force Police (1962–1963).

With the British television audience, she became known in particular through the television series The Power Game , in which she played the role of Susan Wheldon, the lover of the "construction lion" John Wilder ( Patrick Wymark ) from 1965 to 1969 . In the following years she was seen on television in several mini-series, including Germinal (1970, as mistress and mistress Maheude), The Jewel of the Crown - On the Other Shore (1984, as Aunt Fanny, with Charles Dance and Tim Pigott -Smith as partners) and later in the 5-part BBC miniseries The Buccaneers (1995), a television adaptation of Edith Wharton's unfinished novel; Leach played Selina Marable, the Marquise of Brightlingsea. In 1978 she played Queen Victoria in the 4-part British mini-series Disraeli about the life of statesman Benjamin Disraeli . In the 6-part TV miniseries The Charmer (1987), she played the lead role of Joan Plumleigh-Bruce, alongside Nigel Havers ; she embodied a wealthy widow who falls in love with a charming younger man who is only interested in her fortune.

Leach has also appeared in numerous British television films. In 1973 she played Aldonza / Dulcinea in a BBC production of Don Quixote (under the title The Adventures of Don Quixote ), with Rex Harrison and Frank Finlay in the leading roles. In 1974 she starred alongside Sophia Loren and Richard Burton as Mrs. Gaines in the TV film Brief Encounter , a remake of the British classic Encounter (1945) by David Lean . In 1981 she played the role of Iago's wife Emilia in the BBC Television Shakespeare production of Othello alongside Bob Hoskins as Iago . In the BBC television film An Ungentlemanly Act (1992), which describes the first days of the occupation of the Falkland Islands in 1982, Leach had the female lead; she played Lady Mavis Hunt, the wife of then Governor Sir Rex Hunt . She also played the " Queen " in three television productions .

In 2001 she took on a leading role in the British crime series Inspector Barnaby . She also had a recurring role on the sitcom My Family (2003-2007); in it she was Grace, the mother of the main character Susan Harper, who has a passion for alcohol and especially loves martinis .

Leach, who worked primarily for television, also appeared in a few cinema roles . Her work for the cinema includes a. the film drama Trust No One Over 18 (1973, as Mrs. Mary Maclaine), where she was the mother of singer David Essex , who played the lead role. She had her best-known film role in the film adaptation of the novel Zimmer mit Aussicht (1985); she played Mrs. Honeychurch, the mother of the female heroine Lucy Honeychurch ( Helena Bonham Carter ).

For her two roles, Leach was nominated for the British Academy Film Award (BAFTA Award) for " Best Supporting Actress " in 1974 and 1987, respectively .

Private

Leach had been married to British actor Colin Sharkey since 1981 . She died in hospital in October 2017 at the age of 81 after a brief illness.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1962–1963: Task Force Police ( Z-Cars ; TV series, two episodes)
  • 1965: Public Eye (TV series, an episode)
  • 1965–1969: The Power Game (TV series, series role)
  • 1969: Special assignment ( Strange Report ; TV series, one episode)
  • 1970: Germinal (TV miniseries)
  • 1973: The Adventures of Don Quixote (TV movie)
  • 1973: Don't trust anyone over 18 ( That'll Be the Day ; movie)
  • 1973: Ghost in the Noonday Sun (movie)
  • 1974: The Prince of Denmark (TV series, six episodes)
  • 1974: Brief Encounter (TV movie)
  • 1978: Disraeli (TV miniseries)
  • 1981: Othello (TV movie)
  • 1982: The Dogs Are On The Loose ( The Plague Dogs , cartoon, voice)
  • 1984: The Jewel in the Crown (TV series, series role)
  • 1985: Room with a View ( Room with a View ; feature film)
  • 1987: The Charmer (TV miniseries)
  • 1992: An Ungentlemanly Act (TV movie)
  • 1995: The Buccaneers (TV miniseries)
  • 2000; 2005: Doctors (TV series, two episodes)
  • 2001: Inspector Barnaby: Destroying Angel ( Midsomer Murders ; television series, an episode)
  • 2002: Prince William (TV movie)
  • 2004; 2005: Heartbeat (TV series, two episodes)
  • 2003-2007: My Family (TV series, series role)
  • 2009: Margaret (TV movie)
  • 2011: The Secret of the Ghosts of Craggyford ( The Great Ghost Rescue ; feature film)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Actress Rosemary Leach dies after short illness . Death report. BBC News of October 22, 2017. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Rosemary Leach, star of My Family and The Power Game, dies aged 81 . Metro.com on October 22, 2017. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
  3. ↑ Midsomer Murders: an Episode Guide . Retrieved October 25, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Leach, Rosemary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leach, Rosemary Anne (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actress
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Much Wenlock , Shropshire , England, United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 2017
Place of death London , England