Peggy Ashcroft
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Peggy Ashcroft on the cover of her biography by Michael Billington |
Dame Peggy Ashcroft DBE (
22 December 1907–
14 June 1991), born
Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft, was an acclaimed
Academy Award-winning
English actress.
Born in
Croydon, Peggy Ashcroft attended the
Central School of Speech and Drama. A prolific stage actress from a young age, 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 â€" a role which won her an
Oscar in 1984 for Best Actress In A Supporting Role, although she did not appear in person at the telecast to accept the award, which
Angela Lansbury accepted on her 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.
Peggy Ashcroft was appointed
Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1951, and raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1956.
She died in London, following a
stroke at the age of 83.
She was thrice-married and divorced, with 2 children by her last husband,
Jeremy Hutchinson, Baron Hutchinson of Lullington, whom she married in 1940 and divorced in 1965. Her first husband was
Sir Rupert Hart-Davis, and her second husband was the great
Theodore Komisarjevsky. She was rumoured to have had an affair with the late African-American actor and activist,
Paul Robeson.
Peggy Ashcroft was painted by
Walter SickertFilm
Madame Sousatzka (1988) â€" Lady Emily
A Passage to India (1984) â€" Mrs Moore
The 39 Steps (
1935)
The Wandering Jew (
1933) â€" Olalla Quintana
Television
*
She's Been Away*
The Jewel in the Crown â€" Barbie Batchelor
*
Play of the Month: The Rat Wife (1982)
*
Play of the Month: Little Eyolf (1982)
*
Caught on a Train (1980) â€" Frau Messner
*
Edward and Mrs Simpson (1978) â€" Queen Mary
*
Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures (1978)
*
Play of the Month The Cherry Orchard (1971)
*
The Wednesday Play –
Days in the Trees (1967)
*
Twelfth Night (1937)
