Beryl Reid
Encyclopedia
Beryl Elizabeth Reid, OBE
(17 June 1919 – 13 October 1996) was a British actress of stage and screen.
parents and grew up in Manchester
where she attended Withington
and Levenshulme
High Schools.
in 1936. She had no formal training but later appeared at the Royal National Theatre
in London
as a comedy
actress. Her first big success came in the BBC radio show Educating Archie
as naughty schoolgirl Monica and later as the Brummie
, "Marlene".
Her many film and television roles as a character actor were usually well-received. She reprised her Tony Award
-winning performance of a lesbian
soap opera
star in The Killing of Sister George
for the screen version and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award
for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Drama. The former tour of the play was not a success, people in shops refused to serve her and other performers due to the gay characters in the play.
In both Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
and Smiley's People
Reid played Connie Sachs. For Smiley's People she won a BAFTA for Best Actress on Television. She also wrote an autobiography, So Much Love, which was well received. She played the part of an elderly feminist and political subversive in the 1987 television drama, The Beiderbecke Tapes
.
and osteoporosis at a South Buckinghamshire hospital following knee surgery. She was 77 years old.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(17 June 1919 – 13 October 1996) was a British actress of stage and screen.
Early life
Born in Hereford, England in 1919, Reid was the daughter of ScottishScottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
parents and grew up in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
where she attended Withington
Withington
Withington is a suburban area of the City of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies south of Manchester city centre, about south of Fallowfield, north-east of Didsbury, and east of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, near the centre-to-south edges of the Greater Manchester Urban Area; in the...
and Levenshulme
Levenshulme
Levenshulme is an urban area of the City of Manchester, in North West England. It borders Longsight, Gorton, Burnage, Heaton Chapel and Reddish, and is approximately halfway between Stockport and Manchester City Centre on the A6 road. The A6 bisects Levenshulme. The Manchester to London railway...
High Schools.
Career
Reid applied for and was accepted in a revue in the summer season in BridlingtonBridlington
Bridlington is a seaside resort, minor sea fishing port and civil parish on the Holderness Coast of the North Sea, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It has a static population of over 33,000, which rises considerably during the tourist season...
in 1936. She had no formal training but later appeared at the Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
as a comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
actress. Her first big success came in the BBC radio show Educating Archie
Educating Archie
Educating Archie was a BBC Light Programme comedy show broadcast from June 1950 to February 1958 on Sunday lunchtimes featuring ventriloquist Peter Brough and his doll Archie Andrews. The programme was successful despite a ventriloquist on radio seeming strange, though in the United States, Edgar...
as naughty schoolgirl Monica and later as the Brummie
Brummie
Brummie is a colloquial term for the inhabitants, accent and dialect of Birmingham, England, as well as being a general adjective used to denote a connection with the city, locally called Brum...
, "Marlene".
Her many film and television roles as a character actor were usually well-received. She reprised her Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
-winning performance of a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
star in The Killing of Sister George
The Killing of Sister George
The Killing of Sister George is a 1964 play by Frank Marcus that was adapted as a 1968 film directed by Robert Aldrich.- Stage version :Sister George is a beloved character in the popular radio series Applehurst, a nurse who ministers to the medical needs and personal problems of the local villagers...
for the screen version and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Drama. The former tour of the play was not a success, people in shops refused to serve her and other performers due to the gay characters in the play.
In both Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, featuring George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, perspicacious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence...
and Smiley's People
Smiley's People
Smiley's People is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy George Smiley, it is the third and final novel of the "Karla Trilogy", following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy...
Reid played Connie Sachs. For Smiley's People she won a BAFTA for Best Actress on Television. She also wrote an autobiography, So Much Love, which was well received. She played the part of an elderly feminist and political subversive in the 1987 television drama, The Beiderbecke Tapes
The Beiderbecke Tapes
The Beiderbecke Tapes is a two-part British television drama serial written by Alan Plater and broadcast in 1987. It is the second serial in The Beiderbecke Trilogy and stars James Bolam and Barbara Flynn as schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne...
.
Death
Twice married, but childless, Beryl Reid died from pneumoniaPneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
and osteoporosis at a South Buckinghamshire hospital following knee surgery. She was 77 years old.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | Miss Wilson | ||
| 1956 | Beryl | ||
| 1960 | Two-Way Stretch Two-Way Stretch Two-Way Stretch, sometimes titled Nothing Barred, is a 1960 British comedy film, about a group of prisoners who plan to break out of jail, commit a robbery, and then break back into jail again, thus giving them the perfect alibi – that they were behind bars when the robbery occurred... |
Miss Pringle | |
| 1962 | Doris Fowle, his late wife | ||
| 1968 | Inspector Clouseau | Mrs. Weaver | |
| 1968 | Star! Star! (film) Star! is a 1968 American musical film directed by Robert Wise. The screenplay by William Fairchild is based upon the life and career of British performer Gertrude Lawrence.-Plot:... |
Rose | |
| 1968 | June 'George' Buckridge | Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama | |
| 1969 | Madame Otero | ||
| 1970 | Entertaining Mr Sloane Entertaining Mr Sloane (film) Entertaining Mr Sloane is a 1970 black comedy film directed by Douglas Hickox. The screenplay by Clive Exton is based on the 1964 play of the same title by Joe Orton... |
Kath | |
| 1970 | Ellie Ballantyne | ||
| 1971 | Psychomania Psychomania Psychomania is a British horror film and cult film starring Nicky Henson as a devil worshipping gang leader and Robert Hardy as the detective in charge of bringing them in.It is also known as Death Wheelers Are..... |
Mrs. Latham | |
| 1972 | Father, Dear Father Father, Dear Father (film) Father, Dear Father is a 1973 film based on the popular Thames Television sitcom of the same name Father, Dear Father and directed by William G... |
Mrs. Stoppard | |
| 1972 | Dr. Phibes Rises Again Dr. Phibes Rises Again Dr. Phibes Rises Again! is a sequel to The Abominable Dr. Phibes. It was directed by Robert Fuest, and stars Vincent Price as Dr. Anton Phibes.-Plot:... |
Miss Ambrose, Harry's Cousin | |
| 1973 | No Sex Please, We're British No Sex Please, We're British (film) No Sex Please, We're British is a 1973 British comedy film directed by Cliff Owen and starring Ronnie Corbett, Ian Ogilvy, Susan Penhaligon and Arthur Lowe... |
Bertha Hunter | |
| 1977 | Joseph Andrews Joseph Andrews Joseph Andrews, or The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams, was the first published full-length novel of the English author and magistrate Henry Fielding, and indeed among the first novels in the English language... |
Mrs. Slipslop | |
| 1978 | Rosie Dixon - Night Nurse Rosie Dixon - Night Nurse Rosie Dixon - Night Nurse is a 1978 British comedy film directed by Justin Cartwright and starring Debbie Ash, Carolyne Argyle, Beryl Reid and John Le Mesurier. It was based on a novel by Christopher Wood. A new student nurse arrives at a hospital, attracting interest from the staff with comedic... |
Matron | |
| 1979 | Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, featuring George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, perspicacious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence... |
Connie Sachs | Episode "Smiley Tracks the Mole" Nominated—British Academy Television Award for Best Actress British Academy Television Award for Best Actress - 1950s :*1955 Googie Withers*1956 Virginia McKenna*1957 Rosalie Crutchley*1958 Gwen Watford*1959 Catherine Lacey- 1960s :*1960 Catherine Lacey*1961 Billie Whitelaw*1962 Ruth Dunning*1963 Brenda Bruce*1964 Vivien Merchant*1965 Katherine Blake... |
| 1980 | Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb is a 30 minute television comedy special made by Thames TV and transmitted in 1980. The special is a re-make of Eric Sykes' 1969 film, Rhubarb.-Plot:... |
Home Owner's Wife | |
| 1981 | Late Flowering Love | segment "Invasion Exercise on the Poultry Farm" | |
| 1982 | Doctor Who Doctor Who Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior... Earthshock Earthshock Earthshock is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 8 March to 16 March 1982... |
Briggs | (3 episodes) |
| 1982 | Smiley's People Smiley's People Smiley's People is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy George Smiley, it is the third and final novel of the "Karla Trilogy", following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy... |
Connie Sachs | (Episode #1.3) British Academy Television Award for Best Actress British Academy Television Award for Best Actress - 1950s :*1955 Googie Withers*1956 Virginia McKenna*1957 Rosalie Crutchley*1958 Gwen Watford*1959 Catherine Lacey- 1960s :*1960 Catherine Lacey*1961 Billie Whitelaw*1962 Ruth Dunning*1963 Brenda Bruce*1964 Vivien Merchant*1965 Katherine Blake... |
| 1983 | Yellowbeard Yellowbeard Yellowbeard is a 1983 comedy film by Graham Chapman, along with Peter Cook, Bernard McKenna and David Sherlock. It was directed by Mel Damski, and was Marty Feldman's last film appearance.-Plot:... |
Lady Lambourn | |
| 1983 | Ms. Carrington Moss | ||
| 1984 | Ruby | ||
| 1985 | Mrs. Flynn | ||
| 1985 | May Mole | (5 episodes) | |
| 1987 | Grandma Mole | (6 episodes) | |
| 1987 | Sylvia | (1 episode) |