Eileen Atkins

Dame Eileen Atkins
DBE
Born Eileen June Atkins
(1934-06-16) 16 June 1934
London, England, UK
Education
Years active 1953–present
Spouse(s)
  • Julian Glover (1957–66; divorced)
  • Bill Shepherd (1978–present)

Dame Eileen June Atkins, DBE (born 16 June 1934) is an English actress and occasional screenwriter. She has worked in the theatre, film, and television consistently since 1953. She has won several major acting awards, including a BAFTA, an Emmy and three Oliviers. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1990 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2001.

Atkins joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1957 and made her Broadway debut in the 1966 production of The Killing of Sister George, for which she received the first of four Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in a Play in 1967. She received subsequent nominations for, Vivat! Vivat Regina! in 1972, Indiscretions in 1995 and The Retreat from Moscow in 2004. In the UK, she has won three Olivier Awards, for Best Supporting Performance (for multiple roles) in 1988 and two for Best Actress, for The Unexpected Man in 1999 and Honour in 2004.[1]

Other stage credits include, Twelfth Night (Old Vic London, 1961 & 1978), The Tempest (Old Vic 1962), Exit the King with Alec Guinness (Edinburgh Festival and Royal Court 1963), The Promise (New York 1967), The Night of the Tribades (New York 1977), Medea (Young Vic 1985), A Delicate Balance with Maggie Smith (Haymarket, West End 1997) and Doubt (New York 2006).

For television, she co-created Upstairs, Downstairs (1971–1975) and The House of Elliot (1991–1993) with Jean Marsh. In 2008, she won a BAFTA TV Award and an Emmy Award for her role opposite Judi Dench in the BBC drama Cranford

Her film roles include, Equus (1977), The Dresser, (1983), Let Him Have It (1991), Wolf (1994), Jack and Sarah (1995), Gosford Park (2001), Evening (2005), Last Chance Harvey (2008) and Robin Hood (2010). She also wrote the screenplay for the 1997 film version of Mrs Dalloway, starring Vanessa Redgrave.

Early life

Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army maternity hospital in East London. Her mother, Annie Ellen (née Elkins), was a barmaid who was 46 when Eileen was born, and her father, Arthur Thomas Atkins, was a gas meter reader who was previously under-chauffeur to the Portuguese Ambassador. She was the third child in the family and when she was born the family moved to a council home in Tottenham. Her father did not, in fact, know how to drive and was responsible, as under-chauffeur, mainly for cleaning the car. At the time Eileen was born, her mother worked in a factory the whole day and then as a barmaid in the Elephant & Castle at night. When Eileen was three, a Gypsy woman came to their door selling lucky heather and clothes pegs. She saw little Eileen and told her mother that her daughter would be a famous dancer. Her mother promptly enrolled her in a dance class. Although she hated it, she studied dancing from age 3 to 15 or 16. From age 7 to 15, which covered the last four years of the Second World War (1941–45), she danced in working men's club circuits for 15 shillings a time as "Baby Eileen". During the war, she performed as well at London's Stage Door canteen for American troops and sang songs like "Yankee Doodle." At one time she was attending dance class four or five times a week.

By 12, she was a professional in panto in Clapham and Kilburn. Once, when she was given a line to recite, someone told her mother that she had a Cockney accent. Her mother was appalled but speech lessons were too expensive for the family. Fortunately, a woman took interest in her and paid for her to be educated at Parkside Preparatory School in Tottenham. Eileen Atkins has since publicly credited the Principal, Miss D. M. Hall, for the wise and firm guidance under which her character developed. From Parkside she went on to The Latymer School, a grammar school in Edmonton, London. One of her grammar school teachers who used to give them religious instruction, a Rev. Michael Burton, spotted her potential and rigorously drilled away her Cockney accent without charge. He also introduced her to the works of William Shakespeare. She studied under him for two years.

When she was 14 or 15 and still at Latymer's, she also attended "drama demonstration" sessions twice a year with this same teacher. At around this time (though some sources say she was 12), her first encounter with Robert Atkins took place. She was taken to see Atkins' production of King John at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. She wrote to him saying that the boy who played Prince Arthur was not good enough and that she could do better. Robert Atkins wrote back and asked that she come to see him. On the day they met, Atkins thought she was a shop girl, and not a school girl. She gave a little prince speech and he told her to go to drama school and come back when she was grown up.

Rev. Burton came to an agreement with Eileen's parents that he would try to get her a scholarship for one drama school and that if she did not get the scholarship he would arrange for her to do a teaching course in some other drama school. Her parents were not at all keen on the fact that she would stay in school until 16 as her sister had left at 14 and her brother at 15 but somehow they were convinced. Eileen was in Latymer's until 16. Out of 300 applicants for a RADA scholarship, she got down to the last three but was not selected, so she did a three-year course on teaching at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. But, although she was taking the teaching course, she also attended drama classes and in fact performed in three plays in her last year. This was in the early 1950s. In her third and last year she had to teach once a week, an experience she later said she hated. She graduated from Guildhall in 1953.[2]

As soon as she left Guildhall she got her first job with Robert Atkins in 1953: as Jaquenetta in Love's Labour's Lost at the same Regent's Park Open Air Theatre where she was brought to see Robert Atkins' King John production years before. She was also, very briefly, an assistant stage manager at the Oxford Playhouse until Peter Hall fired her for impudence. She was also part of repertory companies performing in Billy Butlin's holiday camp in Skegness, Lincolnshire. It was there when she met Julian Glover.

It took nine years (1953–62) before she was working steadily.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

Stage

She joined the Guild Players Repertory Company in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland as a professional actress in 1952. She appeared as the nurse in Harvey at the Repertory Theatre, Bangor, in 1952.[11] In 1953 she appeared as an attendant in Love's Labours Lost at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. Her London stage debut was in 1953 as Jaquenetta in Robert Atkins's staging of Love's Labour's Lost at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park.[12][13]

Atkins has regularly returned to the life and work of Virginia Woolf for professional inspiration. She has played the writer on stage in Patrick Garland's adaptation of A Room of One's Own and also in Vita and Virginia, winning the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show for the former and screen (the 1990 television version of Room); she also provided the screenplay for the 1997 film adaptation of Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway, and made a cameo appearance in the 2002 film version of Michael Cunningham's Woolf-themed novel, The Hours.

Atkins joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1957 and stayed for two seasons. She was with the Old Vic in its 1961–62 season (she appeared in the Old Vic's Repertoire Leaflets of February–April 1962 and April–May 1962). Her stage performances from 1957 include:[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]

Film and television

She appeared as Maggie Clayhanger in all six episodes of Arnold Bennett's Hilda Lessways from 15 May to 19 June 1959, produced by the BBC Midlands with Judi Dench and Brian Smith.[38] In the 1960 Shakespeare production An Age of Kings she played Joan of Arc.

She helped create two television series. Along with fellow actress, Jean Marsh, she created the concept for an original television series, Behind the Green Baize Door, which became the award-winning ITV series Upstairs, Downstairs (1971–75). Marsh played maid Rose for the duration of the series but Atkins was unable to accept a part because of stage commitments. The same team was also responsible for the BBC series The House of Eliott (1991–93).

Her film and television work includes Sons and Lovers (1981), Oliver Twist (1982), Titus Andronicus (1985), A Better Class of Person (1985), Roman Holiday (1987), The Lost Language of Cranes (1991), Cold Comfort Farm (1995), Talking Heads (1998), Madame Bovary (2000), David Copperfield (2000), Wit (2001) and Bertie and Elizabeth (2002), Cold Mountain (2003), What a Girl Wants (2003), Vanity Fair (2004), Ballet Shoes (2005) and Ask the Dust (2006).

In the autumn of 2007, she co-starred with Judi Dench and Michael Gambon in the BBC One drama Cranford playing the central role of Miss Deborah Jenkyns. This performance earned her the 2008 BAFTA Award for best actress, as well as the Emmy Award.[39]

In 2009 Atkins played the evil Nurse Edwina Kenchington in the BBC Two black comedy Psychoville. Atkins replaced Vanessa Redgrave as Eleanor of Aquitaine in the blockbuster movie Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe, which was released in the UK in May 2010. The same year, she played Louisa in the dark comedy film, Wild Target.

Atkins and Jean Marsh, creators of the original 1970s series of Upstairs, Downstairs, were among the cast of a new BBC adaptation, shown over the winter of 2010–11. The new series is set in 1936. Marsh again played Rose while Atkins was cast as the redoubtable Maud, Lady Holland. In August 2011, it was revealed that Atkins had decided not to continue to take part as she was unhappy with the scripts.[40] In September 2011, Atkins joined the cast of ITV comedy-drama series Doc Martin playing the title character's aunt, Ruth Ellingham. She returned as Aunt Ruth for the show's 6th series in September 2013 and the 7th in September 2015.

Atkins starred as Lady Spence with Matthew Rhys in an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's The Scapegoat, shown in September 2012.[41]

Personal life

Atkins was married to actor Julian Glover in 1957; they divorced in 1966. (A day after his divorce, Glover married actress Isla Blair.)[42] She married her current husband, Bill Shepherd, on 2 February 1978. Atkins claims to have been propositioned by Colin Farrell on location in 2004, shortly before she turned 70; she said the incident helped her pass that milestone far more easily than she otherwise would have expected.[43] The Oldie magazine awarded her the 'Refusenik of the Year' award for this incident.

In 1997, she wrote the screenplay for Mrs Dalloway, starring Vanessa Redgrave. It received rave reviews but was a box-office failure. It was a financial disaster for Atkins and her husband who had invested in the film. She said about this incident: "I have to work. I was nearly bankrupted over Mrs Dalloway, and if you are nearly bankrupted, you are in trouble for the rest of your life. I don't have a pension. In any case, it doesn't hurt me to work. I think it's quite good, actually."[30]

"All through my career I have tried to do new work, but there is a problem in the West End as far as new work is concerned. As a theatregoer, I get bored with seeing the same old plays again and again. I felt terrible the other night because I bumped into Greta Scacchi and she asked me if I was coming to see her in The Deep Blue Sea. I said, 'Greta, I'm so old, I've seen it so many times. I've seen it with Peggy Ashcroft, with Vivien Leigh, with Googie Withers, with Penelope Wilton and I played it myself when I was 19. I can't bring myself to see it again. She was very sweet about it."[30]

Health

In 1995, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, treated and has recovered.[44]

Honours

Atkins was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1990. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) on her 67th birthday, 16 June 2001. On 23 June 2010 she was conferred the Degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, by Oxford University. On 5 December 2005 she received the Degree of Doctor of Arts, honoris causa, from City University London. She is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. She was inducted in 1998.[45]

Awards & nominations

Year Award Category Work Result
1967 Tony Award Best Actress in a Play The Killing of Sister George Nominated
1970 BAFTA TV Award Best Actress The Heiress (BBC Play of the Month)
Double Bill (The Wednesday Play)
The Letter (W. Somerset Maugham)
Nominated
1972 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Performance Vivat! Vivat! Regina! Won
1972 Tony Award Best Actress in a Play Vivat! Vivat! Regina! Nominated
1978 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play The Night of the Tribades Won
1978 Olivier Award Best Actress in a Revival Twelfth Night Nominated
1981 Olivier Award Best Actress in a New Play Passion Play Nominated
1983 BAFTA Film Award Best Supporting Actress The Dresser Nominated
1988 Olivier Award Best Supporting Performance Cymbeline
The Winter's Tale
Mountain Language
Won
1991 Drama Desk Award Outstanding One Person Show A Room of One's Own Won
1992 Olivier Award Best Supporting Actress The Night of the Iguana Nominated
1995 Tony Award Best Actress in a Play Indiscretions Nominated
1997 Olivier Award Best Actress John Gabriel Borkman Nominated
2001 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actress in a Play The Unexpected Man Nominated
2001 Olivier Award Best Actress An Unexpected Man Won
2001 Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Cast Gosford Park Won
2004 Olivier Award Best Actress Honour Won
2004 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actress in a Play The Retreat From Moscow Nominated
2004 Tony Award Best Actress in a Play The Retreat From Moscow Nominated
2008 BAFTA TV Award Best Actress Cranford Won
2008 Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie Cranford Won
2008 Golden Globe Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film Cranford Nominated
2011 Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie Upstairs Downstairs Nominated

Note: Atkins also received an Honorary Drama Desk Award in 1995.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1966 Major Barbara Barbara Television movie
1968 Inadmissible Evidence Shirley
1974 The Lady from the Sea Ellida Wangel Television movie
1975 Sharon's Baby Sister Albana
1977 Equus Hester Saloman
1983 Nelly's Version Nelly Television movie
1983 The Dresser Madge Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1991 A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf Television movie
1991 Let Him Have It Lilian Bentley
1991 The Lost Language of Cranes Rose Benjamin Television movie
1994 Wolf Mary
1995 Cold Comfort Farm Judith Starkadder Television movie
1995 Jack and Sarah Phil
1998 The Avengers Alice
1999 Women Talking Dirty Emily Boyle
2001 Gosford Park Mrs. Croft Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cast
Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
Satellite Award for Best Cast – Motion Picture
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Nominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
2001 Wit Evelyn Ashford Television movie
2002 Bertie and Elizabeth Queen Mary Television movie
2002 The Hours Barbara in flower shop
2003 Cold Mountain Maddy
2003 What a Girl Wants Jocelyn Dashwood
2004 Vanity Fair Miss Matilda Crawley
2004 The Queen of Sheba's Pearls School matron
2005 The Feast of the Goat Aunt Adelina
2006 Ask the Dust Mrs. Hargraves
2006 Scenes of a Sexual Nature Iris
2007 Evening The Night Nurse
2008 Last Chance Harvey Maggie
2010 Robin Hood Eleanor of Aquitaine
2010 Wild Target Louisa Maynard
2012 The Scapegoat Lady Spence
2013 Beautiful Creatures Gramma
2014 Magic in the Moonlight Vanessa

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1959 Hilda Lessways Maggie Clayhanger 6 episodes
1960 An Age of Kings Attendant Lady Episode: "Richard II Part 2 – The Deposing of a King"
1960 An Age of Kings Joan la Pucelle Episode: "Henry VI Part 1 – The Red Rose and the White"
1965 Knock on Any Door Ruth Episode: "Close Season"
1970 Solo Mary Kingsley Episode: "Eileen Atkins as Mary Kingsley"
1975 Affairs of the Heart Kate Cookman Episode: "Kate"
1982 Smiley's People Madame Ostrakova 4 episodes
1985 The Burston Rebellion Kitty Higdon See Burston Strike School
1997 A Dance to the Music of Time Brightman Episode: "Post War"
1998 Talking Heads 2 Celia Episode: "The Hand of God"
2007 Cranford Miss Deborah Jenkyns 2 episodes
BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2007 Agatha Christie's Marple Lady Tressilian Episode: "Towards Zero"
2009–2011 Psychoville Edwina Kenchington 8 episodes
2010 Upstairs Downstairs Maud, Lady Holland 3 episodes
Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
2010 Agatha Christie's Poirot Princess Dragomiroff Episode: "Murder on the Orient Express"
2011–2015 Doc Martin Ruth Ellingham 23 episodes
2014 This is Jinsy Miss Penny Episode: "Penny's Pendant"
2016 The Crown Queen Mary To be confirmed

References

  1. "Past Nominees & Winners". Olivier Awards. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
  2. Principal's General Report to the Board of Governors, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, 13 May 2013, p. 4.
  3. "Regent's Park Open Air Theatre: Our History" in openairtheatre.org/history. Retrieved 1 December 2011
  4. Carole Zucker, In The Company of Actors: Reflections on the Craft of Acting (London: A & C Black Publishers, 1999), p. 2. Retrieved from Google Books, 3 December 2011
  5. Sally Vincent, "A class act," The Guardian (Saturday, 9 December 2000). Retrieved from www.guardian.co.uk on 2 December 2011
  6. William Glover, "Eileen Atkins Stars in Another Ringing Triumph," The Evening News (26 February 1972). Retrieved from news.google.com on 2 December 2011
  7. Jasper Rees, "Theartdesk Q&A: Actress Eileen Atkins," (24 December 2010) in www.theartdesk.com. Retrieved, 3 December 2011
  8. interview with Jonathan Ross on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, BBC1, 13 June 2008
  9. Richard Digby Day, "Delightful Insight Into Life of Actress," Newark Advertiser (23 October 2011, Palace Theatre, Newark) in www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2011
  10. "Eileen Atkins" in The Telegraph (16 June 2001) at www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2011
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  15. The National Theatre Archive Catalogue; retrieved 30 November 2011.
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  19. Rob Wilton Theatricalia: Theatre World Magazines: 1960s, phyllis.demon.co.uk; retrieved 5 December 2011.
  20. Rob Wilton Theatricalia: Classic Plays: 1963, phyllis.demon.co.uk; retrieved 5 December 2011.
  21. Rob Wilton Theatricalia: Other Plays: 1960–1969, phyllis.demon.co.uk; retrieved 5 December 2011.
  22. Rob Wilton Theatricalia: Classic Plays: 1970–1979, phyllis.demon.co.uk; retrieved 6 December 2011.
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  25. Phyllis Hartnoll and Peter Found Atkins' profile, The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre (1996)]; retrieved 4 December 2011.
  26. Theatricalia: Eileen Atkins, retrieved 30 November 2011.
  27. John McGrath, Naked Thoughts That Roam About: Reflections on Theatre, ed. Nadine Holdsworth (London: Nick Hern Books Limited, 2002), p. 25; retrieved 4 December 2011.
  28. Holly Hill, "Saint Joan's Voices: Actresses on Shaw's Maid" Shaw 6 (1986): 127; retrieved from JSTOR; 6 December 2011.
  29. Albemarle of London archive page for A Delicate Balance; retrieved 3 December 2011.
  30. 1 2 3 Chris Hastings, "Eileen Atkins: I don't see why ageing can't be attractive" The Telegraph (5 July 2008); retrieved 8 December 2011.
  31. University of Bristol Theatre Collection, A–Z of Bristol Old Vic (A photographic exhibition featuring on-stage and backstage images from the theatre in King Street, 9 June – 30 September 2003). Retrieved from www.bris.ac.uk/theatrecollection/atoz_booklet.pdf on 20 December 2011
  32. "Ian McKellen Writings: For Curt Dawson" in www.mckellen.com. Retrieved 7 December 2011
  33. Daisy Bowie-Sell, "Veteran actress Eileen Atkins wins an award for off-West End work", 24 February 2013; retrieved 1 December 2013
  34. Ben Brantley, Theater Review: Funny, How Gravity Pulls Us, and the Safety Net is an Illusion, The New York Times, 12 November 2013 in www.nytimes.com, retrieved 1 December 2013
  35. "Shakespeare's Globe, Bankside, Southwark, London/Shakespeare's Globe". Shakespearesglobe.com. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  36. "The Witch of Edmonton". Rsc.org.uk. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  37. http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/concerts-by-candlelight/ellen-terry-with-eileen-atkins-2016
  38. Profile, ftvdb.bfi.org.uk; accessed 26 April 2014.
  39. "Television Awards Winners in 2008". Bafta.org. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  40. "Dame Eileen Atkins leaves Upstairs Downstairs", BBC News Online, 21 August 2011.
  41. "Eileen Atkins to star in ITV's The Scapegoat". thestage.co.uk. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  42. Frances Hardy, "I stalked my lover's wife!" (22 July 2011); retrieved 30 November 2011.
  43. "The night Colin Farrell tried to seduce me". Daily Mirror. 5 May 2005. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
  44. "Screen queen shakes a leg - Telegraph". telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  45. "Eileen Atkins profile at". tcm.com. Retrieved 24 April 2014.

External links

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