Susannah York
| Susannah York | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
Susannah Yolande Fletcher 9 January 1939 Chelsea, England, United Kingdom |
| Died |
15 January 2011 (aged 72) Chelsea, England, United Kingdom |
| Cause of death | Multiple myeloma |
| Residence | London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Marr College |
| Alma mater | Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1959–2010 |
| Spouse(s) | Michael Wells (1959–76, divorced) |
| Children |
Sasha Wells Orlando Wells |
| Parent(s) |
Simon Fletcher (deceased) Joan Hamilton (née Bowring) |
Susannah Yolande Fletcher (9 January 1939[1] – 15 January 2011), known professionally as Susannah York, was an English film, stage and television actress. She was awarded a BAFTA as Best Supporting Actress for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)[2] and was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for the same film. She won best actress for Images at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival. In 1991 she was appointed an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.[2] Her appearances in various hit films of the 1960s formed the basis of her international reputation,[3] and an obituary in The Telegraph characterised her as "the blue-eyed English rose with the china-white skin and cupid lips who epitomised the sensuality of the swinging Sixties".[4]
Early life
York was born in Chelsea, London, in 1939, the younger daughter of Simon William Peel Vickers Fletcher (1910–2002), a merchant banker and steel magnate, and his first wife, the former Joan Nita Mary Bowring – they married in 1935 and divorced prior to 1943.[5][6][7][8][9][10] Her maternal grandfather was Walter Andrew Bowring, CBE, a British diplomat who served as Administrator of Dominica (1933–1935); she was a great-great-granddaughter of political economist Sir John Bowring.[4][6][11][12][13] York had an elder sister, as well as a half-brother, Eugene Xavier Charles William Peel Fletcher, from her father's second marriage to Pauline de Bearnez de Morton de La Chapelle.[5][14][15][16][17]
In early 1943, her mother married a Scottish businessman, Adam M. Hamilton, and moved, with her daughter, to Scotland.[18][19] At the age of 11 York entered Marr College in Troon, Ayrshire.[4][20] Later she became a boarder at Wispers School, a school housed in Wispers, a Norman Shaw-designed country house in the Sussex village of Stedham. At 13 she was removed – effectively expelled – from Wispers after owning up to a nude midnight swim in the school pool, and she transferred to East Haddon Hall in Northamptonshire.[4][20]
Enthusiastic about her experiences of acting at school (she had played an Ugly Sister in Cinderella at the age of nine), York first decided to apply to the Glasgow College of Dramatic Art; but after her mother had separated from her stepfather and moved to London, she instead auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA).[2][4][20][21] There she won the Ronson award for most promising student[22] before graduating in 1958.[23]
Career
Film
Her film career began with Tunes of Glory (1960), co-starring with Alec Guinness and John Mills. In 1961, she played the leading role in The Greengage Summer, which co-starred Kenneth More and Danielle Darrieux. In 1962, she performed in Freud: The Secret Passion with Montgomery Clift in the title role.
York played Sophie Western opposite Albert Finney in the Oscar-winning Best Film Tom Jones (1963). She had turned the part down three times and only agreed to participate because she felt guilty over cooking a disastrous meal for the director Tony Richardson, who was determined not to accept her refusal.[3] She also appeared in Kaleidescope (1966), A Man for All Seasons (1966), The Killing of Sister George (1968), and Battle of Britain (1969). She co-starred with George C. Scott (as Edward Rochester), playing the title role in an American television movie of Jane Eyre (1970). It was also in 1970 that Susannah York played opposite Peter O'Toole in Country Dance.
York was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). She snubbed the Academy when, regarding her nomination, she declared it offended her to be nominated without being asked. She was highly praised for her performance, though she said "I don't think much of the film, or of myself in it." She did attend the ceremony but lost to Goldie Hawn for her role in Cactus Flower.[24]
In 1972, she won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in Images.[25] She played Superman's mother Lara on the doomed planet Krypton in Superman (1978) and its sequels, Superman II (1980) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987). York made extensive appearances in British television series, including Prince Regent (1979), as Maria Fitzherbert, the clandestine wife of the future George IV, and We'll Meet Again (1982).
In 1984, York starred as Mrs. Cratchit in A Christmas Carol (1984), based on the novel by Charles Dickens. She again co-starred with George C. Scott (as Ebenezer Scrooge), David Warner (Bob Cratchit), Frank Finlay (Jacob Marley), Angela Pleasence (The Ghost of Christmas Past) and Anthony Walters (Tiny Tim).
In 1992, she was a member of the jury at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival.[26]
In 2003, York had a recurring role as hospital manager Helen Grant in the BBC1 television drama series Holby City. She reprised this role in two episodes of Holby City's sister series Casualty in May 2004. Her last film was The Calling, released in 2010 in the UK.
She was a patron of the Children's Film Unit and appeared in several of their films.
Stage
"York's greatest achievement was to escape the pigeonholing that is the curse of her profession and to overcome the perception of her as the flaxen-haired beauty of 1960s British movies. In her richly fulfilled later career, she proved that she was a real actor of extraordinary emotional range, not just a movie star."[3]
Media critic Michael Billington
In 1978, York appeared on stage at the New End Theatre in London in The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs with Lucinda Childs, directed by French director Simone Benmussa. This was the first of 10 projects she completed with the producer Richard Jackson.[3] The following year, she appeared in Paris, speaking French in a play by Henry James: Appearances, with Sami Frey. The play was again directed by Benmussa.[3]
In the 1980s, again with Benmussa, York played in For No Good Reason, an adaptation of George Moore's short story, with Susan Hampshire. In 2007, she appeared in the UK tour of The Wings of the Dove, and continued performing her internationally well received solo show, The Loves of Shakespeare's Women. Also in 2007, she guest starred in the Doctor Who audio play Valhalla. In 2008, she played the part of Nelly in an adaptation by April De Angelis of Wuthering Heights.[27]
According to the website of Italian symphonic metal band Rhapsody of Fire (previously known as Rhapsody), York had been recruited for a narrated part on the band's next full-length album Triumph or Agony. In 2009, she starred alongside Jos Vantyler in the Tennessee Williams season at the New End Theatre, London for which she received critical acclaim.[28]
York's last stage performance was as Jean in Ronald Harwood's Quartet, at the Oxford Playhouse in August 2010.[29]
Writing and personal appearances
In the 1970s, she wrote two children's fantasy novels, In Search of Unicorns (1973, revised 1984) which was excerpted in the film Images, and Lark's Castle (1976, revised 1986).[30]
She was a guest, along with David Puttnam on the BBC Radio 4 documentary I Had The Misery Thursday, a tribute programme to film actor Montgomery Clift, which was aired in 1986, on the twentieth anniversary of Clift's death.[31] York had co-starred with him in Freud, John Huston's 1962 film biography of the psychoanalyst.[30]
Personal life
In 1959, York married Michael Wells, with whom she had two children, daughter Sasha (born May 1972) and son Orlando (born June 1973). They divorced in 1976. In the 1984 TV adaptation of A Christmas Carol, she played Mrs. Cratchit and both of her children co-starred as Cratchit offspring. Orlando gave York her first grandchild, Rafferty, in 2007.[32]
Politically, she was left-wing and publicly supported Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli dissident who revealed Israel's nuclear weapons programme.[33] While performing The Loves of Shakespeare's Women at the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv in June 2007, York dedicated the performance to Vanunu, evoking both cheers and jeers from the audience.[34]
Death
York was diagnosed with cancer late in 2010, but refused chemotherapy in order to honor a contractual obligation to appear in Ronald Harwood's Quartet.[3] She died at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London[35][36] from multiple myeloma on 15 January 2011, six days after her 72nd birthday.[37][38]
TV and filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | There Was a Crooked Man | Ellen | |
| Tunes of Glory | Morag Sinclair | ||
| The Richest Man in the World (TV movie) | Martine Herrault | ||
| 1961 | ITV Television Playhouse | Eva Sinding Abigail Williams |
episode: Midnight Sun episode: The Crucible |
| The Greengage Summer | Joss Grey | ||
| The First Gentleman (TV movie) | Princess Charlotte | ||
| 1962 | Freud: The Secret Passion | Cecily Koertner | Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama |
| The Slaughter of St. Teresa's Day (TV movie) | Thelma Maguire | ||
| 1963 | Tom Jones | Sophie Western | |
| 1964 | The 7th Dawn | Candace Trumpey | |
| Scene Nun, Take One | The Actress | ||
| 1965 | Sands of the Kalahari | Grace Munkton | |
| Scruggs | Susan | ||
| Thursday Theatre | Milly Theale | episode: The Wings of the Dove | |
| 1966 | The Fall of the House of Usher | Madeleine Usher | |
| Kaleidoscope | Angel McGinnis | Laurel Award for Favorite Female Comedy Performance (5th place) | |
| A Man for All Seasons | Margaret More | ||
| Jackanory | Storyteller | episode: The Children of Green Knowe | |
| 1966-1967 | Theatre 625 | Bronwen Jane |
episode: The Winner episode: Kiss on a Grass Green Pillow |
| 1968 | Sebastian | Rebecca Howard | |
| Duffy | Segolene | ||
| The Killing of Sister George | Alice 'Childie' McNaught | ||
| ITV Playhouse | Grace | episode: The Photographer | |
| 1969 | Oh! What a Lovely War | Eleanor | |
| Battle of Britain | Section Officer Maggie Harvey | ||
| Lock Up Your Daughters | Hilaret | ||
| They Shoot Horses, Don't They? | Alice | BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated-Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture | |
| 1970 | Jane Eyre | Jane Eyre | Nominated-Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role |
| Country Dance | Hilary Dow | ||
| 1971 | Happy Birthday, Wanda June | Penelope Ryan | |
| 1972 | Zee and Co. | Stella | |
| Images | Cathryn | Best Actress Award (Cannes Film Festival) | |
| 1959-1972 | Armchair Theatre | Tekla Mandy Hope Cecily Cardew Kathleen Caroline |
7 episodes |
| 1973 | Great Mysteries | Countess Josephine | episode: La Grande Breteche |
| 1974 | Gold | Terry Steyner | |
| Fallen Angels | Julia Sterroll | ||
| 1975 | The Maids | Claire | |
| Conduct Unbecoming | Mrs. Marjorie Scarlett | ||
| That Lucky Touch | Julia Richardson | ||
| 1976 | Sky Riders | Ellen Bracken | |
| Eliza Fraser | Eliza Fraser | ||
| 1978 | The Shout | Rachel Fielding | |
| A Month in the Country (TV movie) | Natalia | ||
| The Silent Partner | Julie Carver | ||
| Long Shot (1978 film) | An Actress | ||
| Superman | Lara | ||
| 1979 | Prince Regent (TV series) | Maria Fitzherbert | |
| The Golden Gate Murders (TV movie) | Sister Benecia | ||
| 1980 | The Awakening | Jane Turner | |
| Superman II | Lara | ||
| Falling in Love Again | Sue Lewis | ||
| 1981 | Second Chance (TV series) | Kate Hurst | episode: April II |
| Loophole (1981 film) | Dinah Booker | ||
| 1982 | We'll Meet Again (TV series) | Dr. Helen Dereham | 13 episodes |
| Alice | Queenie | ||
| 1983 | Yellowbeard | Lady Churchill | |
| Nelly's Version (TV movie) | Narrator (voice) | ||
| 1984 | A Christmas Carol | Mrs. Cratchit | |
| 1985 | Star Quality (TV movie) | Lorraine Barry | |
| The Love Boat | Kay Webber | episode: Girl of the Midnight Sun/There'll Be Some Changes Made/Too Many Isaacs/Mr. Smith Goes to Stockholm | |
| Daemon (TV movie) | Rachel | ||
| 1986 | The Two Ronnies | My Lady | episode: Episode #12.2 |
| 1987 | Superman IV: The Quest for Peace | Lara (voice) | |
| Mio min Mio | Seamstress | ||
| Prettykill | Toni | ||
| 1988 | A Summer Story | Mrs. Narracombe | |
| Just Ask for Diamond | Lauren Bacardi | ||
| 1989 | Melancholia | Catherine Lanham Franck | |
| After the War (TV miniseries) | Irene Jameson | episode: Yesterday and Tomorrow episode: Partners | |
| A Handful of Time | Susanne Walker | ||
| The Ray Bradbury Theater | Nora | episode: The Haunting of the New | |
| 1990 | Screen Two | Amy Wallace | episode: The Man from the Pru |
| Boon (TV series) | Lady Tessa Bolton | episode: Daddy's Girl | |
| 1991 | Devices and Desires (TV miniseries) | Meg Dennison | 6 episodes |
| 1991-1992 | Trainer (TV series) | Rachel Ware | 23 episodes |
| 1992 | Illusions (TV movie) | Dr. Sinclair | |
| 1993 | Piccolo Grande Amore | Queen Christina | |
| The Higher Mortals | Miss Thorogood | ||
| 1997 | Loop | Olivia | |
| The Ruth Rendell Mysteries | Liz | episode: A Dark Blue Perfume | |
| So This Is Romance? | Mike's Mum | ||
| 2000 | St. Patrick: The Irish Legend | Concessa | |
| 2002 | The Book of Eve | May | |
| 2003 | Visitors | Carolyn Perry | Nominated-DVD Exclusive Award for Best Actress in a DVD Premiere Movie Nominated-Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| Holby City | Helen Grant | 9 episodes | |
| 2004 | Casualty (TV series) | Helen Grant | episode: Don't Go There episode: Breaking Point |
| 2006 | The Gigolos | Tessa | |
| The Stoning | Jean Fielding | ||
| 2008 | Franklyn | Margaret | |
| 2009 | The Calling (2009 film) | The Prioress | |
| 2010 | Missing (UK TV series) | Marjorie Claye | episode: Episode #2.9 |
| Doctors (TV series) | Lorna Robson | episode: Gibberish |
References
- ↑ "Births". The Times (11 January 1939). "FLETCHER. – on Jan. 9, 1939, at 18, Walpole Street, S.W.3. to Joan, wife of Peel Fletcher – a daughter"
- 1 2 3 'Susannah York', Film Obituaries, The Sunday Telegraph, 16 January 2011
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Michael Billington, Susannah York obituary, The Guardian, 16 January 2011
- 1 2 3 4 5 Olga Craig, Ben Leach and Roya Nikkhah, "Actress Susannah York has died, aged 72", The Telegraph, 15 January 2011
- 1 2 'Simon Fletcher: Steelworks owner who lost his livelihood during the war and spent the next 57 years trying to sue the Government', obituary in The Times or The Sunday Times, 15 October 2002.
- 1 2 "The fifty-year war for a lost empire: Simon Fletcher has devoted his life to proving the establishment conspired to destroy his steel business" The Independent (27 December 1992)
- ↑ Simon Fletcher's Times obituary states that his first marriage produced two daughters, one of whom predeceased him; see "Simon Fletcher: Steelworks owner who lost his livelihood during the war and spent the next 57 years trying to sue the Government", obituary in The Times or The Sunday Times, 15 October 2002.
- ↑ Marriage between Joan N.M. Bowring and [Simon] William P. Fletcher listed in England & Wales, Marriage Index, 1916–2005, accessed on ancestry.com on 16 January 2011
- ↑ Though York claimed she was born in 1942, the birth of Susannah Y. Fletcher to a mother whose maiden name was Bowring is recorded as having occurred in 1939 in England & Wales Birth Index: 1916–2005, accessed on ancestry.com on 16 January 2011
- ↑ The marriage between Joan N.M. Bowring Fletcher, and Adam M. Hamilton took place in London, England, in early 1943, according to England and Wales Marriage Index, 1916–2005, accessed on ancestry.com on 16 January 2010
- ↑ Stephen J F Plowman, 'Descendents of Sir John Bowring', heraldry-online.org.uk.
- ↑ Ben Cahoon, 'Dominica', worldstatesmen.org.
- ↑ Arthur Charles Fox Davies, Armorial Families (Hurst & Blackett, 1929), page 199
- ↑ The London Gazette, 28 August 1942, page 3,799, gives the full maiden name of York's stepmother as Pauline Laura Aylmer Eugenie de Bearnez de Morton de La Chapelle and gives her former married name as Marsh. The Nobilities of Europe (Elbiron.com, page 327) states that she was a granddaughter of French historian Jean Joseph Xavier Alfred de La Chapelle, Count de La Chapelle and Morton.
- ↑ Eugene Xavier C. W. P. Fletcher was born to Simon Fletcher and his second wife, née de La Chapelle, in late 1942, in London, according to England & Wales Birth Index, 1916–2005, Volume 1a, page 435, accessed on ancestry.com on 16 January 2011. He is also listed in the same book (Volume 5c, page 5/62), same date, same location, but with the mother's maiden name being given as "Le Bearney Morton de la Chapelle".
- ↑ England & Wales Marriage Index, 1916–2005 (Volume 1a, page 705) states that Simon Fletcher married Pauline E.L.A. de Bearnaz de Morton de La Chapelle (formerly Mrs Marsh) in early 1943. The couple had divorced by early 1949, when Pauline Fletcher married her third husband, Richard G. Williams.
- ↑ Alan Freer, Descendants of William the Conqueror.
- ↑ The marriage between Joan N.M. Bowring Fletcher, and Adam M. Hamilton, took place in London, England, in early 1943, according to England and Wales Marriage Index, 1916–2005, accessed on ancestry.com on 16 January 2010
- ↑ Ben Leach, Olga Craig and Roya Nikkhah, 'Family pay tribute to actress Susannah York who has died, aged 72', Sunday Telegraph, 16 January 2011.
- 1 2 3 "PASSED/FAILED: Susannah York" The Independent (9 January 1997)
- ↑ Biography @ Yahoo! Movies
- ↑ Ben Quinn, "Susannah York, the gentle star of 1960s cinema, dies after battle against cancer", 16 January 2011
- ↑ "Susannah York profile at RADA
- ↑ "Goldie Hawn winning Best Supporting Actress for "Cactus Flower" on YouTube Retrieved 13 June 2010
- ↑ "List of 1972 Festival de Cannes Winners" Festival de Cannes. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
- ↑ "Berlinale: 1992 Juries". berlinale.de. Retrieved 27 March 2011.
- ↑ Groocock, Veronica (27 Sep 2008). "My perfect weekend: Susannah York". The Telegraph (Telegraph Media Group Limited). Retrieved 28 October 2014.
- ↑ Dreamers: This Property is Condemned/The Lady of Larkspur Lotion/Talk to Me Like the Rain
- ↑ Quartet: Milton Keynes Theatre and touring to Oxford
- 1 2 Margalit Fox (16 January 2011). "Susannah York, British Actress, Dies at 72". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
- ↑ "A Cage to Hold My Dreams". Terence Pettigrew. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
- ↑ "My perfect weekend: Susannah York" The Telegraph (27 September 2008).
- ↑ Vanunu released after 18 years. The Guardian. 21 April 2004.
- ↑ "Hijacking Shakespeare" Jerusalem Post (10 June 2007).
- ↑ "Tributes paid to 'wonderful' Susannah York". Channel4.com. Retrieved 17 January 2011.
- ↑ Michael Billington (Jan 2015). "York, Susannah (1939–2011)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/103576. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ↑ "Actress Susannah York dies at 72" "BBC News". 15 January 2011.
- ↑ Emma Brown (16 January 2011). "Susannah York, 72, Oscar nominee for role in 'They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'". The Washington Post. Retrieved 18 January 2011.
External links
- Susannah York at the Internet Movie Database
- Susannah York at the TCM Movie Database
- Susannah York at AllMovie
- Susannah York at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
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