Beryl Reid

Beryl Reid OBE
Reid in 1974
Born	Beryl Elizabeth Reid (1919-06-17)17 June 1919 Hereford, Herefordshire, England
Died	13 October 1996(1996-10-13) (aged 77) Wexham, Buckinghamshire, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1936–1994
Spouse(s)	Bill Worsley ​ ​ (m. 1949; div. 1953)​ Derek Franklin ​ ​ (m. 1954; div. 1966)​

Beryl Elizabeth Reid, OBE (17 June 1919 – 13 October 1996), was an English actress of stage and screen. She won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for The Killing of Sister George, the 1980 Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance for Born in the Gardens, and the 1982 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for Smiley's People. Her film appearances included The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954), The Killing of Sister George (1968), The Assassination Bureau (1969), and No Sex Please, We're British (1973).

Early life

Born in Hereford in 1919, Reid was the daughter of Scottish parents and grew up in Manchester, where she attended Withington and Levenshulme High Schools. As a child, she established a lifelong friendship with Nancy Wrigley, the daughter of the prominent classical soprano Isobel Baillie; years later, Reid fondly recalled how Baillie would "tell us the most wonderful things...you can imagine nine-year old girls goggle-eyed at six princes serenading her in Hawaii!"

Career

Leaving school at 16, she made her debut in 1936 as a music hall performer at the Floral Hall, Bridlington. Before and during the Second World War, she took part in variety shows and pantomimes. She had no formal training but later worked at the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. 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 1968 screen version and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Drama. The 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.

She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1976 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the car park of Thames Television's Teddington Studios.

In both Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) and Smiley's People, (1982) Reid played Connie Sachs. For Smiley's People she won a BAFTA for Best Actress on Television.

Between 1981 and 1983, Reid co-presented the Children's TV programme Get up and Go for Yorkshire Television, her co-presenter "Mooncat" being a green, talking, puppet cat. Stephen Boxer was her human co-star. After she left the show, it became titled simply Mooncat and Co.

Reid wrote an autobiography in 1984, So Much Love.

She played the part of an elderly feminist and political subversive in the 1987 television drama, The Beiderbecke Tapes.

She appeared in many situation comedies and variety programmes on TV including BBC TV's long running music hall show, The Good Old Days.

Personal life and death

She married twice, but had no children.

An authorised biography, Roll Out the Beryl, was published by Fantom Films on 22 August 2016. Written by Kaye Crawford, it was the first biography to be written of the actress and coincided with the twentieth anniversary of her death.

Reid died at the age of 77 from severe osteoarthritis and kidney failure (according to some obituaries, she had developed pneumonia) at a hospital in Wexham, Buckinghamshire on 13 October 1996, after complications following knee replacement surgery for arthritis.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1940	Spare a Copper	Minor Role	Uncredited
1954	The Belles of St. Trinian's	Miss Wilson
1956	The Extra Day	Beryl
1960	Two-Way Stretch	Miss Pringle
1962	The Dock Brief	Doris Fowle
1968	Inspector Clouseau	Mrs. Weaver
	Star!	Rose
	The Killing of Sister George	June 'George' Buckridge	Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1969	The Assassination Bureau	Madame Otero
1970	Entertaining Mr Sloane	Kath
1971	The Beast in the Cellar	Ellie Ballantyne
1972	Father, Dear Father	Mrs. Stoppard
	Dr. Phibes Rises Again	Miss Ambrose, Harry's Cousin
1973	Psychomania	Mrs. Latham
	No Sex Please, We're British	Bertha Hunter
1977	Joseph Andrews	Mrs. Slipslop
1978	Rosie Dixon - Night Nurse	Matron
	Carry On Emmannuelle	Mrs Valentine
1979	Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy	Connie Sachs	Episode "Smiley Tracks the Mole" Nominated - British Academy Television Award for Best Actress
1980	Rhubarb Rhubarb	Home Owner's Wife	Short
1981	Late Flowering Love		Short, (segment "Invasion Exercise on the Poultry Farm")
	Worzel Gummidge	Sarah Pigswill	Series 4 Episode 1 "Muvver's Day"
1982	Doctor Who	Briggs	"Earthshock": Episodes Two, Three, Four
	Smiley's People	Connie Sachs	(Episode No. 1.3) British Academy Television Award for Best Actress
1983	Yellowbeard	Lady Lambourn
	The Wind in the Willows	Ms. Carrington Moss	TV movie, Voice
	The Irish R.M.	Mrs Knox of Aussolas Castle
1984	Minder	Ruby Hubbard	Series 5, Episode 4 "The Second Time Around"
1985	The Doctor and the Devils	Mrs. Flynn
	Bergerac	Miss Broome	Series 4, Episode 4 "Low Profile"
	The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole	May Mole	(5 episodes)
1987	The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole	Grandma Mole	(6 episodes)
	The Beiderbecke Tapes	Sylvia	(1 episode)
1988	The Comic Strip Presents...	Mrs. Moss	(1 episode)

External links

• Beryl Reid at the Internet Broadway Database
• Beryl Reid at the BFI's Screenonline
• Beryl Reid at IMDb