Maureen Pryor

Maureen Pryor (23 May 1922 – 5 May 1977) was an Irish-born English character actress. She appeared on stage, screen and television.

Early life

Maureen Pryor was born Maureen Pook in 1922 in Limerick, Ireland to a Cockney father and an Irish mother. She started acting with Manchester Repertory in 1938 and studied with Michel Saint-Denis at the London Theatre Studio 1939-40.

Career

She appeared in the West End in Seán O'Casey's Red Roses for Me, Noël Coward's Peace In Our Time, John Griffith Bowen's After the Rain (also on Broadway)^[1], Doris Lessing’s Play with a Tiger^[2], and plays such as Little Boxes and Where’s Tedd.^[3] She was a member of the Stables Theatre Company. She also appeared on Broadway in the premiere season of Boeing-Boeing (1965).^[1] In Manchester, she appeared in Eugene O'Neill's one-act play Before Breakfast, directed by Bill Gilmour.

She made over 500 television appearances, and was in many films, perhaps most notably in Ken Russell's 1968 film Song of Summer, in which she played Jelka Delius, the long-suffering wife of the composer Frederick Delius. Russell used her again in The Music Lovers (1970) as Tchaikovsky's mother-in-law.

Selected filmography

• The Lady with the Lamp (1951)
• The Weak and the Wicked (1953)
• Doctor in the House (1954)
• Orders Are Orders (1954)
• The Secret Place (1957)
• Doctor at Large (1957)
• Heart of a Child (1958)
• Conspiracy of Hearts (1960)
• No Love for Johnnie (1961)
• Life for Ruth (1962)
• Madhouse on Castle Street (1963; Mrs Griggs; this was Bob Dylan's acting debut)
• The Sandwich Man (1966)
• Song of Summer (1968)
• The Music Lovers (1970)
• Lady Caroline Lamb (1972; Mrs Butler)
• The National Health (1973; the matron)
• The Black Windmill (1974)
• Shoulder to Shoulder (1974, BBC TV; as Dame Ethel Smyth)

Personal life

Her first marriage ended in divorce, her second in separation. She had one son, Mark, and died in 1977 from a heart ailment.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} IBDb
2. ^ Doris Lessing
3. ^ doollee.com

Sources

• IMDb biography
• IMDb

Persondata
Name	Pryor, Maureen
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1922
Place of birth
Date of death	1977
Place of death