Rachel Roberts (actress)

Infobox Actor
name = Rachel Roberts


imagesize = 120px
caption =
birthname = Rachel Roberts
birthdate = birth date|1927|9|20|df=y
location = Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales, United Kingdom
deathdate = death date and age|1980|11|26|1927|9|20|df=y
deathplace = Los Angeles, California, United States
yearsactive = 1953 – 1980
spouse = Alan Dobie (1955-1961)
Rex Harrison (1962-1971)
baftaawards = Best Actress
1960 "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning"
1963 "This Sporting Life"
Best Supporting Actress
1979 "Yanks"

Rachel Roberts (20 September, 1927 – 26 November, 1980) was a Welsh actress noted for her fervour and passion; Roberts gave forthright performances in two key films of the 1960s.

Biography

Career

After a Baptist upbringing (which she rebelled against), followed by the University of Wales and RADA, she began working with a repertory company in Swansea in 1950. ["Halliwell's Who's Who on the Movies." John Walker (ed); HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. (2003) pg398 ISBN 0060534230] She made her film debut in the Welsh-set comedy "Valley of Song" (1953; directed by Gilbert Gunn).

Her portrayal of Brenda in Karel Reisz's "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" (1960) won her a BAFTA. ["The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales". John Davies, Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines and Peredur Lynch (2008) pg769 ISBN 9780708319536] Lindsay Anderson cast her as the suffering Mrs Hammond in "This Sporting Life" (1963, another BAFTA and an Oscar nomination).

In theatre, she played at the Royal Court and was the life-enhancing tart "Maggie May" in Lionel Bart's musical (1964). In films she continued to play women with lusty appetites (as in Lindsay Anderson's "O Lucky Man!" (1973), although the haunting Australian-made "Picnic at Hanging Rock" (1975, directed by Peter Weir) provided her with a different kind of role.

She appeared in supporting roles in several American films such as "Foul Play" (1978) after relocating to Los Angeles in the early 1970s, her final British film being "Yanks" (1979, directed by John Schlesinger), for which she received a Supporting Actress BAFTA. ["The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales". John Davies, Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines and Peredur Lynch (2008) pg769 ISBN 9780708319536]

In 1979, Roberts co-starred with Jill Bennett in the London Weekend Television production of Alan Bennett's "The Old Crowd", directed by Lindsay Anderson.

Personal life

She married firstly Alan Dobie (1955–1961), then Rex Harrison (1962–1971).

Illness and death

Her alcoholism and depression increased after her divorce from Harrison in 1971. Devastated over their divorce, she moved to Hollywood in 1975 and tried to forget the relationship. In 1980, after a final, futile attempt to win Harrison back, proved unsuccessful.

Impulsive and insecure, she died after committing suicide by taking an overdose of barbiturates and alcohol on November 26 1980 at her home in Los Angeles. Her gardener found her body in the kitchen, having smashed a glass divide between two rooms.cite book
last = Upton
first = Julian
authorlink =
title = Fallen Stars
publisher = Headpress
date = 2004
pages = 1973
url = http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Gb5ci9IF_SMC
isbn = 1900486385] The coroner reported the cause of death as "swallowing a caustic substance" and later, "acute barbiturate intoxication".Citation
title = Rachel Roberts Ruled a Suicide
newspaper = The New York Times
date = January 6 1981
url =http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9B0CEFDE173BF935A35752C0A967948260
accessdate = 2008-08-17 ] It was ruled a suicide. She was 53 years old.

She was cremated at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles. [cite web
last = Edwards
first = Robert
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Rachel Roberts (1927–1980)
work =
publisher = Find A Grave
date = 2001-10-19
url = http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5861206
accessdate =2008-08-17 ] Her journals became the basis for "No Bells on Sunday: The Memoirs of Rachel Roberts" (1984).

Filmography

* "The Limping Man" (1953)
* "Men are Children Twice" (1953)
* "Valley of Song" (1953)
* "The Crowded Day" (1954)
* "The Weak and the Wicked" (1954)
* "The Good Companions" (1957)
* "Davy" (1958)
* "Our Man in Havana" (1959)
* "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" (1960)
* "Girl on Approval" (1962)
* "This Sporting Life" (1963)
* "A Flea in Her Ear" (1968)
* "Destiny of a Spy" (1969)
* "The Reckoning" (1969)
* "Doctors' Wives" (1970)
* "Wild Rovers" (1972)
* "Baffled" (1972)
* "Alpha Beta" (1973)
* "Free Spirit" (1973)
* "O Lucky Man!" (1973)
* "The Belstone Fox" (1973)
* "Great Expectations" (1974)
* "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974)
* "Picnic at Hanging Rock" (1975)
* "A Circle of Children" (1977)
* "Foul Play" (1978)
* "Sorrows of Gin" (1979)
* "When a Stranger Calls" (1979)
* "Yanks" (1979)
* "Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen" (1980)
* "The Hostage Tower" (1980)
* "The Wall" (1982)

References

External links

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Persondata
NAME= Roberts, Rachel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Roberts, Rachel
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Actress
DATE OF BIRTH= September 20, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH= Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, West Wales
DATE OF DEATH= November 26, 1980
PLACE OF DEATH= Los Angeles, California, United States