- Barbara Jefford
Barbara Jefford, OBE (born
26 July 1930 ,Plymstock ,Devon ,England ) is a BritishShakespearean actress best known for her theatrical performances with theRoyal Shakespeare Company , theOld Vic and the National Theatre, and her role asMolly Bloom in the 1967 film ofJames Joyce 's "Ulysses".Biography
Born as Mary Barbara Jefford and brought up in the
West Country , Barbara Jefford attended Weirfield School inTaunton ,Somerset before training atRADA inLondon , where she was awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal. In 1946, whilst still a student, she obtained small parts in the radio production of "Westward Ho!" and other radio plays, but her stage debut came in 1949, when she played the part of Viola in "Twelfth Night" at the Dolphin Theatre,Brighton .Theatre
tratford
After spending just one year working in
repertory theatre , in 1950 she was given the part of Isabella inPeter Brook 's production of "Measure for Measure " at the Shakespeare Memorial Company, (now the Royal Shakespeare Company) inStratford upon Avon , playing oppositeJohn Gielgud (Angelo) andHarry Andrews (Vincentio).Over the next four years she went on to play many more major Shakespearean roles: Anne Bullen in "Henry VIII" opposite
Tyrone Guthrie in 1950; Calphurnia in "Julius Caesar" oppositeAnthony Quayle andMichael Langham in 1950; Hero, opposite John Gielgud andPeggy Ashcroft in 1950; Lady Percy in "Henry IV", oppositeJohn Kidd , Anthony Quayle andMichael Redgrave in 1951; Isabel oppositeRichard Burton in "Henry V" , in 1951; Desdemona to Anthony Quayle's "Othello " in 1952; Rosalind in "As You Like It " (New Zealand Tour, 1953); Lady Percy in "Henry IV, Part 1 " ( New Zealand Tour and International Tour, 1953); Hippolyte in "A Midsummer Night's Dream ] " in 1954; Kate toKeith Michell 's Petruchio in "The Taming of the Shrew " in 1954; and Helen in "Troilus and Cressida " in 1954.The Old Vic
After leaving Stratford she co-starred with Michael Redgrave, in"Tiger at the Gates" in the West End and on Broadway, before returning to work at the Old Vic. Amongst other roles she played there were Portia in "
The Merchant of Venice "; Imogen in "Cymbeline "; Beatrice in "Much Ado About Nothing "; Julia in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona "; Tamora in "Titus Andronicus "; Lady Anne in "Richard III"; Viola in "Twelfth Night"; Queen Margaret in "Henry VI 1-3" ; Isabella in "Measure for Measure "; Regan in "King Lear "; Rosalind in "As You Like It"; and Viola in "Twelfth Night". In 1978 she played Gertrude toDerek Jacobi 's "Hamlet ".She also played Beatrice in Shelley's"
The Cenci " and Joan inGeorge Bernard Shaw 's "Saint Joan", emulating her mentor and friend, DameSybil Thorndike . Many of these productions toured the USA, theUSSR , theMiddle East andEurope .Other productions
Jefford next started a period of work with Frank Hauser's
Oxford Playhouse which included the first of her three "Cleopatra"s,Racine 's "Phèdre " and Lina in "Misalliance " which transferred to theCriterion Theatre .Other West End plays included "
Ride A Cock Horse ","Filumena ", "Mistress of Novices " and "The Dark Horse ", as well as theAlmeida Theatre 's Racine Season at theAlbery Theatre . With this company she also played her second Volumnia in Coriolanus, oppositeRalph Fiennes in London, New York andTokyo , her first being at Stratford withCharles Dance . In 1976 she was in the opening production at the Olivier Theatre playing Zabina in "Tamburlaine the Great " withAlbert Finney .She has repeated many Shakespeare roles in her long career, appearing in 54 productions of all but four of his plays. The last of these was
Michael Grandage 's "Richard III" withKenneth Branagh in 2002, at theCrucible Theatre ,Sheffield in which she played Queen Margaret, oppositeDerek Jacobi for the second time.In July 2007 she played Mrs Higgins (the mother of Henry Higgins) in Peter Hall's acclaimed
Theatre Royal, Bath production ofBernard Shaw 's "Pygmalion ", which transferred to theOld Vic in May 2008Film and television
In 1959 she appeared as Ophelia in a TV production of "Hamlet". In 1963 she provided the voice (uncredited) of the Russian heroine of the
James Bond film "From Russia with Love". Jefford provided additional voice work in later Bond films, dubbing Mollie Peters in "Thunderball" and Caroline Munro in "The Spy Who Loved Me". Her first major film role was as Molly Bloom in "Ulysses" in 1967, for which she was nominated for aBritish Academy Award . This was followed by "The Bofors Gun" (Jack Gold, 1968); "The Shoes of the Fisherman " (1968) and "Lust for a Vampire " (1971) She playedMagda Goebbels in "Hitler: the Last Ten Days" (Ennio de Concini , 1973). Other films include "Nelly's Version" (1983),Fellini 's "And the Ship Sails On " ("E la nave va") (1983) "Claudia" (1985) and "The Ninth Gate " (Roman Polanski , 2000).Barbara Jefford has appeared in several television dramas in the "
Play For Today " series and has guest starred in several other popular television series. These include "Edna, the Inebriate Woman " in 1971; "Walter and June" (TV, 1986); "Porterhouse Blue " (TV, 1987); "When the Whales Came" (1989);Harold Pinter 's "Reunion" (1989); Mrs Herriton in "Where Angels Fear to Tread" (Charles Sturridge, 1991); "The House of Eliott " (TV, 1991); "The Saint " (Philip Noyce, 1997); "Midsomer Murders " (TV, 2000) and "Madame Bovary " (TV, 2000). She has also appeared in episodes of "TheRuth Rendell Mysteries", and the "Inspector Alleyn Mysteries".Awards
In 1965, Jefford was awarded the OBE for her service to the theatre, becoming the youngest ever recipient of the award to that date; however she remains to be promoted (to
CBE orDBE ).In 1977 she was also awarded the Jubilee Festival Medal.
References and external links
* [http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?lid=4851 The National Theatre] Barbara Jefford In Conversation, 2003
* [http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/stratfordians/stjefba.htm Article from Dictionary of the Royal Shakespeare Company by Simon Trowbridge, 2002]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0420266/ Barbara Jefford at IMDB]
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