Mary Lilian Agnes Morris (13 December 1915 – 14 October 1988) was a Fijian-born British actress.

Life and career

Morris was the daughter of Australian-born Herbert Stanley Morris, a botanist, and his wife, Sylvia Ena de Creft-Harford. She moved to Britain with her family as an infant, and her father died in an aircraft accident when she was three years old. She trained at the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...

. Morris made her debut in '' Lysistrata'' at the

Gate Theatre The Gate Theatre is a theatre on Cavendish Row in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1928. History Beginnings The Gate Theatre was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir with Daisy Bannard Cogley and Gearóid Ó Lochla ...

, London in 1936. She performed with Leslie Howard in '' "Pimpernel" Smith'' (1941) and Anna Petrovitch in the

Ealing Ealing () is a district in west London (sub-region), west London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. It is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Pl ...

war movie '' Undercover'' (1943) as the wife of a Serbian guerrilla leader. On television, she played Professor Madeleine Dawnay in the science-fiction television drama '' A for Andromeda'' (and its sequel, '' The Andromeda Breakthrough''), Queen Margaret in the BBC's '' An Age of Kings'' (a version of Shakespeare's History Plays), Lady Macbeth in the 1960 radio production of Macbeth, and Cleopatra in '' Antony and Cleopatra'' (as part of the BBC's adaptation of Shakespeare's Roman plays, '' The Spread of the Eagle'') in 1963. She played Number Two in ''

The Prisoner ''The Prisoner'' is a British television series created by Patrick McGoohan. McGoohan portrays Number Six (The Prisoner), Number Six, an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a The Village (The Prisoner), mysteri ...

''s episode " Dance of the Dead". After an absence of many years, she reappeared in diverse film roles such as Madame Fidolia the Russian ballerina and theatre school director in the BBC television serial '' Ballet Shoes'' (1975), and the mother of the murdered boy in the 1977 horror film '' Full Circle''. She also appeared on television in ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' in the story '' Kinda'' (1982), playing the role of the shaman Panna opposite Peter Davison. Her other television appearances included the Countess Vronsky in the BBC's '' Anna Karenina'' (1977); the macabre, ancient relative in the Walter de la Mare story ''Seaton's Aunt'' (1983) in Granada Television's ''Shades of Darkness'' series; a recently deceased woman attempting to cheat death in a 1988 episode of HBO's Ray Bradbury Theater; Mrs Browning-Browning in Stephen Wyatt's Claws (BBC 1 1987); and the formidable matriarch in '' Police at the Funeral'', an adaptation of one of Margery Allingham's Albert Campion stories for the BBC's '' Campion'' (1989). In addition to her film role, she played Elizabeth the First on a 'Makers of History' LP record, using the queen's spoken and written words and contemporary music, issued by EMI in 1964.

Death

Morris died from heart failure, aged 72, on 14 October 1988 in Aigle, Switzerland.

Complete filmography

Feature films

*'' Victoria the Great'' (1937) – Duchess of Kent *'' Prison Without Bars'' (1938) – Renee *'' The Spy in Black'' (1939) – Chauffeuse *'' The Thief of Bagdad'' (1940) – Halima/the Silver Maiden *''Who Killed Jack Robins?'' (1940) *''

Major Barbara ''Major Barbara'' is a three-act English play by George Bernard Shaw, written and premiered in 1905 and first published in 1907. The story concerns an idealistic young woman, Barbara Undershaft, who is engaged in helping the poor as a Major in ...

'' (1941) – A Girl *'' "Pimpernel" Smith'' (1941) – Ludmilla Koslowski *'' Undercover'' (1943) – Anna Petrovitch *'' The Man from Morocco'' (1945) – Sarah Duboste *'' The Agitator'' (1945) – Lettie Shackleton *'' Train of Events'' (1949) – Louise (segment "The Actor") *'' High Treason'' (1951) – Anna Braun *''The Pythoness'' (1951) – Narrator (voice) *'' Full Circle'' (1977) – Greta Braden

Television

References

External links

*
Profile
tv.com

filmreference.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Mary 1915 births 1988 deaths Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art British film actresses British stage actresses British television actresses British expatriates in Switzerland People from Lautoka 20th-century British actresses Fijian people of British descent Fijian emigrants to the United Kingdom Fijian people of Australian descent British people of Australian descent