Beryl Elizabeth Reid, (17 June 1919 – 13 October 1996), was a British actress of stage and screen. She won the 1967

Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre. The award is given to actresses for quality lead ...

for '' The Killing of Sister George'', the 1980 Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance for ''

Born in the Gardens ''Born In The Gardens'' is a comedy play by Bristol-born playwright Peter Nichols. Nichols wrote the play in 1979, after his now famous drama ''Privates On Parade'' was rejected by the Bristol Old Vic for being too controversial. ''Born In The G ...

'', and the 1982 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for '' Smiley's People''. Her film appearances included ''

The Belles of St. Trinian's ''The Belles of St Trinian's'' is a 1954 British comedy film, directed by Frank Launder, co-written by Launder and Sidney Gilliat, and starring Alastair Sim, Joyce Grenfell, George Cole, Hermione Baddeley. Inspired by British cartoonist Ronald ...

'' (1954), '' The Killing of Sister George'' (1968), '' The Assassination Bureau'' (1969), and '' No Sex Please, We're British'' (1973).

Early life

Born in

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a populatio ...

in 1919,Jonathan Cecil, "Reid, Beryl Elizabeth (1919–1996)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 200
available online
Retrieved 30 August 2020. Reid was the daughter of

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

parents and grew up in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, 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, Dame 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 Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...

Career

Leaving school at 16, she made her debut in 1936 as a music hall performer at the Floral Hall,

Bridlington Bridlington is a coastal town and a civil parish on the Holderness Coast of the North Sea in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is about north of Hull and east of York. The Gypsey Race enters the North Sea at its harbour. The 2011 Cen ...

. Before and during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, 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 The Brummie dialect, or more formally the Birmingham dialect, is spoken by many people in Birmingham, England, and some of its surrounding areas. "Brummie" is also a demonym for people from Birmingham. It is often erroneously used in referring to ...

, "Marlene." Her many film and television roles as a character actor were usually well received. She reprised her

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

-winning performance of a lesbian

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

star in '' The Killing of Sister George'' for the 1968 screen version and was nominated for the

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

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 This Is Your Life may refer to: Television * ''This Is Your Life'' (American franchise), an American radio and television documentary biography series hosted by Ralph Edwards * ''This Is Your Life'' (Australian TV series), the Australian versio ...

'' in 1976 when she was surprised by

Eamonn Andrews Eamonn Andrews, (19 December 1922 – 5 November 1987) was an Irish radio and television presenter, employed primarily in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the 1980s. From 1960 to 1964 he chaired the Radio Éireann Authority (now the RTÉ A ...

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''. So Much Love, 1984, Hutchinson & Co Hardback, ISBN 0-09-155730-5 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 Osteoarthritis (OA) is a type of degenerative joint disease that results from breakdown of joint cartilage and underlying bone which affects 1 in 7 adults in the United States. It is believed to be the fourth leading cause of disability in the ...

and kidney failure (according to some obituaries, she had developed

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

) at a hospital in Wexham,

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-eas ...

on 13 October 1996, after complications following

knee replacement surgery Knee replacement, also known as knee arthroplasty, is a surgical procedure to replace the weight-bearing surfaces of the knee joint to relieve pain and disability, most commonly offered when joint pain is not diminished by conservative sources ...

for arthritis.

Filmography

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reid, Beryl 1919 births 1996 deaths Actresses from Manchester Best Actress BAFTA Award (television) winners Deaths from pneumonia in England English film actresses English people of Scottish descent English stage actresses English television actresses Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Buckinghamshire People from Hereford 20th-century English actresses Laurence Olivier Award winners Tony Award winners 20th-century British businesspeople