Molly Sinclair Urquhart (6 January 1906 – 6 October 1977) was a Scottish actress.

Early life

Urquhart was born in Glasgow as Mary Sinclair Urquhart. She was the daughter of post office clerk Ann McCallum and sea-going engineer William Urquhart. She grew up in the West End of Glasgow where she attended Dowanhill Primary School and Church Street School. After school, she worked in a shop and took the exam to work for the GPO. She had no formal training in theatre, coming to the profession through the "amateur movement". While a teenager in the late 1920s, she joined the St. George Players, an amateur club. In 1931, she became a member of the Tron Theatre Club in Glasgow, followed by Glasgow's

Curtain Theatre The Curtain Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Hewett Street, Shoreditch (within the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. It opened in 1577, and continued staging plays until 1624. The Curtain was b ...

in 1932. She adopted the name Molly Urquhart for her stage name.

Career

Theatre

In 1932, Urquhart joined the Howard and Wyndham company, becoming a professional actress. Her first professional role was in the melodrama '' Jeannie Deans'' at

Theatre Royal, Glasgow The Theatre Royal is the oldest theatre in Glasgow and the longest running in Scotland. Located at 282 Hope Street, its front door was originally round the corner in Cowcaddens Street. It currently accommodates 1,541 people and is owned by Scott ...

in 1934. She then moved to repertory theatre in England and Scotland, including joining the Sheldon-Browne Company in 1936 and the company of the Festival Theatre, Cambridge. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, she set up and ran her own repertory theatre company, the Molly S. Urquhart Theatre or MSU Theatre (now known as the Rutherglen Repertory Theatre) in a former church on East Main Street in

Rutherglen Rutherglen (; , ) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, immediately south-east of the city of Glasgow, from its centre and directly south of the River Clyde. Having previously existed as a separate Lanarkshire burgh, in 1975 Rutherglen lo ...

, Scotland in 1939. Urquhart not only acted, but also directed plays and managed the MSU Theatre. The company included

Eileen Herlie Eileen Herlie (8 March 1918 – 8 October 2008) was a Scottish-American actress. Personal life Eileen Herlie was born Eileen Isobel Herlihy to an Irish Catholic father, Patrick Herlihy, and a Scottish Protestant mother, Isobel Cowden, in ...

, Gordon Jackson, Duncan Macrae, and

Nicholas Parsons Christopher Nicholas Parsons (10 October 1923 – 28 January 2020) was an English actor, straight man and radio and television presenter. He was the long-running presenter of the comedy radio show ''Just a Minute'' and hosted the game show '' S ...

. Their first show was Merton Hodge's ''The Wind and the Rain'' which opened on 2 May 1939. In 1944, MSU Theatre closed; Urquhart and others from the company joined the newly established

Citizens Theatre The Citizens Theatre, in what was the Royal Princess's Theatre, is the creation of James Bridie and playwright in residence Paul Vincent Carroll is based in Glasgow, Scotland, as a principal producing theatre. The theatre includes a 500-seat ...

in Glasgow. She remained with the Citizens until 1956, performing in plays such as

James Bridie James Bridie (3 January 1888 in Glasgow – 29 January 1951 in Edinburgh) was the pseudonym of a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and physician whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor.Daniel Leary (1982) ''Dictionary of Literary Biography: ...

's ''The Forrigan Reel'' and ''The Tintock Cup.'' In 1945 when ''The Forrigan Reel'' toured, she had her first performance in London at Sadlers Wells Theatre''.'' Her "greatest triumph" was said to be at the Edinburgh Festival of 1948 where she played Dame Sensualite in Tyrone Guthrie's production of ''

A Satire of the Three Estates ''A Satire of the Three Estates'' (Middle Scots: ''Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis''), is a satirical morality play in Middle Scots, written by the makar Sir David Lyndsay. The complete play was first performed outside in the playing ...

'' at the Assembly Hall. She appeared in London's West End in

Eric Linklater Eric Robert Russell Linklater CBE (8 March 1899 – 7 November 1974) was a Welsh-born Scottish poet, fiction writer, military historian, and travel writer. For '' The Wind on the Moon'', a children's fantasy novel, he won the 1944 Carnegie Med ...

's plays '' Love in Albania'' in 1949 and '' The Mortimer Touch'' in 1952. In 1953, she joined the ''Five Past Eight Show'' which was based at Alhambra Theatre in Glasgow; the show ran throughout the 1950s. Her portrayal of Bessie Burgess in West End revival of ''

The Plough and the Stars ''The Plough and the Stars'' is a four-act play by the Irish writer Seán O'Casey that was first performed on 8 February 1926 at the Abbey Theatre. It is set in Dublin and addresses the 1916 Easter Rising. The play's title references the Sta ...

'' in 1962 was "a notable hit".

Film and television

Urquhart's first film role was in the 1955 comedy Geordie with

Alastair Sim Alastair George Bell Sim (9 October 1900 – 19 August 1976) was a Scottish actor. He began his theatrical career at the age of thirty and quickly became established as a popular West End performer, remaining so until his death in 1976. S ...

under the direction of Fred Zinnerman. This was the beginning of numerous films that Urquhart made with Zinnerman; others included as ''

Geordie Geordie ( ), sometimes known in linguistics as Tyneside English or Newcastle English, is an English dialect and accent spoken in the Tyneside area of North East England. It developed as a variety of the old Northumbrian dialect and became espe ...

'' (1955), ''

The Nun's Story ''The Nun's Story'' is a 1956 novel by Kathryn Hulme. It was a Book of the Month selection and reached No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list, ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list. Premise The lead character of the book, Sister Luk ...

'' (1959), '' The Sundowners'' (1960), and '' A Man For All Seasons'' (1966).'''' She also had roles in the films '' Floodtide'' (1949), '' Portrait of Clare'' (1950), and '' Blonde Sinner'' (1956).'''' She had a role in the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

television series '' Doctor Finlay's Casebook'' and the made-for-television film ''The Little Minister'' in 1950.''''

Honours and legacy

* A dramatised version of her life was performed by

Dumbarton People's Theatre Dumbarton People's Theatre (often abbreviated to DPT) is an amateur theatre group which exists in the town of Dumbarton Dumbarton (; , or ; or , meaning 'fort of the Britons (historical), Britons') is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotla ...

. * Helen Murdoch wrote a biography of Urquhart entitled ''Travelling Hopefully: The Story of Molly Urquhart''.Murdoch, Helen. ''Travelling Hopefully: The Story of Molly Urquhart.'' Edinburgh: Paul Harris Publishing, 1981 * Her papers are stored at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

Special Collections.

Personal life

In August 1934, she married William MacIntosh (1900-1959), a police officer. In 1949, he became the first manager of the Citizens Theatre when it was located at

Gorbals The Gorbals is an area in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, and former burgh, on the south bank of the River Clyde. By the late 19th century, it had become densely populated; rural migrants and immigrants were attracted by the new industries and e ...

. The couple had one son, James Urquhart McIntosh, in 1943. They lived in Ibrox, Glasgow. She died in 1977 at the age of 71 in Glasgow.

Partial filmography

Television

References

External links

Molly Urquhart
in IMDb {{DEFAULTSORT:Urquhart, Molly 1906 births 1977 deaths Actresses from Glasgow Scottish television actresses Scottish film actresses Scottish stage actresses 20th-century Scottish actresses Rutherglen Scottish theatre directors Scottish women theatre directors