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Beryl Reid OBE
Reid in 1974
Born	(1919-06-17)17 June 1919 Hereford,Herefordshire, England
Died	13 October 1996(1996-10-13) (aged 77) Wexham,Buckinghamshire, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1936–1994
Spouses	Bill Worsley ​ ​ (m. 1949; div. 1953)​ Derek Franklin ​ ​ (m. 1954; div. 1966)​

Beryl Elizabeth Reid (17 June 1919 – 13 October 1996) was a British actress. She won the 1967Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play forThe Killing of Sister George, the 1980Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance forBorn in the Gardens, and the 1982BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress forSmiley's People. Her film appearances includedThe Belles of St. Trinian's (1954),The Killing of Sister George (1968),The Assassination Bureau (1969), andNo Sex Please, We're British (1973).

Beryl Elizabeth Reid was born on 17 June 1919 inHereford,Herefordshire, daughter of Leonard Reid, an estate agent and valuer, and Anne Burton, née McDonald.^[1][2] Reid was the daughter ofScottish parents and grew up inManchester, where she attendedWithington andLevenshulme High Schools. As a child, she established a lifelong friendship with Nancy Wrigley, the daughter of the prominent classical soprano, DameIsobel 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 inHawaii!"^[3]

Leaving school at 16, she made her debut in 1936 as a music hall performer at the Floral Hall,Bridlington. Before and during theSecond World War, she took part in variety shows and pantomimes. She had no formal training but later worked at theNational Theatre and theRoyal Shakespeare Company. Her first big success came in the BBC radio showEducating Archie as naughty schoolgirl Monica and later as theBrummie, "Marlene."

Her many film and television roles as a character actor were usually well received. She reprised herTony Award-winning performance of alesbiansoap opera star inThe Killing of Sister George for the1968 screen version and was nominated for theGolden Globe Award 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.^[4]

She was the subject ofThis Is Your Life in 1976 when she was surprised byEamonn Andrews in the car park of Thames Television's Teddington Studios.

In bothTinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) andSmiley's People, (1982) Reid playedConnie Sachs. Having been nominated for aBritish Academy Television Award for Best Actress for both performances, winning forSmiley's People.

Between 1981 and 1983, Reid co-presented the Children's TV programmeGet up and Go forYorkshire 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 simplyMooncat and Co.

In 1982 she was inDr Who,Earthshock Ep 2, 3 & 4, as Captain Briggs, when the Peter Davison incarnation of The Doctor first met the Cybermen.

Reid wrote anautobiography in 1984,So Much Love.^[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 runningmusic hall show,The Good Old Days.

She married twice, but had no children. Her second husband, Derek Franklin, was a member of theHedley Ward Trio.^[6] An authorisedbiography,Roll Out the Beryl, was published by Fantom Films on 22 August 2016. Written by Kaye Crawford, it was the first biography of the actress and coincided with the twentieth anniversary of her death.^[7]

Reid loved cats, had ten of them, most of which were strays she adopted.

From a date in the late 1950s until not long before her death in 1996, Beryl Reid lived in a small African-styledrondavel house, Honey Pot Cottage (at the time spelled Honeypot Cottage), built in 1933 as, originally, a holiday home, and overlooking theThames atWraysbury, west of London.^{[8][9][10][11]} She bequeathed the property to a friend, Paul Strike, an actor later regularly featured (in a voice-only role) in theBBC TV series,Casualty and who, as of 2021, still owned it.^[12]

In 1987, Beryl Reid and Honeypot Cottage featured in the comedy panel game show,Through the Keyhole, presented byDavid Frost andLoyd Grossman.^[13]

Reid died at the age of 77 from severeosteoarthritis andkidney failure^[1] (according to some obituaries, she had developedpneumonia)^[14] at a hospital inWexham,Buckinghamshire^[1] on 13 October 1996, after complications followingknee replacement surgery forarthritis.^[14]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toBeryl Reid.

• Beryl Reid at theInternet Broadway Database
• Beryl Reid at theBFI'sScreenonline
• Beryl Reid atIMDb

• 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
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• Officers of the Order of the British Empire
• Actresses from Buckinghamshire
• Actresses from Hereford
• 20th-century English actresses
• Laurence Olivier Award winners
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