Claire Bloom | |
|---|---|
 Bloom in 1958 | |
| Born | Patricia Claire Blume (1931-02-15)15 February 1931 (age 94) |
| Education | Guildhall School of Music and Drama Central School of Speech and Drama |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1946–present |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Anna Steiger |
| Relatives | John Bloom (brother) |
Patricia Claire Bloom (born 15 February 1931) is an English actress. She is known for leading roles on stage and screen and has received twoBAFTA Awards and aDrama Desk Award as well as nominations for aPrimetime Emmy Award, aGrammy Award and aTony Award. She was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to drama.
After a childhood spent in various places in England and Florida, Bloom studied drama in London. She debuted on the London stage when she was sixteen and took roles in variousShakespeare plays. They includedHamlet, in which she playedOphelia alongsideRichard Burton. She rose to prominence playing leading roles in stage productions ofA Streetcar Named Desire,A Doll's House, andLong Day's Journey into Night. She made herBroadway debut in the playRichard II (1956). She received aTony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play nomination for her role inElectra (1999).
Bloom made her film debut inThe Blind Goddess (1948). Her breakthrough came with a leading role acting oppositeCharlie Chaplin inLimelight (1952) for which she won theBAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer. She went on to act in films such asRichard III (1955),Alexander the Great (1956),The Brothers Karamazov (1958),The Haunting (1963),The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965),Charly (1968),A Doll's House (1973),Clash of the Titans (1981), andShadowlands (1985). For the latter she won theBAFTA Award for Best Actress. She later acted in theWoody Allen filmsCrimes and Misdemeanors (1989) andMighty Aphrodite (1995), and portrayedQueen Mary in historical dramaThe King's Speech (2010).
During her film career, she has starred alongside numerous major actors, includingRichard Burton,Laurence Olivier,John Gielgud,Paul Scofield,Ralph Richardson,Yul Brynner,George C. Scott,James Mason,Paul Newman,Julie Harris,Anthony Hopkins,Rod Steiger andJerry Lewis.
Bloom was born on 15 February 1931 as Patricia Claire Blume inFinchley,[1] then part ofMiddlesex (now a suburb ofnorth London), the daughter of Elizabeth (née Grew) and Edward Max Blume, a "not very successful" salesman.[2] Her paternal grandparents, originally named Blumenthal, as well as her maternal grandparents, originally named Gravitzky, were Jewish emigrants from Byten in theGrodno region of Russia, now inBelarus, Eastern Europe.[3]: 1–2 [4]
Bloom's education was "somewhat haphazard"; she was sent to the independentBadminton School in Bristol, but when her father encountered financial difficulties the family relocated to Cornwall, where she attended the local village school. She later studied stage acting at theGuildhall School of Music and Drama, London,[5] and continued her studies underElsie Fogerty at theCentral School of Speech and Drama, then based in theRoyal Albert Hall, London.[6]
After the Luftwaffe began bombing London duringthe Blitz in 1940 her family had a number of narrow escapes as bombs dropped close to their home. While their father remained in England, she and her brotherJohn went with their mother to the United States, where she spent a year living inFlorida with a paternal uncle's family; during this time her mother worked in her aunt's dress shop, "but she proved to be a dreadful saleswoman".[7][2][8] She recalls, "It was 1941; I was ten, John was nearly six. We were to sail fromGlasgow in a convoy, on a ship that was evacuating children."[9]: 26 During her year's stay in Florida, she was asked by theBritish War Relief Society to help raise money by entertaining at various benefits, which she then did for a number of weeks. "Thus I broke into show business singing", she writes.[9]: 30 Bloom, along with her mother and brother, next lived in New York with their mother's cousin for another eighteen months before returning to England. It was in New York that she decided to become an actress, after her mother took her to see the Broadway playThree Sisters for her twelfth birthday:
From then on I thought only of going into the theatre and playing inChekhov. ... Chekhov wasmoving. That's what I was looking for—something more moving even than my own plight as a little English girl driven from my home by the Gods of War.[9]: 36
They returned to England in 1943, and due to her father's improved business lived in Mayfair, but her parents' marriage ended shortly afterwards – so her father could marry his girlfriend – and she had no contact with him for many years.[7][2]
Bloom made her debut onBBC radio programmes. She made her stage debut in 1946 when she was 15 with theOxford Repertory Theatre. Bloom debuted aged 16 at theShakespeare Memorial Theatre as Ophelia to Paul Scofield's Hamlet;Robert Helpmann alternated playing the prince. Bloom has written that during the production she had a crush on Scofield. As Scofield was married and the father of a son, Bloom hoped only, "to be flirted with and taken some notice of". She later recalled, "I could never make up my mind which of my two Hamlets I found the more devastating: the openly homosexual, charismatic Helpmann, or the charming, shy young man from Sussex."[3]: 43 When asked about Bloom years later, Scofield recalled, "Sixteen years old I think—so very young and necessarily inexperienced, she looked lovely, she acted with a daunting assurance which belied entirely her inexperience of almost timid reticence. She was a very good Ophelia."[10]
Her London stage debut was in 1947 in theChristopher Fry playThe Lady's Not For Burning, which starred Sir John Gielgud andPamela Brown and featured a young Richard Burton. It also played on Broadway in New York City. It was during the rehearsals for the play that Burton and Bloom began a long love affair. The following year she received acclaim for her portrayal of Ophelia inHamlet, starring Burton. Although Burton was at that time married toSybil Christopher, fellow actor and friend of Burton,Stanley Baker, seeing how attracted he was to Bloom, commented that he "thought that this might be the time when Rich actually left Sybil."[11] In his later years, Burton told his biographer, Michael Munn, "'I only ever loved two women beforeElizabeth,' Sybil was one, Claire Bloom the other."[11]: 52, 85 Of her Juliet inRomeo and Juliet (1957), criticKenneth Tynan stated it was the best he had ever seen.[12] After she starred asBlanche DuBois inA Streetcar Named Desire, its playwright,Tennessee Williams, stated, "I declare myself absolutely wild about Claire Bloom".
Bloom's first film role was in the 1948 filmThe Blind Goddess.[13] She trained at theRank Organisation'scharm school[5] but did not stay with that company for long. Her international screen debut came in the 1952 filmLimelight, when she was chosen by Charlie Chaplin, who also directed, to co-star alongside him. The film catapulted Bloom to stardom.[13] Biographer Dan Kamin states thatLimelight is a similar story to Chaplin'sCity Lights, made twenty years earlier, in which Chaplin also helps a heroine overcome a physical handicap. In this film, Bloom plays a suicidal ballerina who "suffers fromhysterical paralysis".[14]
The film had personal meaning for Chaplin as it contained numerous references to his life and family: the theatre where he and Bloom performed in the film was the same theatre where his mother gave her last performance;[citation needed] Bloom was directed by Chaplin to wear dresses similar to those his mother used to wear; Chaplin's sons and his half-brother all had parts.[15] Bloom states that she felt one of the reasons she got the part was because she closely resembled his young wife,Oona O'Neill.[16][17][13] In his autobiography, Chaplin writes that he had no doubt the film would be a success: "I had fewer qualms about its success than any picture I had ever made."[14] Chaplin explains his decision to make Bloom co-star despite this being her first film:
In casting the girl's part I wanted the impossible: beauty, talent, and a great emotional range. After months of searching and testing with disappointing results, I eventually had the good fortune to sign up Claire Bloom, who was recommended by my friendArthur Laurents.[18][19]
She was subsequently featured in a number of "costume" roles in films such asAlexander the Great (1956),[5]The Brothers Karamazov (1958),[20]The Buccaneer (1958),[21] andThe Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962).[22] Bloom also appeared in Laurence Olivier's film version ofRichard III (1955), in which she played Lady Anne,[13]Ibsen'sA Doll's House (1973) for which she won Best Actress award atTaormina International Film Festival,[citation needed]The Outrage (1964) with Paul Newman andLaurence Harvey,[23] as well as the filmsLook Back in Anger (1959) andThe Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), both withRichard Burton.[13] Of Bloom's character inSpy, novelistDavid Plante writes that "Claire's refined beauty appears to be one with the refinement of a culture she represents as an actress."[24] In a 2002 interview withMichael Shelden, Bloom said of Burton, "He had it all: intelligence, physical beauty, an incredible voice. There was no one else like him. When we were at the Old Vic, he proved that a working-class actor could make it, and I was proud of him. I thought he set a great example in a society that was, and still is, so preoccupied with class and accent."[21]
Bloom has appeared in a number of plays and theatrical works in both London and New York. Those works includeLook Back in Anger;Rashomon; 'Duel of Angels' (byJean Giraudoux), co-starring withVivien Leigh, in 1958;[25] and Bloom's favourite role, that of Blanche DuBois, in a revival of theTennessee Williams play,A Streetcar Named Desire, which played in London in 1974. CriticClive Barnes described the play as a "notable example of what the classic revival should be – well groomed, but thoughtful, expressive, illuminating."[26] Another critic writes that Bloom's portrayal of Blanche featured "remarkable layers of vitality and tenderness", and playwright Williams stated, "I declare myself absolutely wild about Claire Bloom."[26] Bloom has also performed in one-woman shows that included monologues from several of her stage performances.[27][28] She also starred in the 1976 Broadway revival ofThe Innocents.[29] In the 1960s she began to play more contemporary roles, including an unhinged housewife inThe Chapman Report,[13] a psychologist opposite Cliff Robertson's Oscar-winning role inCharly,[30] and Theodora inThe Haunting.[2] She playedHera inClash of the Titans, reuniting her with Olivier who playedZeus.[12]
Bloom has appeared in numerous roles on television such as her portrayal of Lady Marchmain inBrideshead Revisited (1981).[13] In 1996, she wrote, "I still find it puzzling when I am told I played a manipulative and heartless woman; that is not how I saw her. Lady Marchmain is deeply religious, and her dilemma includes trying to raise a wilful brood of children on her own, while instilling them with her rigid observance of the Catholic code. Sebastian is both an alcoholic and a homosexual, and from her point of view, he lives in a state ofmortal sin. She has to fight for his soul by any means in her power, with the knowledge that her efforts may lead to his destruction. A born crusader, the Marchioness confronts her difficult choices head on; her rigidity of purpose, which I don't in any way share, is understandable in context. The aspect that rings most true is her sense of being an outsider, a Catholic in Protestant England. Not such a leap from being a Jew in Protestant England as one would imagine."[3]: 162
Other work includes two prominentBBC Television productions for directorRudolph Cartier: co-starring withSean Connery inAnna Karenina (1961),[31] and playingCathy inWuthering Heights withKeith Michell asHeathcliff (1962).[32] She also appeared as First LadyEdith Wilson inBackstairs at the White House (1979);[33] asJoy Gresham, the wife ofC.S. Lewis inShadowlands for which she received the BAFTA Award as Best Actress (1985).[34]
She also appeared in theWoody Allen filmsCrimes and Misdemeanors (1989) andMighty Aphrodite (1995).[28] She appeared in theSylvester Stallone filmDaylight (1996).[35] Later appearances in films included her portrayal ofQueen Mary in the 2010 Oscar winning British filmThe King's Speech and her portrayal of Eva Rose opposite Jerry Lewis in the 2016 filmMax Rose.[7][18] In television she acted inThe Mirror Crack'd, the last of the BBCMiss Marple adaptations in 1992;[36] and as the older Sophy in the serialThe Camomile Lawn (1992) on Britain'sChannel 4.[37] Recent mini-series work includesThe Ten Commandments (2006) andSummer of Rockets.[7] On continuing television series, she has appeared on the New York-basedLaw & Order: Criminal Intent. From 1994 to 1995, she portrayed villainess Orlena Grimaldi on the daytime dramaAs the World Turns.[18] She also had major roles in several of theBBC Television Shakespeare presentations[38][39][40] and has led workshops on Shakespearean performance practices.[28]
In 2003, Bloom did a stage reading ofMilton'sSamson Agonistes along with actorJohn Neville atBryn Mawr College at the behest of poetKarl Kirchwey.[41] In December 2006, she appeared on the London stage inArthur Allan Seidelman's production ofSix Dance Lessons in Six Weeks byRichard Alfieri, a two-hander in which she co-starred withBilly Zane.[42] In October 2007, she appeared oppositePeter Bowles inLove Letters at theThéâtre Princesse Grace,Monte Carlo, directed byMarc Sinden, as part of his British Theatre Season,Monaco. In 2008, she guest starred inNew Tricks as actress Helen Brownlow. The story concerned the murder of Brownlow's husband whilst they were in a play together.[43]
In December 2009 and January 2010, she appeared in the two-partDoctor Who story"The End of Time" as a mysteriousTime Lord credited only as "The Woman".[12] Series executive producerRussell T Davies revealed in his 2010 bookThe Writer's Tale that the character is supposed to bethe Doctor's mother. In 2010, she guest starred as Jill Peters inThe Bill in the episode "Taking a Stand" and playedQueen Mary inThe King's Speech.[44][7] In September 2012, she appeared in concert at theJoseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall,Baltimore, Maryland, as the narrator in a performance ofLeonard Bernstein'sKaddish, with theBaltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted byMarin Alsop.[45] Between 2005 and 2022, Bloom appeared in several episodes of ITV'sDoc Martin as Margaret Ellingham, the estranged mother of the title character, Dr. Martin Ellingham; in the show's final episode she appears as a ghost.[12][46] In 2015 she appeared as Matilda Stowe in ITV'sMidsomer Murders episode 17.4, "A Vintage Murder". In 2019, she appeared as Aunt Mary in theStephen Poliakoff BBC TV mini-series,Summer of Rockets.[47]
Bloom has married three times.[2] Her first marriage, in 1959, was to actorRod Steiger, whom she met when they both performed in the playRashomon.[48] Their daughter is opera singerAnna Steiger.[48][29] Steiger and Bloom divorced in 1969.[29] In that same year, Bloom married producerHillard Elkins.[49][50] The marriage lasted for three years, and the couple divorced in 1972.[citation needed] Bloom's third marriage on 29 April 1990, was to writerPhilip Roth, her longtime companion.[51] They divorced in 1995.[5]
Bloom has written two memoirs about her life and career. The first,Limelight and After: The Education of an Actress, was published in 1982 and was an in-depth look at her career and the film and stage roles she had portrayed.[29] Her second book,Leaving a Doll's House: A Memoir, published in 1996, went into greater details about her personal life; she discussed not only her marriages but also her affairs with Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, and Yul Brynner.[52] The book created a stir when Bloom described her former marriage to Roth. Soon after, Roth wrote a "revenge novel",I Married a Communist (1998), in which the character of Eve Frame appeared to represent Bloom.[53][54]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | BBC Sunday Night Theatre | Martine | Season 3 episode 19:Martine |
| 1957 | Goodyear Television Playhouse | Rose | Season 6 episode 8: "First Love" |
| Robert Montgomery Presents | Queen Victoria | Season 8 episode 31:Victoria Regina | |
| 1958 | Shirley Temple's Storybook | Beauty | Season 1 episode 1: "Beauty and the Beast" |
| 1959 | Playhouse 90 | Hypatia | Season 4 episode 3: "Misalliance" |
| 1961 | Anna Karenina | Anna Karenina | TV movie |
| 1979 | Backstairs at the White House | Edith Bolling Galt Wilson | TV mini-series |
| 1980 | Hamlet | Gertrude | TV movie |
| 1981 | Brideshead Revisited | Lady Marchmain | 6 episodes |
| 1983 | Separate Tables | Miss Cooper | TV movie |
| 1984 | Ellis Island | Rebecca Weiller | 3 episodes |
| 1985 | Ann and Debbie | Debbie | TV movie |
| Shadowlands | Joy Davidman | TV movie | |
| Promises to Keep | Sally | TV movie | |
| Time and the Conways | Mrs Conway | TV movie | |
| 1986 | Oedipus the King | Jocasta | |
| 1987 | Queenie | Vicky Kelly | 2 episodes |
| Intimate Contact | Ruth Gregory | 4 episodes | |
| 1988 | The Lady and the Highwayman | Lady Emma Darlington | TV movie |
| Beryl Markham: A Shadow on the Sun | Lady Delamere | TV movie | |
| 1991 | The Camomile Lawn | Older Sophy | Mini-series |
| 1992 | It's Nothing Personal | Evelyn Whitloff | TV movie |
| Miss Marple:The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side | Marina Gregg | TV movie | |
| 1994 | Remember | Anne Devereaux Rawlings | TV movie |
| A Village Affair | Cecily Jordan | TV movie | |
| As The World Turns | Orlena Grimaldi | Soap opera | |
| 1996 | Family Money | Fran Pye | Mini series |
| 1997 | What the Deaf Man Heard | Mrs. Tynan | TV movie |
| 2000 | Yesterday's Children | Maggie | TV movie |
| Love and Murder | Nina Love | TV movie | |
| 2004 | Law & Order: Criminal Intent | Marion Whitney | Season 3 episode 12: "Unrequited" |
| 2005–2022 | Doc Martin | Margaret Ellingham | 5 episodes |
| 2006 | Agatha Christie's Marple | Aunt Ada | Season 2 episode 3: "By the Pricking of My Thumbs" |
| 2008 | New Tricks | Helen Brownlow | Season 5 episode 2: "Final Curtain" |
| 2009–2010 | Doctor Who | The Woman | "The End of Time" |
| 2010 | The Bill | Jill Peters | Season 26 episode 25: "Taking a Stand" |
| 2015 | Midsomer Murders | Matilda Stowe | Season 17 episode 4:A Vintage Murder |
| 2019 | Summer of Rockets | Aunt Mary | Mini-series |
| Year | Title | Role | Venue | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Ring Round the Moon | Gielgud Theatre | [55] | |
| 1956 | Richard II | Queen to King Richard | Winter Garden Theatre, Broadway | [56] |
| Romeo and Juliet | Juliet | [57] | ||
| 1959 | Rashomon | Wife | Music Box Theatre, Broadway | [58] |
| 1971 | A Doll's House | Nora Helmer | Playhouse Theater, Broadway | [59] |
| Hedda Gabler | Hedda Tesman | [60] | ||
| 1972 | Vivat! Vivat Regina! | Mary Queen of Scots | Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway | [61] |
| 1974 | A Streetcar Named Desire | Blanche DuBois | Piccadilly Theatre | [62] |
| 1976 | The Innocents | Miss Bolton | Morosco Theatre, Broadway | [63] |
| 1998 | Electra | Clytemnestra | Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway | [64] |
Bloom was appointed aCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to drama.[65][66]
| Year | Association | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | BAFTA Award | Most Promising Newcomer | Limelight | Won | [67] |
| 1982 | Best Actress | Brideshead Revisited | Nominated | [68] | |
| 1986 | Shadowlands | Won | [34] | ||
| 1982 | Primetime Emmy Award | Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special | Brideshead Revisited | Nominated | [69] |
| 1979 | Grammy Award | Best Spoken Word Album | Wuthering Heights | Nominated | [70] |
| 1971 | Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Performance | Hedda Gabler /A Doll's House | Won | [71] |
| 1999 | Tony Award | Best Featured Actress in a Play | Electra | Nominated |
She and her younger brother John (now 60 and a film editor) were closer to their mother
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)