Geraldine McEwan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Geraldine McKeown (1932-05-09)9 May 1932 Old Windsor, Berkshire, England |
| Died | 30 January 2015(2015-01-30) (aged 82) Hammersmith, London, England |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1946–2011 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2, includingGreg Cruttwell |
Geraldine McEwan (bornGeraldine McKeown; 9 May 1932 – 30 January 2015) was an English actress, who had a long career in film, theatre and television.Michael Coveney described her, in a tribute article, as "a great comic stylist, with a syrupy, seductive voice and a forthright, sparkling manner".[1]
McEwan was a five-timeOlivier Award nominee, and twice won theEvening Standard Award for Best Actress; forThe Rivals (1983) andThe Way of the World (1995). She was also nominated for the 1998Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play forThe Chairs. She won theBAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for the 1990 television serialOranges Are Not the Only Fruit, and from 2004 to 2009, she starred as theAgatha Christie sleuthMiss Marple, in the ITV seriesMarple.
She was bornGeraldine McKeown on 9 May 1932 inOld Windsor, Berkshire, England, to Donald and Norah (née Burns) McKeown. She had Irish ancestors; her maternal grandfather came fromKilkenny while her paternal grandfather came fromBelfast.[2] Her father, aprinters' compositor, ran theLabour Party branch in Old Windsor, a safeConservative seat.[3] She later simplified the spelling of her last name from McKeown to McEwan.[4]
McEwan won a scholarship to attendWindsor County Girls' School – at the time a private school – where she felt completely out of place, and took elocution lessons. However, in later life she said she had loved English and the teaching of Miss Meech in particular.[5] In an interview withCassandra Jardine ofThe Daily Telegraph in 2004, she said of herself around this time: "I was very shy, very private", but after reading a poem (apparentlyLady Macbeth's speech "Glamis thou art and Cawdor...") at aBrownie concert: "I realised it was going to be a way in which I could manage the world. I could protect myself by losing myself in other people."[3]
As a teenager McEwan became interested in theatre, and her theatrical career began when she was 14, as assistant stage manager at theTheatre Royal, Windsor. She made her first appearance on the Windsor stage in October 1946 as an attendant of Hippolyta inA Midsummer Night's Dream and played many parts with the Windsor Repertory Company from March 1949 to March 1951, including a role in theRuth Gordon biographical playYears Ago opposite guest playerJohn Clark.
McEwan made her first West End appearance at theVaudeville Theatre on 4 April 1951 as Christina Deed inWho Goes There![6] The following year she appeared at the same theatre inSweet Madness byPeter Jones.[7] McEwan first appeared on television in aBBC series,Crime on Our Hands (1954), withJack Watling,Dennis Price andSonia Dresdel.[8] In 1957, she took over fromJoan Plowright in theRoyal Court production ofJohn Osborne's playThe Entertainer during itsWest End run at thePalace Theatre.[9]
McEwan appeared at theShakespeare Memorial Theatre inStratford-upon-Avon during the late 1950s and early 1960s, during the period when it was evolving into the Stratford venue for the newRoyal Shakespeare Company formed in 1960, and atThe Aldwych, the RSC's original London home.[10][11]
During the 1958 season in Stratford, she played Olivia inTwelfth Night in a production directed byPeter Hall. After McEwan died,The Guardian'sMichael Billington wrote of this performance: "At the time Olivia tended to be played as a figure of mature grief: McEwan was young, sparky, witty and clearly brimming with desire forDorothy Tutin's pageboy Viola."[12] McEwan's performance, according toDominic Shellard, split contemporary critical opinion between those observers who considered it "heretical" and others who thought it "revolutionary".[13][14]
In the same season at Stratford, McEwan portrayed Marina inPericles and Hero inMuch Ado About Nothing.[15][16] She returned to the theatre in 1961 to portray Ophelia inHamlet, oppositeIan Bannen as the Prince, andBeatrice inMuch Ado About Nothing withChristopher Plummer as Benedict.[15]
In a production ofSheridan'sThe School for Scandal, directed by SirJohn Gielgud in 1962, McEwan replacedAnna Massey as Mrs Teazle during the run at theHaymarket Theatre, London; her husband was played by SirRalph Richardson.[17] After an American tour, this production was staged at theMajestic in New York in early 1963, and was McEwan's debut on Broadway.[17][18] Back in England, she appeared withKenneth Williams in the original unsuccessful 1965 production ofLoot byJoe Orton, which closed at theWimbledon Theatre before reaching London.[19][20]
After this debacle, she joined theNational Theatre Company, then based at theOld Vic, following the suggestion of SirLaurence Olivier, then its artistic director, and performed in 11 productions over the next 5 years.[9] She appeared with Olivier inDance of Death, staged byGlen Byam Shaw and first performed in February 1967.[21]
Olivier asserted, according to his biographerPhilip Ziegler, that he had chosenAugust Strindberg's play partly because it had a good part for McEwan: "I didn't give a damn if I made a success, I really didn't; it was her success I was after". The notices though concentrated on his role as the Captain rather than McEwan's as Alice, the Captain's wife.[22] Afilm version, with the same two leads, was released in 1969.
During her first period at the National, she also portrayed Angelica inWilliam Congreve'sLove for Love, Raymonde Chandebise inGeorges Feydeau'sA Flea in Her Ear, Millamant in Congreve'sThe Way of the World and Vittoria Corombona inJohn Webster'sThe White Devil.[1] Until her roles in the plays by Strindberg and Webster, McEwan was viewed mainly as a comedian, but these parts were thought to have extended her range.[23]
McEwan tookthe lead role in an adaptation forScottish Television ofMuriel Spark'sThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1978).[24] She was Spark's favourite in the role and came the closest to the character as Spark had imagined it; Brodie has also been portrayed on stage and screen byVanessa Redgrave andMaggie Smith.[8][15] Her other work for television in this period included roles inThe Barchester Chronicles (1982) andMapp and Lucia (1985–86) withPrunella Scales as Mapp and McEwan as Lucia.
In 1983, McEwan played Mrs Malaprop in a production of Sheridan'sThe Rivals at theNational Theatre directed byPeter Wood, which also featuredMichael Hordern as Sir Anthony Absolute.[1] Michael Billington wrote of this performance in 2015: "It is easy to play the word-mangling Mrs Malaprop as a comic buffoon. But the whole point of McEwan's performance was that she took language with fastidious seriousness, fractionally pausing before each misplaced epithet as if ransacking her private lexicography. As I said at the time, it was like watching a demolition expert trying to construct a cathedral."[12] For this role, McEwan won theEvening Standard Award for Best Actress.[2]
She made her directorial debut, in 1988, with theRenaissance Theatre Company's touring season,Renaissance Shakespeare on the Road, co-produced with theBirmingham Rep, and ending with a three-month repertory programme at thePhoenix Theatre in London. McEwan's contribution was a light romantic staging ofAs You Like It, withKenneth Branagh playing Touchstone as anEdwardianmusic hall comedian.[15]
In 1991, McEwan returned to the world ofMapp & Lucia, recording anunabridgedaudiobook adaptation ofQueen Lucia for ISIS Audio Books. It was later re-released in 2024.
McEwan won anotherEvening Standard Best Actress Award in 1995 for her role as Lady Wishfort in a revival ofThe Way of the World, again at the National Theatre.[2][3]Sheridan Morley, at that time the theatre critic ofThe Spectator, wrote: "Geraldine McEwan (in the performance of the night and her career) comes on looking like an ostrich which has mysteriously been crammed into a tambourine lined with fresh flowers."[25]
WithRichard Briers, she starred from November 1997 in a revival ofEugène Ionesco's absurdist playThe Chairs, in a co-production between London'sRoyal Court Theatre (at that time temporarily based at theDuke of York's), which had staged the British premiere 40 years earlier, andSimon McBurney'sThéâtre de Complicité.[1][26][27] This production had a brief run on Broadway between April and June 1998; McEwan was nominated for aTony Award.[27][28]
Her later television credits includeOranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1990), for which she won theBritish Academy Television Award as Best Actress in 1991, andMulberry (1992–93).[20] She was also in theCassandra episode ofRed Dwarf (1999), playing a prescient computer. McEwan played the demented witch Mortianna in the filmRobin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). InPeter Mullan'sThe Magdalene Sisters, (2002), she played the role ofSister Bridget. In 2001, she voiced Margaret in the audio bookRichard III.
McEwan was selected byGranada Television forMarple (2004–07), a new series featuring theAgatha Christie sleuthMiss Marple. She toldThe New York Times in a 2005 interview when the series was first being screened by PBS, "I do enjoy playing very original and slightly eccentric characters. It is very amusing that Agatha Christie should have created this older woman who lives a very conventional life in a little country village and yet spends all her time solving violent crimes."[29] She announced her retirement from the role early in 2008, after appearing in 12 films; she had fallen and broken a hip late the previous year.[30][31] She was succeeded as Miss Marple in the series byJulia McKenzie.[32]
In 2005, she provided the voice of Miss Thripp in the filmWallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and again inA Matter of Loaf and Death in 2008.[33]
In 1953, McEwan marriedHugh Cruttwell, whom she had first met when she was 14 years old, while working at theTheatre Royal, Windsor. Cruttwell was the Principal of theRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1965 to 1984.[34] They had a sonGreg, who is an actor and screenwriter, and a daughter named Claudia.[34]
McEwan was reported to have declined anOBE and later, aDBE (in 2002), but she did not respond to these claims.[3][15]
McEwan died on 30 January 2015 at theCharing Cross Hospital inHammersmith, aged 82, after suffering astroke three months earlier.[35][36]
| Title | Year | Roles | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| There Was a Young Lady | 1953 | Irene | |
| No Kidding | 1960 | Catherine Robinson | Beware of Children (U.S.) |
| Dance of Death | 1969 | Alice | |
| The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones | 1976 | Lady Bellaston | |
| Escape from the Dark | 1976 | Miss Coutt | The Littlest Horse Thieves (U.S.) |
| The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie | 1978 | Jean Brodie | 7 episodes |
| The Barchester Chronicles | 1982 | Mrs Proudie | 7 episodes |
| All for Love | 1982 | Miss Mountford | Series 1, Episode 3, “L’Elegance” |
| Mapp and Lucia | 1985–1986 | Emmeline Lucas (Lucia) | 10 episodes |
| Foreign Body | 1986 | Lady Ammanford | |
| Henry V | 1989 | Alice | |
| Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit | 1990 | Mother | |
| Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves | 1991 | Mortianna | |
| Mulberry | 1992–1993 | Miss Farnaby | 13 episodes |
| Moses | 1995 | Miriam | TV Mini-Series |
| Red Dwarf | 1999 | Cassandra | Series 8, Episode 4, "Cassandra" |
| The Love Letter | 1999 | Constance Scattergoods | |
| Titus | 1999 | Nurse | |
| Love's Labour's Lost | 2000 | Holofernia | |
| Contaminated Man | 2000 | Lilian Rodgers | |
| Food of Love | 2002 | Novotna | |
| The Magdalene Sisters | 2002 | Sister Bridget | |
| Pure | 2002 | Nanna | |
| Carrie's War | 2004 | Mrs Gotobed | TV film |
| Vanity Fair | 2004 | Lady Southdown | |
| The Lazarus Child | 2004 | Janet | |
| Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit | 2005 | Miss Thripp | Voice |
| A Matter of Loaf and Death | 2008 | Voice, Uncredited | |
| Arrietty | 2010 | Haru | Voice, UK English dub (final film role) |
| Year | Award | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance | Oh Coward! | Nominated |
| Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival | On Approval | Nominated | |
| 1978 | Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance | Look After Lulu! | Nominated |
| 1980 | Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival | The Browning Version /Harlequinade | Nominated |
| 1983 | Evening Standard Award for Best Actress | The Rivals | Won |
| 1991 | BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress | Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit | Won |
| 1995 | Evening Standard Award for Best Actress | The Way of the World | Won |
| 1996 | Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role | The Way of the World | Nominated |
| 1998 | Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play | The Chairs | Nominated |
