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Mary Morris | |
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| Born | Mary Lilian Agnes Morris (1915-12-13)13 December 1915 Lautoka, Fiji |
| Died | 14 October 1988(1988-10-14) (aged 72) Aigle, Switzerland |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1937–1988 |
Mary Lilian Agnes Morris (13 December 1915 – 14 October 1988) was a Fijian-born British actress.
Morris was the daughter of Australian-bornHerbert Stanley Morris, a botanist, and his wife, Sylvia Ena de Creft-Harford. She moved to Britain with her family as an infant, and her father died in an aircraft accident when she was three years old. She trained at theRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Morris made her debut inLysistrata at theGate Theatre, London in 1936. She performed withLeslie Howard in"Pimpernel" Smith (1941)[1] and Anna Petrovitch in theEaling war movieUndercover (1943) as the wife of a Serbian guerrilla leader. On television, she played Professor Madeleine Dawnay in the science-fiction television dramaA for Andromeda (and its sequel,The Andromeda Breakthrough), Queen Margaret in the BBC'sAn Age of Kings (a version of Shakespeare's History Plays), Lady Macbeth in the 1960 radio production of Macbeth, and Cleopatra inAntony and Cleopatra (as part of the BBC's adaptation of Shakespeare's Roman plays,The Spread of the Eagle) in 1963.[2]
She played Number Two inThe Prisoner's episode "Dance of the Dead". After an absence of many years, she reappeared in diverse film roles such as Madame Fidolia the Russian ballerina and theatre school director in the BBC television serialBallet Shoes (1975), and the mother of the murdered boy in the 1977 horror filmFull Circle. She also appeared on television inDoctor Who in the storyKinda (1982), playing the role of theshaman Panna oppositePeter Davison.
Her other television appearances included the Countess Vronsky in the BBC'sAnna Karenina (1977); the macabre, ancient relative in theWalter de la Mare storySeaton's Aunt (1983) inGranada Television'sShades of Darkness series; a recently deceased woman attempting to cheat death in a 1988 episode of HBO'sRay Bradbury Theater; Mrs Browning-Browning in Stephen Wyatt's Claws (BBC 1 1987); and the formidable matriarch inPolice at the Funeral, an adaptation of one ofMargery Allingham'sAlbert Campion stories for the BBC'sCampion (1989).
In addition to her film role, she played Elizabeth the First on a 'Makers of History' LP record, using the queen's spoken and written words and contemporary music, issued by EMI in 1964.[3]
Morris died from heart failure, aged 72, on 14 October 1988 inAigle, Switzerland.[citation needed]
