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Virginia Maskell | |
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| Born | Virginia Elizabeth Maskell (1936-02-27)27 February 1936 Shepherd's Bush, London, England |
| Died | 25 January 1968(1968-01-25) (aged 31) Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1957–68 |
| Spouse | (her death) |
| Children | 2 |
Virginia Elizabeth Maskell (27 February 1936 – 25 January 1968), was an English actress.[1]
Virginia Maskell was born inShepherd's Bush, London, daughter of William Eric Brands Maskell, of Little Down,Duncton, Sussex.[2] After the outbreak of the Second World War, Maskell's family was evacuated toSouth Africa. After the war she returned to London and entered a convent school, where she developed an interest in acting.
After attending drama school she featured in television roles, mainly playing demure young women in action series such asThe Buccaneers andThe Adventures of Robin Hood.
Her film debut was a minor role for directorRoy Boulting inHappy Is the Bride (1957), and then began switching between the theatre and the screen. In directorPat Jackson's comedyVirgin Island (US:Our Virgin Island, 1958), she appeared withJohn Cassavetes andSidney Poitier. She gained aBritish Lion contract and appeared inThe Man Upstairs (1958) and as an air hostess inJet Storm (1959).
She made an impact on the stage inRonald Duncan'sThe Catalyst, a play that initially theLord Chamberlain's office had found troubling.[3] There were distinguished appearances in live TV drama. Soon she starred inDoctor in Love (1960),[4] and asPeter Sellers's wife inOnly Two Can Play (1962); Sellers was unconvinced she could manage a credible Welsh accent and asked for her dismissal, though it was suspected that his ulterior motive was to replace Maskell with Welsh-born actressSiân Phillips.[5]
She took a break from acting from 1962 to concentrate on her family, acted occasionally in TV series asDanger Man andThe Prisoner, and returned after the birth of her second son to shootInterlude (1968) in the summer of 1967.Interlude was released after she died, and she won a posthumous National Board of Review award and aBAFTA nomination for her work in the film.[6][7]
Maskell was also a poet and an artist.
Maskell marriedSir Geoffrey Adam Shakerley, 6th Baronet on 3 July 1962. The couple had two sons.
After the birth of her second son in February 1966, Maskell showed signs ofpost-natal depression. Following the shooting ofInterlude in the summer of 1967, she suffered a severe nervous breakdown and was hospitalised at Stoke Mandeville Hospital for six weeks.
On Wednesday, 24 January 1968, she left home in her car and, six hours later, her husband reported her missing. Police searched woods 700 feet up in the Chiltern Hills after her car was found a mile from her home. Maskell apparently had wandered through the woods for hours before collapsing where the police eventually found her. She was taken to hospital and given emergency treatment for an overdose of barbiturates but, although doctors revived her, she died the following day.[8]
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