Dorothy Tutin

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Dame Dorothy Tutin DBE (8 April 1930–6 August 2001), was a highly-regarded English actress of stage, film, and television.

Born in London out of wedlock to a couple who married later (which explains why her year of birth, when she was alive, was often given as 1931, by which time her parents were officially married), she was a talented pianist, but, having decided on an acting career, made her stage debut in 1949. Her unusual looks, as well as her acting ability, led to early success, and she won the role of Cecily in the 1952 film of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.

She married the actor Derek Waring, and they had two children, a son and a daughter. Dorothy Tutin and Derek Waring remained married until her death in 2001. Their daughter, Amanda Waring, is also an actress and in the late 1980s she was married for a few years to Swedish singer Tommy Körberg.

Her next major film role was as Lucie in the 1958 film of A Tale of Two Cities, opposite Sir Dirk Bogarde. She continued to divide her appearances between stage, TV, and film, appearing in the 1970 film Cromwell starring Richard Harris and Sir Alec Guinness as Queen Henrietta Maria, before playing another Queen in 1971 as Anne Boleyn in the BBC's hit series, The Six Wives of Henry VIII.

She also gave a magnificent performance as the young teacher Sarah Burton in the TV-series South Riding (1977), based on a novel by Winifred Holtby. Tutin also appeared in the made-for-television movie "Murder with Mirrors" (based on an Agatha Christie novel) along with Helen Hayes and Bette Davis in the early 1980's.

Tutin rarely, if ever, acted in the USA and thus was largely unknown to the American public, unlike some of her contemporaries (such as Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, etc). She was created a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1967, and raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 2000.

She died in 2001 at the age of 71 from leukaemia.