Vivien Merchant
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Vivien Merchant (born July 22, 1929 in Manchester, England; died October 3, 1983) was a British actress, who was born Ada Thompson.
Despite her talent and many film appearances - including Alfie (1966) and Frenzy (1972), she is probably best remembered as the first wife of the playwright, Harold Pinter, whom she married in 1956; their son, Daniel, was born in 1958.[1]
She appeared in many of his works, notably The Homecoming on stage (1965) and screen (1973) and in the original production of The Room (1960). Their marriage began disintegrating in the mid-1960s. From 1962-69, Harold Pinter had an affair with Joan Bakewell, which informs Pinter's dramatic play Betrayal and his film adaptation, also called Betrayal. In 1975 Pinter began an affair with historian Lady Antonia Fraser, the wife of Sir Hugh Fraser. In 1975 Vivien Merchant filed for divorce.[2] The Frasers' divorce became final in 1977 and the Pinters' in 1980. In 1980 Pinter married Antonia Fraser.
Vivien Merchant never overcame her grief and bitterness at losing "husband" Pinter, dying at the age of 54 on October 3, 1983, from acute alcoholism.[3]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Details about the Pinters' marriage and their family life are provided by Michael Billington, The Life and Work of Harold Pinter. London: Faber and Faber, 1996.
- ^ Merchant gave interviews to the press about her distress, famously commenting that Pinter had not taken much with him; but, she quipped, if he didn't have any shoes to wear, he could always borrow Fraser's: "she has very big feet, you know". "People." Time Archive: 1923 to the Present 11 Aug. 1975. 7 July 2006.
- ^ According to Billington, Pinter "did everything possible to support" Merchant until her death and regrets that he became estranged from their son, Daniel, after their separation and Pinter's marrying Antonia Fraser. A reclusive "gifted" writer and musician, Daniel does not use the surname Pinter, having adopted as his surname "his maternal grandmother's maiden name" Brand after his parents separated (Life and Work 276; 255).
