Margaretta Scott
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Margaretta Scott (February 13, 1912 – April 15, 2005) was an English actress.
Born in London, she is best remembered for playing the wealthy and eccentric widow Mrs Pumphrey with her pekinese, Tricki Woo (the character was based largely on Miss Marjory Warner of Sowerby and her pekinese Bambi) in the BBC television series All Creatures Great and Small (1978–1990).
She was married to composer John Wooldridge, who was killed in a car accident in 1958. Their daughter, Susan Wooldridge, is also a well-known actress and their son, Hugh Wooldridge is a prominent theatre director and producer.
She was born in London on February 13, 1912 of Bertha Eugene and Hugh Arthur Scott, a distinguished music critic.
Margaretta Scott studied for the stage with Rosina Filippi and at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where she shared a scholarship with Celia Johnson and was awarded the Kendal prize.
After giving private performances of verse-speaking and dance drama as a child for her family and their friends, she made her first appearance on the London stage at the age of 14 as Mercutio's Page in a 1926, Fellowship of Players revival of ROMEO AND JULIET (The Strand Theatre with Lawrence Anderson as Romeo; Jean Forbes Robertson, Juliet and Robert Lorraine, Mercutio). Miss Scott became a leading exponent of the work of William Shakespeare through a series of notable performances in the early and mid thirties: cast firstly as the Player Queen and then Ophelia in HAMLET (twice, 1930 and at The Haymarket in 1931 with Henry Ainley and later Godfrey Tearle as Hamlet), she followed this with Beatrice in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING for the Oxford University Dramatic Society (with George Devine, William Devlin and Hugh Hunt). Then, after appearing as Viola (The New Theatre) and Ophelia and Juliet in a couple of BBC radio productions in 1932, in 1933 she played the first of four Summer Seasons at The Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park (Viola, Olivia, Celia, Hermia, Adriana and Miranda). Here, directed by Robert Atkins, her Prospero was John Drinkwater, her Orsino and Orlando was Jack Hawkins, her Ariel was Leslie French; she also played Lavinia in George Bernard Shaw's ANDROCLES AND THE LION with the rehearsals under the supervision of the author himself.
In 1936 Margaretta Scott was cast as Rosaline in one of the great productions of LOVE'S LABOURS LOST at The Old Vic (directed by Tyrone Guthrie with a cast that included Michael Redgrave, Alec Guinness, Rachel Kempson, Ernest Milton and Alec Clunes) and in the following year performed in more Shakespeare which included her last appearance at The Open Air Theatre until the Summer of 1984 in RING ROUND THE MOON. In addition to these classical roles, Miss Scott's credits in contemporary drama have included the premieres of Emlyn Williams' A MURDER HAS BEEN ARRANGED (directed by the author in 1930), MacLeish's PANIC (1936), Morna Stuart's TRAITOR'S GATE (1938 with Basil Sydney then Jack Hawkins) and Sidney Howard's ALIEN CORN (1939).
Although by 1939 Miss Scott had become one of Great Britain's leading young actresses, her film roles up to this point had been comparatively few. Her screen career had begun in 1934 when she made an uncredited appearance in Alexander Korda's THE PRIVATE LIVES OF DON JUAN. Thereafter she reprised her stage role of Leonora Stafford in the film version of the Ben Travers' Aldwych farce DIRTY WORK with Robertson Hare and Ralph Lynn and appeared in Herbert Wilcox's PEG OF OLD DRURY with Anna Neagle before again joining Alexander Korda in 1936. Thence, engaged by the influential Hungarian producer, Miss Scott made three pictures for London Films - THINGS TO COME (1936) as Roxana / Rowana in the breathtaking adaptation of the H.G. Wells science fiction novel with Ralph Richardson, Raymond Massey and Ann Todd, ACTION FOR SLANDER (1937) and THE RETURN OF THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (1937).
Throughout the war Margaretta Scott continued to perform in an impressive array of theatrical productions both at home and abroad, touring North Africa and Italy with E.N.S.A. in 1944. In addition to seasons at The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford upon Avon in 1941 and 1942 (Juliet, Lady Macbeth and Rosalind), her stage credits included Clare Boothe's MARGIN FOR ERROR (1940), the premiere of James Bridie's THE HOLY ISLE (1942) and the first British productions of Lillian Hellman's WATCH ON THE RHINE (1943) directed by Emlyn Williams with Anton Walbrook and Diana Wynyard, and John Patrick's THE HASTY HEART (1945).
Her screen roles meanwhile included Judith Bentley in Carol Reed's film of Roy Vicker's novel THE GIRL IN THE NEWS (1940), Marcia Royd in Anthony Asquith's delightful comedy QUIET WEDDING (1940), ATLANTIC FERRY (1941) with Michael Redgrave, SABOTAGE AT SEA (1942) and Alicia in The Gainsborough Picture melodrama, FANNY BY GASLIGHT (1944) with Margaret Lockwood and James Mason.
In the late forties and throughout the fifties Miss Scott continued to play a wide range of roles on stage and screen. Her association with Shakespeare was maintained with performances in the first 1946 television productions of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE and OTHELLO and, on stage, in MACBETH (Glasgow Citizens' Theatre in 1949) and HAMLET with Peter O'Toole (Bristol Old Vic in 1958). At this time, in addition to other stage productions at the Fortune, Savile, Cambridge and Her Majesty's Theatres in London, she appeared in pictures such as THE MAN FROM MOROCCO (1945), WHERE'S CHARLEY? (1952), TOWN ON TRIAL with John Mills (1956), THE SCAMP with Richard Attenborough (1957), MAYERLING (1958) and CRESCENDO (1969). She was also active on the concert platform as a Narrator / Speaker under the batons of Sir Henry Wood, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir David Willcocks and Sir John Pritchard performing scores by Greig, Honegar, Purcell, Elgar, Prokoviev and her late husband, the distinguished British compose, John Wooldridge.
Over the course of the next three decades Margaretta Scott appeared on stage throughout the United Kingdom and toured in plays abroad including the Far East, Canada and North and South Africa. Apart from world premieres of contemporary plays such as AUNT EDWINA (1958) with Henry Kendall directed by the author William Douglas Home; THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GENTLEMAN (1963) with Anthony Quayle and Angela Huth's THE UNDERSTANDING (1982) with Celia Johnson and Ralph Richardson, many of her theatre credits in the sixties, seventies and eighties were revivals of Oscar Wilde's comedies including LORD ARTHUR SAVILE'S CRIME (1968 Tour); A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE (1974 and 1978); THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST (1974 and The Old Vic Theatre 1980; also on television); AN IDEAL HUSBAND (1976 / 1977 Tour) and LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN (Canada 1979). Her last West End role was with Leo McKern in the revival of HOBSON’S CHOICE (1984) directed by Frank Hauser.
In the twenty-five years from the 1970's, Margaretta Scott played a number of distinguished parts in popular television dramas. These included ELIZABETH R, THE DUCHESS OF DUKE STREET, UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS and for several years as Mrs Pumphrey in the much-loved BBC series ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL.
Margaretta Scott had a long acting career of over seventy years, and was the last surviving signatory of the document that established Equity, the British actors' trade union, in 1934.
Her much-loved husband, John Wooldridge, was tragically killed in a car crash in 1958.
