Eileen Atkins

Eileen Atkins
Born Eileen June Atkins
16 June 1934 (1934-06-16) (age 77)
London, England
Education Latymer's Grammar School: 1945 - 1950
Guildhall School of Music and Drama: 1950 - 1953
Years active 1953 - present
Spouse Julian Glover (1957-1966)
Bill Shepherd (1978-present)

Dame Eileen June Atkins, DBE (born 16 June 1934) is an English actress and occasional screenwriter.

Contents

Early life

Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army women's hostel in East London. Her mother, Annie Ellen (née Elkins), was a barmaid who was 46 when Eileen was born, and her father, Arthur Thomas Atkins, was a gas meter reader who was previously under-chauffeur to the Portuguese Ambassador. She was the third child in the family and when she was born the family moved to a council home in Tottenham. Her father did not, in fact, know how to drive and was responsible, as under-chauffeur, mainly for cleaning the car. At the time Eileen was born, her mother worked in a factory the whole day and then as a barmaid in the Elephant & Castle at night. When Eileen was three, a Gypsy woman came to their door selling lucky heather and clothes pegs. She saw little Eileen and told her mother that her daughter would be a famous dancer. Her mother promptly enrolled her in a dance class. Although she hated it, she studied dancing from age 3 to 15 or 16. From age 7 to 15, which covered the last four years of the Second World War (1941-1945), she danced in working men's club circuits for 15 shillings a pop as "Baby Eileen". During the War, she performed as well at London's Stage Door canteen for American troops and sang songs like "Yankee Doodle." At one time she was attending dance class four or five times a week. By 12, she was a professional in panto in Clapham and Kilburn. Once, when she was given a line to recite, someone told her mother that she had Cockney accent. Her mother was appalled but speech lessons were too expensive for the family. Fortunately, a woman took interest in her and paid for her to be educated at Latymer's grammar school in Edmonton. One of her grammar school teachers who used to give them religious instruction, a Rev. Michael Burton, spotted her potential and rigorously drilled away her Cockney accent for free. He also introduced her to the works of William Shakespeare. She studied under him for two years. When she was 14 or 15 and still at Latymer's, she also attended "drama demonstration" sessions twice a year with this same teacher. At around this time (though some sources say she was 12), her first encounter with Robert Atkins took place. She was taken to see Atkins' production of King John at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. She wrote to him saying that the boy who played Prince Arthur was not good enough and that she could do better. Robert Atkins wrote back and asked that she come to see him. On the day they met, Atkins thought she was a shop girl, and not a school girl. She gave a little prince speech and he told her to go to drama school and come back when she was grown up. Rev. Burton came to an agreement with Eileen's parents that he would try to get her a scholarship for one drama school and that if she did not get the scholarship he would arrange for her to do a teaching course in some other drama school. Her parents were not all keen on the fact that she would stay in school until 16 as her sister had left at 14 and her brother at 15 but somehow they were convinced. Eileen was in Latymer's until 16. Out of 300 applicants for a RADA scholarship, she got down to the last three but was not selected. So she did a three-year course on teaching at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. But, although she was taking the teaching course, she also attended drama classes and in fact performed in three plays in her last year. This was in the early 1950s. In her third and last year she had to teach once a week, an experience she later said she hated. As soon as she left Guildhall she got her first job with Robert Atkins in 1953: as Jaquenetta in Love's Labour's Lost at the same Regent's Park Open Air Theatre where she was brought to see Robert Atkins' King John production years before. She was also, very briefly, an assistant stage manager at the Oxford Playhouse until Peter Hall fired her for impudence. She was also part of repertory companies performing in Billy Butlin's holiday camp in Skegness, Lincolnshire. It was there when she met Julian Glover. It took her nine years (1953 - 1962) before she was working steadily.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

Career

She joined the Guild Players Repertory Company in Bangor, Northern Ireland as a professional actress in 1952. She appeared as the nurse in Harvey at the Repertory Theatre, Bangor, Ireland in 1952.[9]

Stage

Eileen Atkins' London stage debut was as Jaquenetta in Robert Atkins' staging of Love's Labour's Lost at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park.[10][11][12][13][14] In 1953, she appeared as an attendant in Love's Labour's Lost.[15][16]

Atkins has regularly returned to the life and work of Virginia Woolf for professional inspiration. She has played the writer on stage (A Room of One's Own and Vita and Virginia, winning the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show for the former) and screen (the 1990 television version of Room); she also provided the screenplay for the 1997 film adaptation of Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway - starring Vanessa Redgrave (her stage costar in Vita and Virginia) - and made a cameo appearance in the 2002 film version of Michael Cunningham's Woolf-themed novel The Hours.

She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1957 and stayed for two seasons. She was with the Old Vic in its 1961-1962 season (she appeared in the Old Vic's Repertoire Leaflets of February-April 1962 and April-May 1962). Her stage performances from 1957 include:[17][18][19][20][21][22] [23][24][25][26][27][28][29] [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]

Film and Television

She appeared as Maggie Clayhanger in all six episodes of Arnold Bennett's Hilda Lessways from 15 May to 19 June 1959, produced by the British Broadcasting Company Midlands with Judi Dench and Brian Smith.[43][44]

Among her accomplishments are the creation of two television series - along with Jean Marsh she created the concept for an original television series, titled Behind the Green Baize Door, which became the award-winning ITV series Upstairs, Downstairs (1971–75). Marsh played maid Rose for the duration of the series but Atkins was unable to accept a part due to stage commitments. The same team was also responsible for the BBC series The House of Eliott (1991–93).

As an actress her television work has included Three Sisters (1970), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1971), The Lady from the Sea (1974), Electra (1974), the villainess "Vanity Fair" in Dornford Yates' She Fell Among Thieves (1977), Sons and Lovers (1981), Oliver Twist (1982), Smiley's People (1982),Titus Andronicus (1985), The Burston Rebellion (1985), A Better Class of Person (1985), Roman Holiday (1987), The Lost Language of Cranes (1991), Cold Comfort Farm (1995), Talking Heads (1998), Madame Bovary (2000), David Copperfield (2000), Wit (2001) and Bertie and Elizabeth (2002).

Her other films include I Don't Want to Be Born (1975), Equus (1977), The Dresser (1983), Wolf (1994), Jack and Sarah (1995), Gosford Park (2001), Cold Mountain (2003), Vanity Fair (2004) and Ask the Dust (2006).

In the autumn of 2007, she co-starred with Judi Dench and Michael Gambon in the BBC1 drama series Cranford playing the central role of Miss Deborah Jenkyns. This performance earned her the 2008 BAFTA Award for best actress, as well as the Emmy Award.[45]

In 2008 Atkins signed onto the 2009 dark comedy, Wild Target, with such actors as Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt and Rupert Grint. She will be playing Nighy's mother, Louisa.

She recently played the evil Nurse Edwina Kenchington in the BBC Two sitcom Psychoville starring Dawn French. Atkins replaced Vanessa Redgrave as Eleanor of Aquitaine in the blockbuster movie Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe, which was released in the UK in May 2010.

Atkins and Jean Marsh, creators of the original 1970s series of Upstairs Downstairs, are among the cast of a new BBC adaptation, shown over the winter of 2010/11. The new series is set in 1936. Marsh again played Rose while Atkins was cast as the redoubtable Lady Maud Holland. In August 2011, it was revealed that Atkins has decided not to take part in the new series, due to be shown in 2012, because she is reportedly unhappy with the direction the scripts are taking.[46]

In September 2011, Atkins joined the cast of ITV comedy-drama series Doc Martin playing the title character's aunt, Ruth Ellingham.

Atkins will star with Matthew Rhys in an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's The Scapegoat, to be shown in 2012.[47]

Honors

Atkins was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1990. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) on her 67th birthday, 16 June 2001.[48] On 23 June 2010 she was conferred the Degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, by Oxford University.[49][50] On 5 December 2005 she received the Degree of Doctor of Arts, honoris causa, from City University London.[51]

Awards

Laurence Olivier Awards

Screen Actors Guild Award

British Academy of Film and Television Arts

Emmy Awards

Personal life

Atkins was married to Julian Glover in 1957; they divorced in 1966. She has been married to her current husband, Bill Shepherd, since 2 February 1978. Atkins was propositioned by Colin Farrell on location in 2004, shortly before she turned 70; she said the incident helped her pass that milestone far more easily than she otherwise would have expected.[52] The Oldie magazine awarded her the 'Refusenik of the Year' award for this incident.

Her father died aged 86 and her mother aged 94.[53]

Julian Glover and Eileen Atkins divorced in September 1968. A day after his divorce, Glover married actress Isla Blair. They are still married to date.[54]

Is a life-long insomniac and takes sleeping pills every night. Was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 1995 but has apparently recovered.[55]

In 1997, wrote the screenplay for Mrs Dalloway, starring Vanessa Redgrave. It received rave reviews but was a box-office failure. It was a financial disaster for Atkins and her husband who had invested in the film. She said about this incident: "I have to work. I was nearly bankrupted over Mrs Dalloway, and if you are nearly bankrupted, you are in trouble for the rest of your life. I don't have a pension. In any case, it doesn't hurt me to work. I think it's quite good, actually."[56]

"All through my career I have tried to do new work, but there is a problem in the West End as far as new work is concerned. As a theatregoer, I get bored with seeing the same old plays again and again. I felt terrible the other night because I bumped into Greta Scacchi and she asked me if I was coming to see her in The Deep Blue See. I said, 'Greta, I'm so old, I've seen it so many times. I've seen it with Peggy Ashcroft, with Vivien Leigh, with Googie Withers, with Penelope Wilton and I played it myself when I was 19. I can't bring myself to see it again. She was very sweet about it."[57]

Selected filmography

References

  1. ^ "Regent's Park Open Air Theatre: Our History" in openairtheatre.org/history. Retrieved 1 December 2011
  2. ^ Carole Zucker, In The Company of Actors: Reflections on the Craft of Acting (London: A & C Black Publishers, 1999), p. 2. Retrieved from Google Books, 3 December 2011
  3. ^ Sally Vincent, "A class act," The Guardian (Saturday, 9 December 2000). Retrieved from www.guardian.co.uk on 2 December 2011
  4. ^ William Glover, "Eileen Atkins Stars in Another Ringing Triumph," The Evening News (Sat., Feb. 26, 1972). Retrieved from news.google.com on 2 December 2011
  5. ^ Jasper Rees, "Theartdesk Q&A: Actress Eileen Atkins," (Friday, 24 December 2010) in www.theartdesk.com. Retrieved, 3 December 2011
  6. ^ interview with Jonathan Ross on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, BBC1, 13 June 2008
  7. ^ Richard Digby Day, "Delightful Insight Into Life of Actress," Newark Advertiser (Sunday, 23 October 2011 - Palace Theatre, Newark) in www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2011
  8. ^ "Eileen Atkins" in The Telegraph (16 June 2001) at www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2011
  9. ^ "Eileen Atkins Biography (1934-)" in www.filmreference.com. Retrieved 20 December 2011
  10. ^ "Eileen Atkins" in www.filmbug.com. Retrieved 30 November 2011
  11. ^ "Robin Hood" (2010): Production Notes, p. 28. Retrieved from www.visualhollywood.com in PDF format on 2 December 2011
  12. ^ "Last Chance Harvey:" Production Notes, p. 14. Retrieved from thecia.com.au in Rich Text Format on 2 December 2011
  13. ^ "The Queen of Sheba's Pearls:" Production Notes. Retrieved from thecia.com.au as Rich Text Format on 30 November 2011
  14. ^ Carole Zucker, In The Company of Actors: Reflections on the Craft of Acting (London: A & C Black Publishers, 1999), p. 1. Retrieved from Google Books, 3 December 2011
  15. ^ "Regent's Park Open Air Theatre: Our History" in openairtheatre.org/history. Retrieved 30 November 2011
  16. ^ "Atkins, Eileen 1934 - " in Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television (The Gale Group, Inc., 2004). Retrieved in www.encyclopedia.com on 4 December 2011
  17. ^ Royal Shakespeare Company Archive Catalogue in calm.shakespeare.org.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2011
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  27. ^ "Rob Wilton Theatricalia: Chichester Festival Theatre" in www.phyllis.demon.co.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2011
  28. ^ "Atkins, Eileen 1934 - " in Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television (The Gale Group, Inc., 2004). Retrieved in www.encyclopedia.com on 4 December 2011
  29. ^ Phyllis Hartnoll and Peter Found, "Atkins, Eileen" in The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre (1996). Retrieved in www.encyclopedia.com on 4 December 2011
  30. ^ "Theatricalia: Eileen Atkins" in theatricalia.com. Retrieved 30 November 2011
  31. ^ "Ian McKellen Stage: Prospect, Prospect Theatre Company" in www.mckellen.com. Retrieved 4 December 2011
  32. ^ John McGrath, Naked Thoughts That Roam About: Reflections on Theatre, ed. Nadine Holdsworth (London: Nick Hern Books Limited, 2002), p. 25. Retrieved in Google Books on 4 December 2011
  33. ^ Holly Hill, "Saint Joan's Voices: Actresses on Shaw's Maid" Shaw 6 (1986): 127. Retrieved in www.jstor.org. 6 December 2011
  34. ^ doublethinktheatre.com. Retrieved 6 December 2011
  35. ^ "Albemarle of London Archive Page for - A Delicate Balance" at www.albemarle-london.com. Retrieved 3 December 2011
  36. ^ Chris Hastings, "Eileen Atkins: I don't see why aging can't be attractive" The Telegraph (5 July 2008). Retrieved in www.telegraph.co.uk, 8 December 2011
  37. ^ "Rachel Halliburton, "The Sleepers Den" in London Evening Standard (2 July 2001). Retrieved at www.thisislondon.co.uk on 1 December 2011
  38. ^ "The Sleepers' Den by Peter Gill" in ds.dial.pipex.com. Retrieved 4 December 2011
  39. ^ University of Bristol Theatre Collection, A-Z of Bristol Old Vic (A photographic exhibition featuring on-stage and backstage images from the theatre in King Street, 9th June - 30th September 2003). Retrieved from www.bris.ac.uk/theatrecollection/atoz_booklet.pdf on 20 December 2011
  40. ^ www.bromleylittletheatre.org/history_content.htm. Retrieved 20 December 2011
  41. ^ www.bromleylittletheatre.org/productions.htm. Retrieved 20 December 2011
  42. ^ "Ian McKellen Writings: For Curt Dawson" in www.mckellen.com. Retrieved 7 December 2011
  43. ^ ww.imdb.com. Retrieved 24 December 2011
  44. ^ ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 24 December 2011
  45. ^ Television Awards 2008 winners BAFTA web site, accessed 21 August 2011
  46. ^ "Dame Eileen Atkins leaves Upstairs Downstairs" 21 August 2011, BBC News
  47. ^ http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/33868/eileen-atkins-to-star-in-itvs-the-scapegoat
  48. ^ BBC News World Edition, "Dudley Moore celebrates CBE" (Saturday, 16 June 2001) in news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2 December 2011
  49. ^ "University of Oxford: Honorary Degrees" in www.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 December 2011
  50. ^ University of Oxford Annual Review 2009/10 (p. 23) in PDF format. Retrieved from www.ox.ac.uk, 4 December 2011
  51. ^ "City University London: Honorary Graduates A-Z" in www.city.ac.uk. Retrieved 6 December 2011
  52. ^ "The night Colin Farrell tried to seduce me". Daily Mirror. 2005-05-05. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=15478508&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=night-colin-farrell-tried-to-seduce-me-name_page.html. Retrieved 2008-06-12. 
  53. ^ Jasper Rees, "Theartdesk Q&A: Actress Eileen Atkins" (Friday, 24 December 2010) at www.theartdesk.com. Retrieved, 3 December 2011
  54. ^ Frances Hardy, "I stalked my lover's wife!" (22 July 2011) in www.dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
  55. ^ Mary Riddell, "The Atkins method" in The Daily Mail (7 May 2005). Retrieved in www.encyclopedia.com on 4 December 2011
  56. ^ Chris Hastings, "Eileen Atkins: I don't see why ageing can't be attractive" The Telegraph (5 July 2008). Retrieved in www.telegraph.co.uk, 8 December 2011
  57. ^ Chris Hastings, "Eileen Atkins: I don't see why ageing can't be attractive"" The Telegraph (5 July 2008). Retrieved in www.telegraph.co.uk, 8 December 2011

External links

Shearsmith and Pemberton
TV shows
Films
Books
See also