Rachel gurney actress

English actress Rachel Gurney Lubbock.

Rachel Gurney 5 March — 24 November was an English actress. She began her career in the theatre towards the end of World War II and then expanded into television and film in the s. She remained active, mostly in television and theatre work, into the early s. Rachel Gurney was born in Buckinghamshire , England on 5 March Her father, Samuel Gurney Lubbock, was a housemaster at Eton [1] and her mother, Irene Scharrer , was a concert pianist. Due to her parents' occupations, Gurney grew up in a large house with 42 boys that was often host to visiting artists and musicians. World War II postponed her acting career, and she did not make her stage debut until with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre , working under director Barry Jackson.

Rachel gurney actress

Sign In Sign In. New Customer? Create account. Rachel Gurney Actress. She was married to Denys Rhodes. Add to list. Photos 7. Known for:. The Portrait of a Lady. Madame Merle. The Moonstone. Lady Verinder. Upstairs, Downstairs. Dubedat Portia Sarah Anne Terrot.

Rachel Gurney 5 March — 24 November was an English actress. She reportedly received fan mail many years after her "Upstairs, Downstairs" character was killed off. Download as PDF Printable version.

In addition to playing the regal Lady Marjorie on the British soap the character was killed off when she sailed on the Titanic , Ms. She toured India and Ceylon with an all-Shakespeare program in Gurney was previously married to Denys Rhodes, and is survived by a daughter. She was born Rachel Gurney Lubbock in Eton. Her father was a housemaster at the school, her mother was a pianist, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Rachel Gurney, who has died aged 81, was one of the most elegant and serene exponents of well-bred femininity and aristocratic assurance on the postwar London stage and in television, in particular as the moneyed Belgravian matriarch, Lady Marjorie Bellamy, in the TV series Upstairs, Downstairs, which lightly examined the English class system. On the stage, where her career spanned nearly half a century, Kenneth Tynan drew attention to her talent by attacking the West End management. After watching her performance in Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden, which the Guardian critic Philip Hope-Wallace rated "an English rose of a comedy" and "the acme of perfect drawing-room acting", Tynan wrote: "Rachel Gurney shows once again how foolish the theatre has been to neglect her. Raised in Eton, where her father was a housemaster - her mother, Irene Scharrer, was a concert pianist - Gurney was very much to the manner born. She was often cast in upper-class roles, but used to say that she would have preferred to have played one of the servants: "They are much nicer people. Educated at Challoner school, London, she dithered between an academic and a musical future, before settling for the theatre at an early age. Within a year, she had landed a West End job in The Guinea Pig, appropriately playing a public school house-master's daughter experimenting with "a scholarship boy of humble parentage". One critic credited her with "a performance of rare delicacy". Back in the West End in , she was a well-to-do family's married daughter in Lesley Storm's drama, Black Chiffon Westminster , before joining Alec Clunes's prestigious Arts Theatre Club for a season of Shaw one-acters and Granville-Barker's The Voysey Inheritance, in which she was the girl whom the young hero finally fancies, when he has sifted the family scandal.

Rachel gurney actress

Sign In Sign In. New Customer? Create account. Rachel Gurney Actress. She was married to Denys Rhodes. Add to list. Photos 7. Known for:. The Portrait of a Lady. Madame Merle.

Hip campgrounds

Previous Lost Empires 7. Learn more. Wikisource 0 entries edit. Back in the West End in , she was a well-to-do family's married daughter in Lesley Storm's drama, Black Chiffon Westminster , before joining Alec Clunes's prestigious Arts Theatre Club for a season of Shaw one-acters and Granville-Barker's The Voysey Inheritance, in which she was the girl whom the young hero finally fancies, when he has sifted the family scandal. The play ran a year. National Library of Spain ID. She was often cast in upper-class roles, but used to say that she would have preferred to have played one of the servants: "They are much nicer people. Freebase ID. This article is more than 22 years old. In addition to playing the regal Lady Marjorie on the British soap the character was killed off when she sailed on the Titanic , Ms. She began her career in the theatre towards the end of World War II and then expanded into television and film in the s. Broadway Weekly Schedule.

One of the most elegant actresses of her generation — tall and slim, with an always stylish physical presence on stage — Rachel Gurney inevitably spent much of her career in period costume.

Martin's Theatre. Previous Learn more. See all. Denys Rhodes. Trivia Said she would have preferred playing a servant on Upstairs, Downstairs because those people were more kind than the masters. English actress — Spring Preview. My Life In The Theatre. Edit page. United Kingdom. Find a Grave memorial ID. Reuse this content.