Peggy Ashcroft

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Dame Peggy Ashcroft DBE (22 December 1907 – 14 June 1991) was an acclaimed Academy Award-winning English actress.

1 Career
2 Life
3 Appearances
- 3.1 Film
- 3.2 Television
4 External links

[edit] Career

Born Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Peggy Ashcroft attended the Central School of Speech and Drama. A prolific stage actress from a young age, her film and television appearances were rare but memorable. One of her earliest film roles was the minor part of the crofter's wife in the Robert Donat version of The Thirty-Nine Steps.

In 1937 she appeared in a thirty-minute excerpt of Twelfth Night on the BBC Television Service, alongside Greer Garson, the first known instance of a Shakespeare play to be performed on television.

Possibly her best known celluloid role was that of Mrs. Moore in the film version of A Passage to India — a role which won her an Oscar in 1984 for Best Supporting Actress, although she did not appear in person at the telecast to accept the award, which Angela Lansbury accepted on her behalf.

On television, 1984 saw Peggy Ashcroft appear in the role of Barbie Batchelor on the internationally acclaimed British mini-series The Jewel in the Crown, for which she won a BAFTA Best Television Actress award.

She was painted by Walter Sickert.

[edit] Life

Peggy Ashcroft was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1951, and raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1956.

She was thrice-married and divorced, with 2 children by her last husband, Jeremy Hutchinson, whom she married in 1940 and divorced in 1965. Her first husband (married 1929) was Rupert Hart-Davis, and her second husband was Theodore Komisarjevsky.

She reportedly had an affair with the late African-American actor and activist, Paul Robeson, during a production of Othello ^{[citation needed]}.

She died in London, following a stroke, aged 83.

[edit] Appearances

[edit] Film

Madame Sousatzka (1988) — Lady Emily
A Passage to India (1984) — Mrs Moore
The 39 Steps (1935)
The Wandering Jew (1933) — Olalla Quintana

[edit] Television

She's Been Away
The Jewel in the Crown — Barbie Batchelor
Play of the Month: The Rat Wife (1982)
Play of the Month: Little Eyolf (1982)
Caught on a Train (1980) — Frau Messner
Edward and Mrs Simpson (1978) — Queen Mary
Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures (1978)
Play of the Month The Cherry Orchard (1971)
The Wednesday Play – Days in the Trees (1967)
Twelfth Night (1937)

Preceded by: Linda Hunt for The Year of Living Dangerously	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress 1984 for A Passage to India	Succeeded by: Anjelica Huston for Prizzi's Honor