Margaret Tyzack obituary

one of the most distinguished actors of Great Britain, known for his roles on stage and screen

Margaret Tyzack

, who died at age 79, was one of the largest and most popular actors in Britain, working in theater, television and film for more than half a a century. Sometimes described as being in the mold of Edith Evans and Flora Robson, who will be remembered especially for his performance in the golden age of television drama for the BBC - Winifred in The Forsyte Saga 's (1967 ), I of Antonia, Claudio (1976) - as well as plays, as Martha in the revival of Edward Albee National Theatre Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1981), for which she won an Olivier Award for Best Actress, and Lottie with Maggie Smith in Lettice and Lovage (1987 and 1990), which won two Tony and Variety Club Actress of the Year awards. In the year 2008, and in more than 70 years, was perhaps one of his greatest triumphs on the stage as the wily, humorous eccentric Mrs St Maugham Enid Bagnold revival exceptional Michael Grandage in The Chalk Garden Donmar Penelope Wilton with.

With open face, large eyes and generous mouth, there was always something that can be a bit of melancholy - even pessimistic, a trait he admitted - he found his game more "mature" as its role in the current year. Once admitted, "I played more than me." He was an asset that served him rich.

Tyzack was considered primarily a character actor, saying she "never wanted to be a star." Versatile, simple scenes, especially small and unrecognizable, often boasted that he could go shopping without being seen, and lived quietly with her husband, mathematician, Alan Stephenson, in Blackheath, south London. It can play mild, one of the pillars of the empire (as Lady Bruton in 1997 Marleen Gorris film Mrs Dalloway Virginia Woolf) or in the last years of his career, a show of theft, the skin covered with ax Combat In New Moon, stage adaptation of John Guare Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's The Front Page (National Theatre, 2003).

Even if there was something charmingly naive about her role as Winifred bestial, and comically underestimated as the matriarch of Mrs. Dalloway reactionary, Martha shows the representation of a ferocity not disclosed in documents previously tended to one of the respected, earth, or emotionally obsessive, sad or care. Later in his career, seemed to gain more strength and magnetism with a trio of excellent articles and I Aunt (2003) Wyndham, opposite Alan Davies, Southwark Fair at the National (2006) and The Chalk Garden.

Tyzack born in Essex, raised in Plaistow, east London, the daughter of a supervisor of Tate & Lyle, and educated at the Ursuline Convent of St. Angela in Forest Gate. She said once he became an actor by accident. "Really, I am a refugee you type. It would have been the alternative. Or maybe sell something at Harrods." He once thought of becoming a nurse. "A fortune-teller," he says, "I said to have healing in my hands."

She was saved by a "wonderful drama teacher" who came to his school and became interested in it. She went on to train at Rada, where he won an award for comedy - to give up their training of choice, speech, due to lack of academic qualifications. He then entered into the directory in Chesterfield in Derbyshire, where he appeared the first step as a spectator in Shaw's Pygmalion in 1951. In addition to continuing work with the Nottingham Playhouse and Royal Court.

In 1969 she won her first prize of acting, a BAFTA for her role as Queen Anne of the BBC The First Churchills. Two years later took over from Eileen Atkins as Elizabeth I in Robert Bolt's Vivat! Vivat Regina! in Piccadilly. The following year, with the Royal Shakespeare Company, she appeared as Volumnia in Coriolanus, Julius Caesar and Portia de Titus Andronicus Tamora in. As Volumnia, was awesome, terrifying a tigress fighting for her son's life, but also reducing Ian Hogg general athletic warrior from childhood to impotence shudder.

Tyzack was the United States in 1971, winning another award for her performance in the title role in a television version of Balzac's Cousin Bette. Then in 1976 came the landmark television drama I, Claudius, followed by three years in Stratford, Ontario, where he took the role of Mrs. Alving in Ibsen's Ghosts, Queen Margaret in Richard III and the Countess in All's well that ends well.

• While most of the 1980s saw the exploitation of their TV range, also went further in their own stadium. In 1983, he received a Tony nomination for her role again interpreted as the Countess in the production of Trevor Nunn RSC well that ends well, when he visited Broadway and two years later was arrested again by critics New York Drama Desk for her portrayal of Rose, the mother of Tom and Viv in Viv, Michael Hastings 1984 play about marriage tortured between TS Eliot and Vivienne Haigh-Wood, when he went to Broadway.
• Tyzack Some of the best work, however, was yet to come. In 1987, he starred opposite Maggie Smith in Peter Shaffer particular, two hands, Lettice and Lovage, a strange tale, two women whimsical, fantasy, and the other, Tyzack, a traditionalist rigorous, located in the former enemies, but to forge a strange friendship. With his dry humor, Tyzack was the perfect complement to the high camp Smith. The work took two years in London before moving to Broadway, where he received another Tony Tyzack. His association with Smith was revived in 1993 when she played Lady Bracknell Miss Prism of the importance of Being Earnest Smith in Aldwych, a characterization marked by its originality. For once, it was not good lens insurance, but in the hands Tyzack, one attractive and intelligent woman.

other important documents at that time included the sister of Felicity Kendal's quest to find Fiona, recalling the exploits of his younger sister in India, Indian ink, by Tom Stoppard at the Aldwych in 1995, and an imperious Lady Monchensey admired Adrian Noble revival of TS Eliot's Family Reunion at the Royal Shakespeare Company (2000), where one critic described her face as "nothing less than tragic mask, when Harry, his pride and joy , is related to its "unspeakable" pain. "In 1993, played Sybil Birling in Stephen Daldry mold breaking revival of JB Priestley, An Inspector Calls at the Aldwych, and in 1996 scored one of his greatest hits of Private Alan Bennett (Chichester Festival Theatre and then at Comedy Theatre in the West End). Play Muriel, passed to the infinite anguish of a woman whose life of denial code was gradually stripped.

As almost mute aunt nephew aunt loquacious Alan Davies and I was just forced to stay in bed, but managed to convey many meanings, switching between smiles and nods his head blissful. Meanwhile, his work on television and the cinema continued to thrive. Particularly high for two years, 1980 and 1981, he saw seven television productions, including the adaptation of the tale Pauline Jane Howell winter.

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