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Margaret Leighton

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Margaret Leighton
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(born Feb. 26, 1922, Barnt Green, near Birmingham, Worcestershire, Eng. — died Jan. 13, 1976, Chichester, West Sussex) British actress. A member of the Old Vic company, she made her London debut in 1944 and her Broadway debut in 1946. She was acclaimed for her wide range of roles in plays such as The Cocktail Party (1950) and The Applecart (1953). She received Tony Awards for her Broadway appearances in Separate Tables (1956) and The Night of the Iguana (1962). Her most notable film roles were in The Winslow Boy (1948), The Sound and the Fury (1959), and The Go-Between (1971).

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American Theater Guide: Margaret Leighton
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Leighton, Margaret (1922–76), actress. The slender English leading lady first came to America with the Old Vic in 1946, but did not receive major attention until she essayed two disparate roles in Terence Rattigan's double bill, Separate Tables (1956). After playing Beatrice to John Gielgud's Benedick in 1959, she won praise for her gentle spinster Hannah Jelkes in The Night of the Iguana (1961). Subsequently Leighton was seen as the starchy Englishwoman Pamela Pew‐Pickett in Tchin‐Tchin (1962), in two roles in Tennessee Williams's double bill, Slapstick Tragedy (1966), and as Regina in a 1967 revival of The Little Foxes.

Actor: Margaret Leighton
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  • Born: Feb 26, 1922 in Barnet Green, Worcestershire, England
  • Died: Jan 13, 1976 in Chichester, West Sussex, England
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '50s-'70s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
  • Career Highlights: The Go-Between, The Best Man, The Winslow Boy
  • First Major Screen Credit: Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948)

Biography

A tall, rail-thin, charming British actress, she began training for the stage at age 15, and made her professional debut at 16. After joining the Old Vic Company under the direction of Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson, she rose to prominence in the late '40s; over the next decade she became a highly respected actress for her work in both London and Broadway, typically portraying fragile, neurotic women. For her performances in the Broadway plays Separate Tables (1956) and The Night of the Iguana (1962) she won Tony Awards. Onscreen from the late '40s, she appeared in numerous films over nearly three decades. For her work in The Go-Between (1971) she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. She was married to publisher Max Reinhardt, actor Laurence Harvey, and actor Michael Wilding. She died of multiple sclerosis at 53. ~ All Movie Guide
Wikipedia: Margaret Leighton
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Margaret Leighton
Born 26 February 1922(1922-02-26)
Barnt Green, Worcestershire, England
Died 13 January 1976 (aged 53)
Chichester, Sussex, England
Spouse(s) Max Reinhardt (1947-1955)
Laurence Harvey (1957-1961)
Michael Wilding (1964-1976)

Margaret Leighton (26 February 1922 – 13 January 1976) was a two-time Tony Award-winning English leading actress with an exquisite sense of grandeur and refinement. She created the role of Hannah Jelkes in Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana.

Contents

Life and career

Born in Barnt Green, Worcestershire, England, she made her stage debut was as Dorothy in Laugh With Me (1938), which was also performed that year for television on BBC. She went on to become a star of the Old Vic.

Leighton's Broadway debut was as the Queen in Henry IV (1946) starring Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson during a visit to America of the Old Vic company, which performed a total of five plays from its repertoire before returning to London.

After appearing in two British films, including the starring role of Flora MacDonald opposite David Niven in Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948), the willowy blonde actress played the second female lead in Hitchcock's Hollywood film Under Capricorn (1949) starring Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, and Michael Wilding. She starred with Walter Pidgeon in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer crime/mystery Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951).

Leighton had three husbands: publisher Max Reinhardt (married 1947-divorced 1955); actor Laurence Harvey (married 1957-divorced 1961); and actor Michael Wilding (married 1964-her death 1976). She had no children.

She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in Separate Tables (1956); she won another Tony in that category for The Night of the Iguana (1962), playing the luminous Hannah Jelkes (a role played by Deborah Kerr on film) opposite Bette Davis's Maxine Faulk. Leighton was nominated for Best Actress in a Play for Much Ado About Nothing (1959) opposite John Gielgud and for Tchin-Tchin (1962) opposite Anthony Quinn.

She also had a noteworthy list of TV appearances, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Ben Casey and Burke's Law. She won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Drama for Hamlet (1970). And she was nominated for an Emmy in 1966 for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama for four episodes of Dr. Kildare.

Her last appearance on Broadway was as Birdie Hubbard in a revival of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes (1967) starring Anne Bancroft as Regina Giddens.

For her film role as Mrs. Maudsley in The Go-Between (1970), Leighton won the British BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actress. She received a BAFTA nomination for Best British Actress for her role as Valerie Carrington in Carrington V.C. (1955) and also received a Hollywood Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for The Go-Between.

Margaret Leighton died of multiple sclerosis, aged 53, in Chichester, West Sussex.

Filmography

Film

Television

The Vortex 1969(BBC)

External links

v • d • e
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Drama Series

Barbara Hale (1959) · Pamela Brown (1962) · Glenda Farrell (1963) · Ruth White (1964) · Lee Grant (1966) · Agnes Moorehead (1967) · Barbara Anderson (1968) · Susan Saint James (1969) · Gail Fisher (1970) · Margaret Leighton (1971) · Jenny Agutter (1972) · Ellen Corby (1973) · Joanna Miles (1974) · Ellen Corby (1975)
v • d • e
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play

Ingrid Bergman / Helen Hayes (1947) · Judith Anderson / Jessica Tandy (1948) · Shirley Booth (1950) · Uta Hagen (1951) · Julie Harris (1952) · Shirley Booth (1953) · Audrey Hepburn (1954) · Nancy Kelly (1955) · Julie Harris (1956) · Margaret Leighton (1957) · Helen Hayes (1958) · Gertrude Berg (1959) · Anne Bancroft (1960) · Joan Plowright. (1961) · Margaret Leighton (1962) · Uta Hagen (1963) · Sandy Dennis (1964) · Irene Worth (1965) · Rosemary Harris (1966) · Beryl Reid (1967) · Zoe Caldwell (1968) · Julie Harris (1969) · Tammy Grimes (1970) · Maureen Stapleton (1971) · Sada Thompson (1972) · Julie Harris (1973) · Colleen Dewhurst (1974) · Ellen Burstyn (1975)

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
American Theater Guide. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Margaret Leighton".  Read more