Dame
Eileen Atkins
Dame Eileen June Atkins, DBE (born 16 June 1934) is an
English actress and occasional screenwriter. She has worked in the theatre,
film, and television consistently since 1953. In 2008, she won the BAFTA TV
Award for Best Actress and the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in
a Miniseries or Movie for Cranford. She is also a three-time Olivier Award
winner, winning Best Supporting Performance in 1988 (for Multiple roles) and
Best Actress for The Unexpected Man (1999) and Honour (2004). She was appointed
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1990 and Dame Commander
of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2001.
Atkins joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1957 and made
her Broadway debut in the 1966 production of The Killing of Sister George, for
which she received the first of four Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in
a Play in 1967. She received subsequent nominations for, Vivat! Vivat Regina!
(1972), Indiscretions (1995) and The Retreat from Moscow (2004). Other stage
credits include The Tempest (Old Vic 1962), Exit the King (Edinburgh Festival
and Royal Court 1963), The Promise (New York 1967), The Night of the Tribades
(New York 1977), Medea (Young Vic 1985), A Delicate Balance (Haymarket, West
End 1997) and Doubt (New York 2006).
Atkins co-created the television dramas Upstairs, Downstairs
(1971–75) and The House of Elliot (1991–93) with Jean Marsh. She also wrote the
screenplay for the 1997 film Mrs Dalloway. Her film appearances include Equus
(1977), The Dresser (1983), Let Him Have It (1991), Wolf (1994), Jack and Sarah
(1995), Gosford Park (2001), Evening (2005), Last Chance Harvey (2008), Robin Hood
(2010) and Magic in the Moonlight (2014)
Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a
Salvation Army maternity hospital 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 (1941–45), she danced
in working men's club circuits for 15 shillings a time 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 a 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 Parkside Preparatory School in Tottenham. Eileen
Atkins has since publicly credited the Principal, Miss D. M. Hall, for the wise
and firm guidance under which her character developed. From Parkside she went
on to The Latymer School, a grammar school in Edmonton, London. 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
without charge. 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.
Mr 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 at 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. She graduated from Guildhall in
1953.
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 nine years (1953–62) before she was working
steadily.
She joined the Guild Players Repertory Company in Bangor,
County Down, Northern Ireland as a professional actress in 1952. She appeared
as the nurse in Harvey at the Repertory Theatre, Bangor, in 1952. In 1953 she
appeared as an attendant in Love's Labours Lost at the Regent's Park Open Air
Theatre. Her London stage debut was in 1953 as Jaquenetta in Robert Atkins's
staging of Love's Labour's Lost at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park.
Atkins has regularly returned to the life and work of
Virginia Woolf for professional inspiration. She has played the writer on stage
in Patrick Garland's adaptation of A Room of One's Own and also in 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, and
made a cameo appearance in the 2002 film version of Michael Cunningham's
Woolf-themed novel, The Hours.
Atkins joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1957 and
stayed for two seasons. She was with the Old Vic in its 1961–62 season (she
appeared in the Old Vic's Repertoire Leaflets of February–April 1962 and
April–May 1962).
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
BBC Midlands with Judi Dench and Brian Smith. In the 1960 Shakespeare
production An Age of Kings she played Joan of Arc.
She helped create two television series. Along with fellow
actress, Jean Marsh, she created the concept for an original television series,
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 because of stage commitments. The
same team was also responsible for the BBC series The House of Eliott
(1991–93).
Her film and television work includes Sons and Lovers
(1981), Smiley's People (1982), Oliver Twist (1982), Titus Andronicus (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),
Cold Mountain (2003), What a Girl Wants (2003), Vanity Fair (2004), Ballet
Shoes (2005) and Ask the Dust (2006).
In the autumn of 2007, she co-starred with Dame Judi Dench
and Sir Michael Gambon in the BBC One drama 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. In September 2007 she played Abigail
Dusniak in Waking the Dead Yahrzeit (S6:E11-12).
In 2009 Atkins played the evil Nurse Edwina Kenchington in
the BBC Two black comedy Psychoville. 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. The same year, she played
Louisa in the dark comedy film, Wild Target.
Atkins and Jean Marsh, creators of the original 1970s series
of Upstairs, Downstairs, were 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 Maud, Lady Holland. In August
2011, it was revealed that Atkins had decided not to continue to take part as
she was unhappy with the scripts. In September 2011, Atkins joined the cast of
ITV comedy-drama series Doc Martin playing the title character's aunt, Ruth
Ellingham. She returned as Aunt Ruth for the show's sixth series in September
2013, the seventh in September 2015 and eighth in September 2017.
Atkins starred as Lady Spence with Matthew Rhys in an
adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's The Scapegoat, shown in September 2012.
She has portrayed Queen Mary on two occasions, in the 2002
television film Bertie and Elizabeth and in the 2016 Netflix-produced
television series The Crown.
Atkins portrayed graduate school professor Evelyn Ashford to
Vivian Bearing (Emma Thompson) in the film Wit. Wit is a 2001 American
television movie directed by Mike Nichols. The teleplay by Nichols and Emma
Thompson is based on the 1999 Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same title by
Margaret Edson. The film was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival on
9 February 2001 before being broadcast by HBO on 24 March. It was shown at the
Edinburgh Film Festival and the Warsaw Film Festival later in the year.
Dame Eileen Atkins: 'I'd rather be content than happy'
EILEEN ATKINS
"I believe I was put on this planet to act"
Eileen Atkins
'I have a tendency to blow up'
Richard Barber
26 SEPTEMBER 2017 • 6:22PM
She may now be 83 but Dame Eileen Atkins still works just as
often as she likes. There are rumours of a West End role on the horizon and, in
the meantime, she’s back in ITV’s feelgood series, Doc Martin, playing Martin
Clunes’s irascible aunt, retired clinical psychiatrist, Ruth Ellingham.
If she existed would Eileen like Ruth? “Oh, very much,” says
Atkins, “although she might frighten me a bit.” That would take some doing. “I
know. Everyone says that a lot of people are frightened of me but I’ve no idea
why.”
Well, she’s quite formidable, not someone to suffer fools.
“That’s silly when I’m such a fool myself,” she insists. “I do admit, though, I
have a tendency to blow up but then it’s all over for me in five minutes.” But
perhaps not for everyone else? She chuckles. “Yes, I can leave people in
pieces.”
Eileen Atkins with
Michael Gambon and director Trevor Nunn
Eileen Atkins with Michael Gambon and director Trevor Nunn
in 2012 CREDIT: ANDREW CROWLEY
She was at her most combustible when the BBC decided to
revive Upstairs, Downstairs in 2010. (Atkins and actress Jean Marsh had created
the original hit series in the early 70s.) “That’s when I blew up
outrageously,” she admits.
Initially, she didn’t want to be in it but it was made clear
they’d only go ahead with the revival if she agreed. She wanted to play the
cook; they wanted her to be the matriarch. There were several rows and she
lost. She was cast as Maud, Lady Holland.
Everyone says that a lot of people are frightened of me but
I’ve no idea why
This new series was written by Heidi Thomas, creator of the
enormously successful Call The Midwife. “Heidi writes brilliantly for the lower
middle classes,” says Atkins, witheringly. “But she simply cannot write for the
upper classes. I was endlessly trying to change my lines which must have driven
her crazy.”
Atkins was also determined to make Lady Holland as distinct
from Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton as possible. The
two actresses are friends and knew they were going to be in rather similar
rival shows. “So I suggested Maud ought to have a pet monkey called Solomon.”
EILEEN ATKINS
"There were some [illicit liaisons]. It would have been
odd if there weren’t"
Heidi Thomas was unconvinced. “If she’d said right at the
beginning she hated the idea of the monkey, then I would have chosen another
pet – a parrot perhaps.” But it had gone too far by that stage and Eileen,
well, blew up. “I said: ‘If you don’t get the f***ing monkey, then you don’t
f***ing get me.’”
The Dame got her monkey.
She’d won the battle but not the war. She kept asking for
the scripts for the second series, which finally arrived a matter of weeks
before filming began. “I had about six lines in three different scenes – and in
one of them I was wearing a gas mask.” It was time to quit.
I believe I was put on this planet to act and it’s given me
huge fulfilment. I feel I’ve realised my destiny
She was quickly snapped up by Clunes for Doc Martin, where
she and I meet on the set in Port Isaac, Cornwall, and then enjoyed much
acclaim for her one-woman show about Shakespearean actress Ellen Terry. More
recently, she graced Netflix’s global hit, The Crown, as Queen Mary.
How does she explain all the Bafta nominations it garnered
but failure to win a single one? “I think it was something called jealousy.
People – by which I mean the panel – were envious of Netflix having such a big
budget. I thought it was absolutely stunning.”
Atkins loves her work, always has done. “Does it define me?
Yes, I’d say it does. And I never had children. In fact, it was only when I
turned 80 that I began to realise the point of grandchildren. I see other
people with theirs and they seem quite sweet.”
But motherhood just didn’t pan out. She got married the
first time to actor Julian Glover when he was 21, she a year older. “By our
mid-20s, people began asking when we were going to have children. Well, we
tried but nothing happened and then Julian was told that no way could he ever
become a father.”
As it happens, his second wife, actress Isla Blair, got
pregnant almost immediately after they married. Their son, Jamie, is also an
actor. So how did Atkins react to the prospect of being childless? “To be
honest, I hadn’t got married wanting children and my career was then beginning
to show signs of possibility.”
She and Julian applied to adopt; “It was what everyone did
then. What’s more, we both had to agree that, if it came to it, we’d be happy
to have ‘a child of colour’, as they were called then.
“We lived in a flat on the top floor of a large house and
there was no intercom. One day, the doorbell rang so I went downstairs and
opened the front door. On the step was a baby in a cradle, a little black baby.
“I stood and stared
at it and my only thought was: ‘They’ve delivered our baby.’ And the feeling
that swept over me was as if the blood was running out of the ends of my
fingers.
“I remember thinking: ‘This is your life now, looking after
this baby for the next 20 years.’ And then a woman appeared from the basement.
She’d left the baby on the doorstep while she went downstairs to collect more
things and she’d rung the doorbell so someone would keep an eye on it until she
got back.
It was only when I turned 80 that I began to realise the
point of grandchildren
“I’m not a particularly spiritual person but I knew that
moment was sent to me. It was a sign. The only thought running through my head
was that I had to tell Julian I couldn’t ever adopt. And when I did, his
instant reaction was: ‘Thank God, neither can I.’ As it turns out, Jamie is like
my godson, a wonderful addition to my life.”
Divorced at 29, Atkins didn’t marry again until she was 43.
“And there was no way I’d have chosen to be a single mother in the meantime.
Anyway, I was having a high old time.”
So were there many illicit liaisons? “Well, there were some.
It would have been odd if there weren’t. As it happens, I’ve been reading
Artemis Cooper’s biography of Elizabeth Jane Howard and she had lots and lots
of affairs. It’s made me feel quite virginal by comparison.”
EILEEN ATKINS
"I believe I was put on this planet to act"
Bill Shepherd was nine years Eileen’s junior, unmarried and
without children, when they met. “I said to him early on that I was getting a
bit old for motherhood and anyway I didn’t really want a child. But then nor
did he.
“I’ll never forget Miriam Stoppard saying to me when I was
about 50: ‘It’s a terrible thing not to have children. But I can help you.’ I
said: ‘Miriam, please, I’m OK.’ I don’t want to sound like Edith Piaf but being
childless has never been a matter of regret.
“I believe I was put on this planet to act and it’s given me
huge fulfilment. I feel I’ve realised my destiny and I’ve had a very, very good
time doing it.
Atkins believes “people look down their noses at the word
‘ambition’ – and especially when applied to women. But I was ambitious and I
don’t see anything wrong in that. I know some people feel you’re not quite a
woman if you’re ambitious. Not me.”
And she’s happy? “No, I’m content and I think contentment is
rather underrated. I’m content to be an old woman. I’m vastly lucky that I can
still work. And that makes me content, too.
“Mark you, I’m thinking of putting a contract out on Angela
Lansbury. Still acting at 91? Utterly ridiculous!”
Doc Martin is on ITV on Wednesday at 9pm
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