Margaretta Scott
Margaretta Scott | |
---|---|
Buckinghamshire, England | |
Years active | 1926–1997 |
Spouse(s) | John Wooldridge (m. 1948; died 1958) |
Children | Susan Wooldridge Hugh Wooldridge |
Parent(s) | Hugh Arthur Scott Bertha Eugene |
Margaretta Mary Winifred Scott
Early life
Scott was born in
Acting career
Scott began acting as a child, giving private performances of verse-speaking and dance drama to entertain her family and friends. In 1926, at the age of 14, she made her acting debut on the London stage as Mercutio's Page in a Fellowship of Players revival of Romeo and Juliet.[4] Scott became a leading exponent of the work of William Shakespeare through a series of notable performances in the early and mid-1930s: Cast firstly as the Player Queen and then Ophelia in Hamlet,[5] she followed this with Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing for the Oxford University Dramatic Society.[6]
She appeared as Viola at the
In 1936 Scott was cast as Rosaline in one of the great productions of
In addition to these classical roles, Scott's credits in contemporary drama have included the premieres of Emlyn Williams' A Murder Has Been Arranged (directed by the author in 1930), MacLeish's Panic (1936), Morna Stuart's Traitor's Gate (1938)[9] and Sidney Howard's Alien Corn (1939). By 1939 Scott had become one of the United Kingdom's leading young stage actresses.[citation needed]
Trade union organiser
Scott was a signatory of the document that established
]Film career
Scott's screen career began in 1934 when she made an uncredited appearance in Alexander Korda's The Private Life of Don Juan. Thereafter she reprised her stage role of Leonora Stafford in the film version of the Ben Travers' Aldwych farce Dirty Work with Robertson Hare and Ralph Lynn and appeared in Herbert Wilcox's Peg of Old Drury with Anna Neagle before again joining Alexander Korda in 1936. Engaged by Korda, Scott made three pictures for London Films:
- Things to Come (1936) as Roxana/Rowana in H. G. Wells' adaptation of his novel with Ralph Richardson, Raymond Massey and Ann Todd.
- Action for Slander (1937).
- Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel(1937).
Second World War
Throughout the war Scott continued to perform in theatrical productions both at home and abroad, touring
Her screen roles meanwhile included Judith Bentley in The Girl in the News (1940),[12] Marcia Royd in Anthony Asquith's comedy Quiet Wedding (1940), Atlantic Ferry (1941),[13] Sabotage at Sea (1942) and Alicia in the Gainsborough Pictures melodrama, Fanny by Gaslight (1944).[14]
Post-war career
In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s Scott continued to play a wide range of roles on stage and screen. Her association with Shakespeare was maintained with performances in the first 1946 television productions of
Scott was active on the concert platform as a narrator/speaker under the batons of Sir Henry Wood, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir David Willcocks and Sir John Pritchard performing scores by Grieg, Honegger, Purcell, Elgar, Prokofiev and her late husband, the British composer, John Wooldridge. [citation needed]
Over the course of the next three decades Scott appeared on stage throughout the United Kingdom and toured in plays abroad including the
Television career
Scott was one of the first women to perform Shakespeare on television, in the role of Beatrice in a stage production of Much Ado About Nothing broadcast by the BBC in 1937.[20] In 1946, she portrayed Portia in a made for television production of The Merchant of Venice.[2]
For twenty-five years, from the 1970s, Scott played a number of distinguished parts in popular television dramas. These included Lord Peter Wimsey, Elizabeth R, The Duchess of Duke Street, Upstairs, Downstairs, Lovejoy, and for several years as Mrs Pumphrey with her Pekingese, Tricki Woo, in the BBC series All Creatures Great and Small. "Ma was 65 when she was cast as Mrs Pumphrey," explained her daughter, Susan Wooldridge. "At that time in her career she'd been doing various jobs, but nothing particularly sensational. Then suddenly out of the blue, which occasionally happens to us actors, this lovely job came along and it was to be her life really for the next thirteen years. It was very special to her. She loved that part of the country. I think she had real Northern roots in her, and she just loved being up there. We still have 'flop bot' as a family expression."[21]
Personal life
Scott was married to the English composer John Wooldridge, who was killed in a car accident in 1958. Their daughter, Susan Wooldridge, is also an actress and their son, Hugh Wooldridge is a theatre director and producer.
Scott died from pneumonia and breast cancer[1] at her home in London on 15 April 2005, aged 93, and is buried with her husband, John, at St Lawrence's Church, Cholesbury, Buckinghamshire. The headstone lists her as Margaretta Scott Wooldridge.
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1934 | Dirty Work | Leonora Stafford | |
The Private Life of Don Juan | Pepilla | uncredited | |
1935 | Peg of Old Drury | Kitty Clive | |
1936 | Things to Come | Roxana/Rowena | as Margueretta Scott |
1937 | Much Ado About Nothing | Beatrice | TV |
Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel
|
Theresa Cobarrus | ||
Action for Slander | Josie Bradford | ||
1938 | Will Shakespeare | Anne | TV |
The Constant Nymph | TV | ||
Parnell | Katherine O'Shea | TV | |
1939 | The Taming of the Shrew | Katherina | TV |
Traitor's Gate | TV | ||
Katharine and Petruchio | Katharine | TV | |
Shall We Join the Ladies? | Lady Wrathie | TV | |
1940 | The Girl in the News | Judith Bentley | |
1941 | Quiet Wedding | Marcia | |
Atlantic Ferry | Susan Donaldson | ||
1942 | Sabotage at Sea | Jane Dighton | |
1944 | Fanny by Gaslight | Alicia | |
1945 | The Man from Morocco | Manuela | |
1947 | Mrs. Fitzherbert
|
Lady Jersey | |
The Merchant of Venice | Portia | TV | |
1948 | Counterblast | Sister "Johnnie" Johnson | |
The Story of Shirley Yorke | Alison Gwynne | ||
Idol of Paris | Empress Euginie | ||
The First Gentleman | Lady Hartford | ||
Calling Paul Temple | Mrs. Trevellyan | ||
1949 | Landfall | Mrs. Burnaby | |
1950 | Othello | Emilia | TV – BBC Sunday Night Theatre |
1952 | Where's Charley? | Dona Lucia | |
1956 | The White Falcon | Catherine of Aragon | TV – BBC Sunday Night Theatre |
The Last Man to Hang?
|
Mrs. Cranshaw | ||
1957 | The Scamp | Mrs. Blundell | |
Town on Trial | Helen Dixon | ||
1958 | A Woman Possessed | Katherine Winthrop | |
1960 | An Honourable Murder | Claudia Caesar | |
1970 | Crescendo | Danielle Ryman | |
1971 | Percy | Rita's Mother | |
1978 - 1990 | All Creatures Great and Small | Mrs Pumphrey | TV - BBC1 |
1986 | Bergerac | Roberta Jardine | TV – S4E10 "Fires In The Fall" |
Notes and references
- ^ a b Brian McFarlane, "Scott, Margaretta Mary Winifred (1912–2005)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2011 available online. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
- ^ a b Coveney, Michael (18 April 2005), "Margaretta Scott (obit)", The Guardian
- ^ Margaretta Scott. The Independent. Author – Alan Strachan. Published 7 May 2005. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
- ^ The Strand Theatre with Lawrence Anderson as Romeo; Jean Forbes Robertson, Juliet and Robert Lorraine, Mercutio.
- .
- ^ With George Devine, William Devlin and Hugh Hunt.
- ^ As Viola, Olivia, Celia, Hermia, Adriana and Miranda. Directed by Robert Atkins, Prospero was John Drinkwater, Orsino and Orlando was Jack Hawkins, Ariel was Leslie French.
- ^ Directed by Tyrone Guthrie with a cast that included Michael Redgrave, Alec Guinness, Rachel Kempson, Ernest Milton and Alec Clunes.
- ^ With Basil Sydney then Jack Hawkins
- ^ Juliet, Lady Macbeth and Rosalind
- ^ Directed by Emlyn Williams with Anton Walbrook and Diana Wynyard.
- ^ Carol Reed's film of Roy Vicker's novel
- ^ With Michael Redgrave.
- ^ With Margaret Lockwood and James Mason.
- Glasgow Citizens' Theatrein 1949.
- ^ With Peter O'Toole at Bristol Old Vic in 1958.
- ^ With John Mills
- ^ With Richard Attenborough
- ^ "1995 Chichester Festival Theatre". Archived from the original on 14 August 2014.
- ^ Soares, Andre (18 April 2005). "Margaretta Scott". Alternative Film Guide. Retrieved 27 December 2007.
- ^ All Memories Great & Small, Oliver Crocker (2016; MIWK)
External links
- Performances listed in the Theatre Archive, University of Bristol
- Margaretta Scott at IMDb
- Margaretta Scott at Find a Grave
- Images of Scott in Things to Come at 625.org.uk:
- 1936 Screen Pictorial Summer Annual – Advertisement
- 1939 My Favourite Part cigarette card – front reverse