Prunella Ransome

Prunella Ransome
Born	Prunella Jane Ransome (1943-01-18)18 January 1943 Croydon, Surrey, England
Died	4 March 2002(2002-03-04) (aged 59) Norwich, Norfolk, England
Alma mater	Elmhurst Ballet School
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1959–1999
Children	2

Prunella Jane Ransome (18 January 1943 – 4 March 2002) was an English actress, primarily active on television and films.

Early life

Ransome was born in

and began her performing career as a teenager.

Career

Ransome made her

nomination.

Ransome progressed in her film career playing the female lead in the 1969 film Alfred the Great. Her subsequent screen career, however, was focused almost exclusively on television, Ransome having debuted in that medium in the 1967 serialisation of Kenilworth. In the 1970s she had major multi-episode roles in three well-regarded TV drama series: Warship and A Horseman Riding By for the BBC, and Dangerous Knowledge for Southern Television. She also appeared in other TV series of the period, such as Man at the Top, episode "I’ll Do the Dirty Work", in 1970. Also in 1970 she appeared in Granada TV series A Family at War - playing Dominique Brahaut, the girlfriend of Philip Ashton during his posting to the Channel Islands. She appeared as Princess Alexandra in “The Ozerov Inheritance”, an episode of The Persuaders!, in 1972.

Ransome's rare film roles included the female leads in the western Man in the Wilderness (1971) and Narciso Ibáñez Serrador's Who Can Kill a Child?, a 1976 horror film which has become a cult favourite. She also played the female lead in the 1980 TV mini-series Seagull Island which was re-edited into the film The Secret of Seagull Island (1981). Ransome retired as a career actress following her participation in the 1984 television series Sorrell and Son, though she made occasional television guest appearances in the 1990s.

Personal life

She had two daughters, Charlotte (born 1973) and Victoria (born 1975) and was aunt to Thomas Ransome. In 1980 Ransome relocated from London to Suffolk. She died of cancer of the oesophagus (throat) in the Norfolk and Norwich hospital, on Friday, 4 March 2002. Prunella was cremated at Earlham Crematorium on Saturday, 9 March 2002. However, her ashes were not laid to rest there, but were taken away by the funeral director in Norwich for private interment.

References

Sources

The Pittsburgh Press October 1, 1968 p. 14.

External links

• Prunella Ransome at
  IMDb