Maureen Pryor
Encyclopedia
Maureen Pryor was an Irish-born English character actress. She appeared on stage, screen and television.
, Ireland
, to a Cockney
father and an Irish mother. She started acting with Manchester Repertory in 1938 and studied with Michel Saint-Denis
at the London Theatre Studio 1939-40.
in Seán O'Casey
's Red Roses for Me
, Noël Coward
's Peace In Our Time, John Griffith Bowen
's After the Rain (also on Broadway
), Doris Lessing
’s Play with a Tiger and plays such as Little Boxes and Where’s Tedd. She was a member of the Stables Theatre Company. She also appeared on Broadway in the premiere season of Boeing-Boeing (1965). In Manchester, she appeared in Eugene O'Neill
's one-act play Before Breakfast, directed by Bill Gilmour
.
She made over 500 television appearances, and was in many films, perhaps most notably in Ken Russell
's 1968 film Song of Summer
, in which she played Jelka Delius
, the long-suffering wife of the composer Frederick Delius
. Russell used her again in The Music Lovers
(1970) as Tchaikovsky
's mother-in-law.
Early life
Maureen Pryor was born Maureen Pook in 1922 in LimerickLimerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, to a Cockney
Cockney
The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
father and an Irish mother. She started acting with Manchester Repertory in 1938 and studied with Michel Saint-Denis
Michel Saint-Denis
Michel Saint-Denis , dit Jacques Duchesne, was a French actor, theater director, and drama theorist whose ideas on actor training have had a profound influence on the development of European theater from the 1930s on.Michel Saint-Denis was born in Beauvais, France, the nephew of Jacques Copeau, who...
at the London Theatre Studio 1939-40.
Career
She appeared in the West EndWest End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
in Seán O'Casey
Seán O'Casey
Seán O'Casey was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.- Early life:...
's Red Roses for Me
Red Roses for Me (play)
Red Roses for Me is a four-act play written by Irish playwright Seán O'Casey which premiered at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin in 1943. The story is set against the backdrop of the Dublin Lockout of 1913, events in which O'Casey himself had participated....
, Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's Peace In Our Time, John Griffith Bowen
John Griffith Bowen
John Griffith Bowen is a British playwright and novelist. He was born in Calcutta, India, studied at the University of Oxford and worked in publishing, drama and television.-Novels:...
's After the Rain (also on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
), Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing
Doris May Lessing CH is a British writer. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos....
’s Play with a Tiger and plays such as Little Boxes and Where’s Tedd. She was a member of the Stables Theatre Company. She also appeared on Broadway in the premiere season of Boeing-Boeing (1965). In Manchester, she appeared in Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
's one-act play Before Breakfast, directed by Bill Gilmour
Bill Gilmour (director)
Bill Gilmour is a Scots television director. He was born on March 17, 1939 in the small town of Peebles in the Tweed Valley of the Scottish Borders. He went to Ealing Art College in West London, where he specialised in photography, while attending Frank Auerbach's drawing classes...
.
She made over 500 television appearances, and was in many films, perhaps most notably in Ken Russell
Ken Russell
Henry Kenneth Alfred "Ken" Russell was an English film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. He attracted criticism as being obsessed with sexuality and the church...
's 1968 film Song of Summer
Song of Summer
Song of Summer is a 1968 black-and-white film written, produced and directed by Ken Russell, who also plays a cameo role as a philandering priest. It portrays the final six years of the life of Frederick Delius, when he was blind and paralysed, and when Eric Fenby lived with the composer and his...
, in which she played Jelka Delius
Jelka Rosen
Helena Sophie Emilie "Jelka" Delius was a painter, and wife of composer Frederick Delius.-Life and work:...
, the long-suffering wife of the composer Frederick Delius
Frederick Delius
Frederick Theodore Albert Delius, CH was an English composer. Born in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family of German extraction, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce...
. Russell used her again in The Music Lovers
The Music Lovers
The Music Lovers is a 1970 British biographical film directed by Ken Russell. The screenplay by Melvyn Bragg, based on Beloved Friend, a collection of personal correspondence edited by Catherine Drinker Bowen and Barbara von Meck, focuses on the life and career of 19th century Russian composer...
(1970) as Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's mother-in-law.
Selected filmography
- The Lady with the Lamp (1951)
- The Weak and the WickedThe Weak and the WickedThe Weak and the Wicked is a 1954 British drama film directed by J. Lee Thompson based on the book by his wife, Joan Henry, starring Glynis Johns and Diana Dors....
(1953) - Doctor in the HouseDoctor in the HouseDoctor in the House is a 1954 British comedy film, directed by Ralph Thomas and produced by Betty Box. The screenplay, by Nicholas Phipps, Richard Gordon and Ronald Wilkinson, is based on the novel by Gordon, and follows a group of students through medical school.It was the most popular box office...
(1954) - Orders Are OrdersOrders Are OrdersOrders Are Orders is a 1954 British comedy film directed by David Paltenghi, and featuring Peter Sellers, Sid James, Tony Hancock, Raymond Huntley, Donald Pleasence and Eric Sykes. It was a remake of the 1933 film Orders Is Orders.-Synopsis:...
(1954) - The Secret PlaceThe Secret Place (film)The Secret Place is a 1957 British film directed by Henry Hathaway. It stars Belinda Lee and Ronald Lewis.-Cast:* Belinda Lee as Molly Wilson* Ronald Lewis as Gerry Carter* Michael Brooke as Freddie Haywood* Michael Gwynn as Steve Warring...
(1957) - Doctor at LargeDoctor at Large (film)Doctor at Large is a 1957 British comedy film, the third installment of the Doctor in the House series. It stars Dirk Bogarde, Muriel Pavlow, Donald Sinden, and James Robertson Justice.-Cast:* Dirk Bogarde as Dr. Simon Sparrow...
(1957) - Heart of a ChildHeart of a ChildHeart of a Child is a 1958 film directed by Clive Donner. It stars Jean Anderson and Donald Pleasence.-Cast:* Jean Anderson as Maria* Donald Pleasence as Spiel* Richard Williams as Karl* Maureen Pryor as Frau Spiel* Norman Macowan as Heiss...
(1958) - Conspiracy of HeartsConspiracy of HeartsConspiracy of Hearts is a 1960 British film. It stars Lilli Palmer, Sylvia Syms and Albert Lieven. Its plot involves Italian nuns smuggling Jewish children out of an internment camp near their convent to save them from the Holocaust. It was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Film Promoting...
(1960) - No Love for JohnnieNo Love for JohnnieNo Love for Johnnie is a 1961 British drama film directed by Ralph Thomas. It was based on the book of the same title by the Member of Parliament Wilfred Fienburgh and stars Peter Finch....
(1961) - Life for RuthLife for RuthLife for Ruth is a 1962 British drama film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Michael Craig, Patrick McGoohan and Janet Munro.-Plot:John Harris finds himself ostracized and placed on trial for allowing his daughter Ruth to die. His religious beliefs forbade him to give consent for a blood...
(1962) - Madhouse on Castle Street (1963; Mrs Griggs; this was Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's acting debut) - The Sandwich ManThe Sandwich ManThe Sandwich Man is a 1966 British comedy film starring Michael Bentine, Dora Bryan, Harry H. Corbett, Bernard Cribbins, Diana Dors, Norman Wisdom, Terry-Thomas and Ian Hendry. It was written by Bentine in conjunction with Robert Hartford-Davis...
(1966) - Song of SummerSong of SummerSong of Summer is a 1968 black-and-white film written, produced and directed by Ken Russell, who also plays a cameo role as a philandering priest. It portrays the final six years of the life of Frederick Delius, when he was blind and paralysed, and when Eric Fenby lived with the composer and his...
(1968) - The Music LoversThe Music LoversThe Music Lovers is a 1970 British biographical film directed by Ken Russell. The screenplay by Melvyn Bragg, based on Beloved Friend, a collection of personal correspondence edited by Catherine Drinker Bowen and Barbara von Meck, focuses on the life and career of 19th century Russian composer...
(1970) - Lady Caroline LambLady Caroline Lamb (film)Lady Caroline Lamb is a 1972 film based on the life of the notorious Lady Caroline Lamb, lover of Lord Byron and wife of Prime MinisterViscount Melbourne...
(1972; Mrs Butler) - The National HealthThe National Health (film)The National Health is a 1973 British comedy film directed by Jack Gold and starring Lynn Redgrave, Colin Blakely and Eleanor Bron. It is based on the play The National Health by Peter Nichols, in which the staff struggle to cope in an underfunded NHS hospital...
(1973; the matron) - The Black WindmillThe Black WindmillThe Black Windmill is a 1974 British spy thriller directed by Don Siegel and starring Michael Caine, John Vernon, Janet Suzman and Donald Pleasence The screenplay by Leigh Vance is based on Clive Egleton's novel Seven Days to a Killing. The story involves a British secret service agent, John...
(1974) - Shoulder to ShoulderShoulder to Shoulder"Shoulder to Shoulder" was a book and 1974 BBC TV miniseries of the women's suffrage movement both by Midge Mackenzie.The book documents the lives and works of some of Britain's leading "suffragettes." It includes many excerpts from their speeches, diaries, letters, memoirs, other writings and...
(1974, BBC TV; as Dame Ethel SmythEthel SmythDame Ethel Mary Smyth, DBE was an English composer and a leader of the women's suffrage movement.- Early career :...
)