Miriam Karlin
Encyclopedia
Miriam Karlin, OBE
(23 June 1925 3 June 2011) was a British actress who worked on screen for over 60 years. She was best known for her role as Paddy in The Rag Trade
, a 1960s BBC and 1970s LWT sitcom , especially for her catchphrase "Everybody out!". Her trademark throughout her career was her deep, husky voice and London accent.
, North London, she was brought up in an Orthodox Jew
ish family; members of her extended family were among those who later died at Auschwitz. She was the daughter of Céline (née Aronowitz) and Harry Samuels, a Jewish barrister, who specialised in industrial and trade union law. Her brother was Michael Samuels
, a historical linguist, responsible for the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary. When she was doing one of her first radio shows, Terry-Thomas
's Top of the Town, she based some of the zany characters she invented and played on people who had appeared before the rent tribunal chaired by her father.
, Karlin made her stage debut for ENSA
– the Forces Entertainment organisation – in wartime shows and subsequently appeared in repertory theatre and cabaret. She appeared in productions of The Diary of Anne Frank
, The Bad Seed
, The Egg, Fiddler on the Roof
and Bus Stop
, among others.
She made her film debut in 1952's Down Among the Z Men
, as well as featuring in Room at the Top
, Heavens Above!
, Ladies Who Do
and Mahler
by Ken Russell
.
In 1960, she appeared opposite Sir Laurence Olivier
in the film of John Osborne
's play The Entertainer
. Karlin also had parts in A Clockwork Orange
and The Millionairess
. She appeared in the stage version of Fiddler on the Roof
at Her Majesty's Theatre, starring the Israeli actor Topol
. In 1972 Karlin took the title role in Mother Courage and her Children
at the Palace Theatre Watford in a production notable for the force of her performance, and its faithfulness to the Brechtian Verfremdungseffekt.
On television, Karlin became known for playing the belligerent shop steward Paddy in the The Rag Trade
, a British sitcom set in a textile factory. Paddy would use the slightest opportunity to cause a strike; her trademark was blowing a whistle and shouting "Everybody out!" She played the role, to great success, between 1961 and 1963. The show was resurrected by the BBC's rival channel, ITV
, in 1977, but did not meet with the same success as the original . She later played Yetta Feldman, the Jewish ghost, in the BBC sitcom, So Haunt Me
.
Karlin appeared on stage for the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon
, the Aldwych Theatre, and The Barbican Centre. She appeared in a national tour of 84 Charing Cross Road
. In 1990 she became the first woman to play the title role in The Caretaker
by Harold Pinter
in a production at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff. She appeared in the 1989 television film The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
.
In 2008 she appeared, aged 83, in the stage play Many Roads to Paradise by Stewart Permutt at the Finborough Theatre
, London.
and a patron of the Burma Campaign UK
, the London-based group campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma.
A self-proclaimed atheist
, she was a lifelong campaigner for Jewish and left-wing
causes and an anti-fascist
activist. A member of the Anti-Nazi League
she was prominent in protests against Holocaust denier
David Irving
and campaigned to expose the Nazi sympathies of Austrian politician Jörg Haider
. She had been an active member of the actors' union, Equity, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
in 1975 for her union and welfare work. She had been a patron of Dignity in Dying
, a body that campaigns for a change to the laws on assisted dying. Karlin was also a trustee for the Eddie Surman Trust, an HIV charity.
television mystery, By the Pricking of My Thumbs, Karlin was told that she had cancer and that part of her tongue would have to be removed. Unfortunately, her lengthy bout with cancer was unsuccessful and she died on 3 June 2011.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(23 June 1925 3 June 2011) was a British actress who worked on screen for over 60 years. She was best known for her role as Paddy in The Rag Trade
The Rag Trade
The Rag Trade was a British television sitcom broadcast by the BBC between 1961 and 1963 and by LWT between 1977 and 1978.The scripts were by Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney, who later wrote Wild, Wild Women, a period variation of The Rag Trade....
, a 1960s BBC and 1970s LWT sitcom , especially for her catchphrase "Everybody out!". Her trademark throughout her career was her deep, husky voice and London accent.
Early life
Born Miriam Samuels in HampsteadHampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
, North London, she was brought up in an Orthodox Jew
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
ish family; members of her extended family were among those who later died at Auschwitz. She was the daughter of Céline (née Aronowitz) and Harry Samuels, a Jewish barrister, who specialised in industrial and trade union law. Her brother was Michael Samuels
Michael Samuels (academic)
Michael Louis Samuels was a British historical linguist, responsible for the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary.-Life:...
, a historical linguist, responsible for the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary. When she was doing one of her first radio shows, Terry-Thomas
Terry-Thomas
Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as...
's Top of the Town, she based some of the zany characters she invented and played on people who had appeared before the rent tribunal chaired by her father.
Career
After training at RADARada
Rada is the term for "council" or "assembly"borrowed by Polish from the Low Franconian "Rad" and later passed into the Czech, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages....
, Karlin made her stage debut for ENSA
ENSA
ENSA may refer to:* ENSA, the Entertainments National Service Association* ENSA * École Nationale des Sciences Appliquées d'Oujda, an engineering school in Morocco* EC-Council Network Security Administrator...
– the Forces Entertainment organisation – in wartime shows and subsequently appeared in repertory theatre and cabaret. She appeared in productions of The Diary of Anne Frank
The Diary of Anne Frank (play)
The Diary of Anne Frank is a stage adaptation of the book The Diary of a Young Girl. The play is a dramatization by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. It opened at the Cort Theatre, Broadway, on October 5, 1955, in a production by Kermit Bloomgarden, directed by Garson Kanin and designed by Boris...
, The Bad Seed
The Bad Seed (play)
The Bad Seed was a successful and long-running Broadway play by Maxwell Anderson adapted from the novel of that name by William March, and was in turn adapted by John Lee Mahin into an Academy Award-nominated film of the same name directed by Mervyn Leroy. Staged by Reginald Denham, it opened...
, The Egg, Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem...
and Bus Stop
Bus Stop (play)
Bus Stop is a 1955 play by William Inge. The 1956 film is only loosely based upon it.-Characters:Bus Stop is a drama, with romantic and some comedic elements. It is set in a diner in rural Kansas, about 20 miles west of Kansas City, Missouri during a snowstorm from which bus passengers must take...
, among others.
She made her film debut in 1952's Down Among the Z Men
Down Among the Z Men
Down Among the Z Men is a B/W 1952 British comedy film starring The Goons; Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Michael Bentine and Harry Secombe.-Plot:...
, as well as featuring in Room at the Top
Room at the Top
Room at the Top is a 1959 British film based on the novel of the same name by John Braine. The novel was adapted by Neil Paterson with uncredited work by Mordecai Richler. It was directed by Jack Clayton and produced by James Woolf and John Woolf....
, Heavens Above!
Heavens Above!
Heavens Above! is a 1963 British satirical comedy film starring Peter Sellers, directed by John and Roy Boulting, who also co-wrote along with Frank Harvey, from an idea by Malcolm Muggeridge...
, Ladies Who Do
Ladies Who Do
Ladies Who Do 1963 British comedy film starring Peggy Mount, Robert Morley and Harry H. Corbett.-Cast:*Peggy Mount as Mrs. Cragg*Robert Morley as Colonel Whitforth*Harry H. Corbett as James Ryder*Miriam Karlin as Mrs. Higgins...
and Mahler
Mahler (film)
Mahler is a 1974 biographical film based on the life of composer Gustav Mahler. It was written and directed by Ken Russell for Goodtimes Enterprises, and starred Robert Powell as Gustav Mahler and Georgina Hale as Alma Mahler...
by 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...
.
In 1960, she appeared opposite Sir Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
in the film of John Osborne
John Osborne
John James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre....
's play The Entertainer
The Entertainer (film)
The Entertainer is a 1960 film adaptation of the stage play of the same name by John Osborne, which told the story of a failing third-rate music hall stage performer who tried to keep his career going even as his personal life fell apart....
. Karlin also had parts in A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange (film)
A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 film adaptation of Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name. It was written, directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick...
and The Millionairess
The Millionairess
The Millionairess is a 1960 British romantic comedy film set in London, directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers...
. She appeared in the stage version of Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem...
at Her Majesty's Theatre, starring the Israeli actor Topol
Chaim Topol
Chaim Topol , often billed simply as Topol, is an Israeli theatrical and film performer, actor, writer and producer. He has been nominated for an Oscar and Tony Award, and has won two Golden Globes.-Early life:...
. In 1972 Karlin took the title role in Mother Courage and her Children
Mother Courage and Her Children
Mother Courage and Her Children is a play written in 1939 by the German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht with significant contributions from Margarete Steffin...
at the Palace Theatre Watford in a production notable for the force of her performance, and its faithfulness to the Brechtian Verfremdungseffekt.
On television, Karlin became known for playing the belligerent shop steward Paddy in the The Rag Trade
The Rag Trade
The Rag Trade was a British television sitcom broadcast by the BBC between 1961 and 1963 and by LWT between 1977 and 1978.The scripts were by Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney, who later wrote Wild, Wild Women, a period variation of The Rag Trade....
, a British sitcom set in a textile factory. Paddy would use the slightest opportunity to cause a strike; her trademark was blowing a whistle and shouting "Everybody out!" She played the role, to great success, between 1961 and 1963. The show was resurrected by the BBC's rival channel, ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, in 1977, but did not meet with the same success as the original . She later played Yetta Feldman, the Jewish ghost, in the BBC sitcom, So Haunt Me
So Haunt Me
So Haunt Me is a British television sitcom about a family that moves into a home occupied by the ghost of its previous resident, a middle-aged Jewish mother. The show was produced by Cinema Verity for the BBC and originally aired from 1992 to 1994....
.
Karlin appeared on stage for the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...
, the Aldwych Theatre, and The Barbican Centre. She appeared in a national tour of 84 Charing Cross Road
84 Charing Cross Road
84, Charing Cross Road is a 1970 book by Helene Hanff, later made into a stage play, television play and film, about the twenty-year correspondence between her and Frank Doel, chief buyer of Marks & Co, antiquarian booksellers located at the eponymous address in London, England.Hanff, in search of...
. In 1990 she became the first woman to play the title role in The Caretaker
The Caretaker
The Caretaker is a play by Harold Pinter. It was first published by both Encore Publishing and Eyre Methuen in 1960. The sixth play that Pinter wrote for stage or television production, it was his first significant commercial success...
by Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
in a production at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff. She appeared in the 1989 television film The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the original title of a novella written by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson that was first published in 1886. The original pronunciation of Jekyll was "Jeekul" which was the pronunciation used in Stevenson's native Scotland...
.
In 2008 she appeared, aged 83, in the stage play Many Roads to Paradise by Stewart Permutt at the Finborough Theatre
Finborough Theatre
The Finborough Theatre is a fifty seat theatre in the Earls Court area of London, United Kingdom , which presents new British writing, UK and premieres of new plays, primarily from the English speaking world including North America, Canada, Scotland and Ireland, music theatre, and rarely seen...
, London.
Personal life
Karlin, who never married, lived in South London. She was a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist AssociationBritish Humanist Association
The British Humanist Association is an organisation of the United Kingdom which promotes Humanism and represents "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs." The BHA is committed to secularism, human rights, democracy, egalitarianism and mutual respect...
and a patron of the Burma Campaign UK
Burma Campaign UK
Burma Campaign UK founded in 1991 is a London based Non Governmental Organisation that aims to achieve the 'restoration of human rights and democracy in Burma . BCUK campaigns on behalf of the Burmese pro-democracy movement and is the largest campaigning organisation for Burma in Europe...
, the London-based group campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma.
A self-proclaimed atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, she was a lifelong campaigner for Jewish and left-wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
causes and an anti-fascist
Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...
activist. A member of the Anti-Nazi League
Anti-Nazi League
The Anti-Nazi League was an organisation set up in 1977 on the initiative of the Socialist Workers Party with sponsorship from some trade unions and the endorsement of a list of prominent people to oppose the rise of far-right groups in the United Kingdom. It was wound down in 1981...
she was prominent in protests against Holocaust denier
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
David Irving
David Irving
David John Cawdell Irving is an English writer,best known for his denial of the Holocaust, who specialises in the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany...
and campaigned to expose the Nazi sympathies of Austrian politician Jörg Haider
Jörg Haider
Jörg Haider was an Austrian politician. He was Governor of Carinthia on two occasions, the long-time leader of the Austrian Freedom Party and later Chairman of the Alliance for the Future of Austria , a breakaway party from the FPÖ.Haider was controversial within Austria and abroad for comments...
. She had been an active member of the actors' union, Equity, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1975 for her union and welfare work. She had been a patron of Dignity in Dying
Dignity in Dying
Dignity in Dying is a United Kingdom nationwide campaigning organisation. It is funded by voluntary contributions from members of the public, and as of December 2010, it claimed to have 25,000 actively subscribing supporters...
, a body that campaigns for a change to the laws on assisted dying. Karlin was also a trustee for the Eddie Surman Trust, an HIV charity.
Death
In 2006, while filming an Agatha ChristieAgatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
television mystery, By the Pricking of My Thumbs, Karlin was told that she had cancer and that part of her tongue would have to be removed. Unfortunately, her lengthy bout with cancer was unsuccessful and she died on 3 June 2011.