Virginia Maskell
Encyclopedia
Virginia Elizabeth Maskell (27 February 1936 in Shepherd's Bush
– 25 January 1968 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital
), was an English
actress.
, Maskell's family were evacuated to South Africa
. After the war she returned to London
and entered a convent
school where she developed an interest in acting.
After attending drama school, she starred in TV parts mainly playing demure young lasses in action series such as The Buccaneers
and The Adventures of Robin Hood
.
She made a minor film debut for director Roy Boulting with Happy is the Bride
(1957), and then began hopscotching between the theatre and the screen in 1958, her next major film was Director Pat Jackson
's comedy Virgin Island (1958). She resultantly won a British Lion
contract and went on to appear in The Man Upstairs
(1958) with Richard Attenborough
, and as an air-hostess in Jet Storm
(1959).
She also made an impact on the stage - in "The Catalyst" - and in live TV drama. She later starred in Doctor in Love
(1960), and as Peter Sellers
's wife in Only Two Can Play
(1962); Sellers was unconvinced she could manage a credible Welsh
accent and asked for her dismissal, though it was suspected that his ulterior motive was to replace Maskell with Welsh born actress Siân Phillips
.
She took a break from acting from 1962 to concentrate on her family, other than occasional TV appearances in such popular series as Danger Man
and The Prisoner
, but returned after the birth of her second son to shoot Interlude
in the summer of 1967. Interlude was released posthumously after her death from a drug overdose
, and she won a posthumous National Board of Review award and a BAFTA nomination for her work in the film.
Maskell was also a poet and an artist.
on 3 July 1962. The couple had two sons, the first, Nicholas, born in December 1963.
After the birth of her second son in February 1966, Maskell showed signs of post-natal depression. Following the shooting of Interlude in the summer of 1967, she suffered a severe nervous breakdown
and was hospitalised at Stoke Mandeville Hospital
for six weeks. She was released three weeks before Christmas 1967 for the holiday period.
On 24 January 1968, she took an overdose of antidepressants and barbiturates which she had obtained from her doctor the previous day, and drove from her home at Princes Risborough
. She was found by police collapsed in a nearby wooded area on the Chiltern Hills
the next day suffering from acute hypothermia
from the severely cold night. Although revived briefly, she died shortly after at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
Her funeral was held on Thursday 1 February 1968. The coroner Dr Pim excluded a note which "consisted of a hasty message of love and despair" written on a scrap of paper torn from a sheet, and the writing was such that he believed she was under the influence of the tablets when she wrote it. Dr Pim concluded "I cannot concede it was her intention she should be found alive", and recorded a verdict that she took her own life.
Shepherd's Bush
-Commerce:Commercial activity in Shepherd's Bush is now focused on the Westfield shopping centre next to Shepherd's Bush Central line station and on the many small shops which run along the northern side of the Green....
– 25 January 1968 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital
Stoke Mandeville Hospital
Stoke Mandeville Hospital is a large National Health Service hospital within Aylesbury Urban Area to the south of the town of Aylesbury, near the village of Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire...
), was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actress.
Biography
After the outbreak of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Maskell's family were evacuated to South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. After the war she returned to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and entered a convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
school where she developed an interest in acting.
After attending drama school, she starred in TV parts mainly playing demure young lasses in action series such as The Buccaneers
The Buccaneers (TV series)
The Buccaneers was a 1956 Sapphire Films television drama series for ITC Entertainment, networked by CBS in the US and shown on ATV and selected ITV companies in the UK....
and The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series)
The Adventures of Robin Hood is a popular British television series comprising 143 half-hour, black and white episodes. It starred Richard Greene as the outlaw Robin Hood and Alan Wheatley as his nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The show aired weekly between 1955 and 1959 on ITV in London in the...
.
She made a minor film debut for director Roy Boulting with Happy is the Bride
Happy is the Bride
Happy is the Bride is a 1958 British comedy film written and directed by Roy Boulting and starring Ian Carmichael, Janette Scott, Cecil Parker, Terry-Thomas and Joyce Grenfell...
(1957), and then began hopscotching between the theatre and the screen in 1958, her next major film was Director Pat Jackson
Pat Jackson
Patrick Douglas Selmes Jackson was an English film and television director.Born in Eltham, Jackson worked as a production assistant on the 1936 short film Night Mail. He directed a number of documentaries in the mid-1930's. His debut feature film was 1944's Western Approaches. Jackson spent some...
's comedy Virgin Island (1958). She resultantly won a British Lion
British Lion Films
British Lion Films Corporation is a film production and distribution company active under several forms since 1919. Until 1976 they were also film distributors as British Lion Films Ltd, with a distributor filmography of 232 films. As a production company they are still active and have produced...
contract and went on to appear in The Man Upstairs
The Man Upstairs (film)
The Man Upstairs is a 1958 film directed by Don Chaffey. It stars Richard Attenborough and Bernard Lee.-Cast:* Richard Attenborough as Peter Watson* Bernard Lee as Inspector Thompson* Donald Houston as Dr. Sanderson* Dorothy Alison as Mrs. Barnes...
(1958) with Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
, and as an air-hostess in Jet Storm
Jet Storm
Jet Storm is a 1959 British thriller film, where Richard Attenborough plays Ernest Tilley, a man who lost his daughter in a hit-and-run accident. He tracks down the man responsible for the accident and boards the same plane, threatening to blow up himself and everyone on board as an act of...
(1959).
She also made an impact on the stage - in "The Catalyst" - and in live TV drama. She later starred in Doctor in Love
Doctor in Love
Doctor in Love is a 1960 British comedy film — part of the Doctor in the House series, starring James Robertson Justice as Sir Lancelot Spratt and Michael Craig as Dr Richard Hare...
(1960), and as Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
's wife in Only Two Can Play
Only Two Can Play
Only Two Can Play is a 1962 comedy film based on the novel That Uncertain Feeling by Kingsley Amis. Sidney Gilliat directed the film from a screenplay by Bryan Forbes....
(1962); Sellers was unconvinced she could manage a credible Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
accent and asked for her dismissal, though it was suspected that his ulterior motive was to replace Maskell with Welsh born actress Siân Phillips
Siân Phillips
Jane Elizabeth Ailwên "Siân" Phillips, CBE, is a Welsh actress.-Early life:Phillips was born in Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Neath Port Talbot, Wales, the daughter of Sally , a teacher, and David Phillips, a steelworker-turned-policeman...
.
She took a break from acting from 1962 to concentrate on her family, other than occasional TV appearances in such popular series as Danger Man
Danger Man
Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the program and wrote many of the scripts...
and The Prisoner
The Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
, but returned after the birth of her second son to shoot Interlude
Interlude (1968 film)
Interlude is a 1968 British drama film directed by Kevin Billington.-Plot summary:A famous conductor gives an interview to a pretty young reporter. He speaks a bit too frankly and finds he's given himself an unwanted sabbatical from conducting...
in the summer of 1967. Interlude was released posthumously after her death from a drug overdose
Drug overdose
The term drug overdose describes the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities greater than are recommended or generally practiced...
, and she won a posthumous National Board of Review award and a BAFTA nomination for her work in the film.
Maskell was also a poet and an artist.
Personal life
Maskell married Sir Geoffrey Adam Shakerley, 6th BaronetGeoffrey Adam Shakerley, 6th Baronet Shakerley
Sir Geoffrey Adam Shakerley, 6th Baronet Shakerley is an English photographer.He is the son of Sir Cyril Holland Shakerley, 5th Baronet and Elizabeth Averil Eardley-Wilmot....
on 3 July 1962. The couple had two sons, the first, Nicholas, born in December 1963.
After the birth of her second son in February 1966, Maskell showed signs of post-natal depression. Following the shooting of Interlude in the summer of 1967, she suffered a severe nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
and was hospitalised at Stoke Mandeville Hospital
Stoke Mandeville Hospital
Stoke Mandeville Hospital is a large National Health Service hospital within Aylesbury Urban Area to the south of the town of Aylesbury, near the village of Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire...
for six weeks. She was released three weeks before Christmas 1967 for the holiday period.
On 24 January 1968, she took an overdose of antidepressants and barbiturates which she had obtained from her doctor the previous day, and drove from her home at Princes Risborough
Princes Risborough
Princes Risborough is a small town in Buckinghamshire, England, about 9 miles south of Aylesbury and 8 miles north west of High Wycombe. Bledlow lies to the west and Monks Risborough to the east. It lies at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, at the north end of a gap or pass through the Chilterns,...
. She was found by police collapsed in a nearby wooded area on the Chiltern Hills
Chiltern Hills
The Chiltern Hills form a chalk escarpment in South East England. They are known locally as "the Chilterns". A large portion of the hills was designated officially as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1965.-Location:...
the next day suffering from acute hypothermia
Hypothermia
Hypothermia is a condition in which core temperature drops below the required temperature for normal metabolism and body functions which is defined as . Body temperature is usually maintained near a constant level of through biologic homeostasis or thermoregulation...
from the severely cold night. Although revived briefly, she died shortly after at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
Her funeral was held on Thursday 1 February 1968. The coroner Dr Pim excluded a note which "consisted of a hasty message of love and despair" written on a scrap of paper torn from a sheet, and the writing was such that he believed she was under the influence of the tablets when she wrote it. Dr Pim concluded "I cannot concede it was her intention she should be found alive", and recorded a verdict that she took her own life.
Quotations
- ""I love acting, but I also want to be alive. Publicity is like a prison. If you're not careful, you begin to live according to everyone's idea of how you ought to live. Ambition? To be a big, big star...on the stage."
Filmography
- Carve Her Name with PrideCarve Her Name with PrideCarve Her Name with Pride is a 1958 British drama film based on the book of the same name by R.J. Minney. Set during World War II, the film is based on the true story of the heroism of Special Operations Executive agent Violette Szabo, with Virginia McKenna in the lead role.The film includes the...
(1958) - Happy Is the BrideHappy is the BrideHappy is the Bride is a 1958 British comedy film written and directed by Roy Boulting and starring Ian Carmichael, Janette Scott, Cecil Parker, Terry-Thomas and Joyce Grenfell...
(1958) - The Man UpstairsThe Man UpstairsThe Man Upstairs is a collection of short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 23 January 1914 by Methuen & Co., London. Most of the stories had previously appeared in magazines, generally Strand Magazine in the UK and Cosmopolitan or Collier's Weekly in the United...
(1958) - Virgin IslandVirgin Island (film)Virgin Island is a 1959 British drama film directed by Pat Jackson and starring John Cassavetes, Virginia Maskell and Sidney Poitier. It is an adaptation of the novel Our Virgin Island by Robb White...
(1959) - Jet StormJet StormJet Storm is a 1959 British thriller film, where Richard Attenborough plays Ernest Tilley, a man who lost his daughter in a hit-and-run accident. He tracks down the man responsible for the accident and boards the same plane, threatening to blow up himself and everyone on board as an act of...
(1959) - Doctor in LoveDoctor in LoveDoctor in Love is a 1960 British comedy film — part of the Doctor in the House series, starring James Robertson Justice as Sir Lancelot Spratt and Michael Craig as Dr Richard Hare...
(1960) - SuspectSuspect (1960 film)Suspect is a 1960 British thriller film directed by Roy Boulting and John Boulting. It starred Tony Britton, Virginia Maskell, Ian Bannen, Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasence...
(1960) - Only Two Can PlayOnly Two Can PlayOnly Two Can Play is a 1962 comedy film based on the novel That Uncertain Feeling by Kingsley Amis. Sidney Gilliat directed the film from a screenplay by Bryan Forbes....
(1962) - The Wild and the WillingThe Wild and the WillingThe Wild and the Willing is a 1962 British romantic drama film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Virginia Maskell, Paul Rogers, Ian McShane, Samantha Eggar and John Hurt. It marked the film debut of McShane, who later became famous for his television roles in Lovejoy and Deadwood...
(1962) - Interlude (1968)