Mary Elizabeth Miller (née Spinks; 27 December 1929 – 11 July 2020) was an English television and stage actress, who was a founding member of the National Theatre Company in 1963.

Mary Miller
Publicity Photo of Mary Miller
Born
Mary Elizabeth Spinks

(1929-12-27)27 December 1929
Died11 July 2020(2020-07-11) (aged 90)
Northwood, London, England
OccupationActress
Years active1959–2005
Spouse
(m. 1965; div. 1969)

Career

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Early years

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Mary Miller first appeared on television in 1959 as Alice Chandler in episode one of the 6-part series The Golden Spur, with Ronald Fraser and Oliver Reed.[1] In the same year, she took the role of Ann Elsden in "The Talking Doll", the first instalment of the UK TV police drama, No Hiding Place.[2]

In 1961, the playwright and novelist Peter Wildeblood was commissioned by Granada Television to produce an 11-part series featuring "up-and-coming acting talent, in plays by young authors, each actor or actress taking the lead role in turn". It was called The Younger Generation, and Miller appeared in eight of the plays. In 1963, Miller became one of the 77 performers to be founding members[3] of the National Theatre Company in its inaugural season under artistic director Sir Laurence Olivier.[4]

The Protectors was a British television series, made by ABC (and not to be confused with the later British series from the 1970s, which began a run of 14 episodes in March 1964. It starred Andrew Faulds and Michael Atkinson as an ex-insurance investigator and ex-policeman who start up their own security firm to tackle crime.[citation needed] Miller appeared in May during the eighth instalment called "Freedom!", as Tamara.

When the BBC made a series, The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling, set in the days of the British Raj and based partly on his book which had originally been "[a] set of Indian tales that first appeared in Macmillan's Magazine",[5] Miller portrayed Mrs. Denville in episode 23, "A Second-Rate Woman", in 1964. She then played a comedy role in the BBC's The Dick Emery Show on 4 December 1964.[6]

In 1965, she played Diana Gibbs in "Other People's Lives", an instalment of the popular BBC Television police drama Dixon of Dock Green, which starred Jack Warner as Sergeant George Dixon. Later that year, she appeared in the BBC serial drama called Mogul (subsequently renamed The Troubleshooters), set in the oil industry.[7] She played Lizzie, in a storyline called "Tosh and Nora".

That same year, 1965, she made her first appearance with Casey Hodgkiss, her best friend, and they starred together in the performance of The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail. Also in 1965, she appeared in Dr. Finlay's Casebook, alongside her soon-to-be husband Bill Simpson. She played Molly Spalding in "Beware of the Dog", episode 20 in season 3 of the BBC series about a doctors' surgery in Scotland.

The later 1960s

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After four appearances in 1966 (in the anthology-style programmes Mystery and Imagination[8] and The Wednesday Play,[9] in Thirteen Against Fate, and for a second time in No Hiding Place.[10] she was given the role of Maggie Hobson in a 3 part BBC production of Hobson's Choice, the play by Harold Brighouse set in Salford in the late 19th century".[11]

Turning her hand once more to comedy, she appeared with Marty Feldman in his madcap series Marty (1968–69). She also made appearances in "The Photographer", part of Kenneth Jupp's Chelsea Trilogy;[12] The Mock Doctor, a Rediffusion production based on a comedy by Molière;[13] and another Wednesday Play, called "Mrs. Lawrence Will Look After It", as Freda Wills. 1968 also saw her second appearance in Dr. Finlay's Casebook, this time playing Sister Brown in the episode "A Moral Problem".

In 1969, she played Anna in Barrister at Law, a legal drama play from the BBC. She would make two more series with Feldman – Marty Amok in 1970,[14] and Marty Abroad in 1971.[15]

In 1969 she co-starred with Patrick Macnee in the William Douglas-Home comedy, The Secretary Bird, at the Palace Theatre, Castlereagh Street, Sydney. It was presented by Harry M Miller Attractions. Other cast members were Jan Kingsbury, Fredric Abbott, and Betty Dyson. It was directed by Philip Dudley.

In the next few years she appeared in such productions as Tales of Piccadilly, ITV Playhouse, Sykes, Space: 1999, and Old Times, the Harold Pinter play.[16]

Crown Court

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She was chosen to portray the strong female personality that was Angela Dunwoody QC, in Crown Court, the courtroom drama series made by various ITV network television companies between 1972 and 1984. Miller took up the role in 1976, and played the barrister until 1977, in four storylines over ten episodes beginning with "Accepted Standards" in 1976, which featured a cast including Ben Kingsley, Patricia Routledge and Liz Smith, and involved a GP who is accused of libel against a PVC factory over their claims regarding safe practice.[17] In "Those in Peril", a trawler boat captain is accused of negligence when a deckhand is swept overboard and killed.[18] Two men are charged with conspiring to smuggle arms to Lebanon in "Death for Sale", the last of her 1976 Crown Court appearances.[19] Her final appearance in the series, called "A Matter of Faith" and broadcast in February 1977, told the story of a man, charged with libel against a spiritual healer, whose wife had committed suicide after a session with the healer failed to cure her paralysis.[20]

The late 1970s

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Miller did not restrict herself to just the medium of television. She continued to perform in the theatre, appearing as Beth (with Alan Bates and Nigel Hawthorne) in Simon Gray's Otherwise Engaged at the Queen's Theatre in London on 30 July 1975 under the direction of Harold Pinter, and repeated this performance in New York City in 1977.[21]

Also in 1977, Miller appeared as Denise Collins in the BBC television mini-series, Fathers and Families,[22] and then played Fay Passmore in eleven instalments of the Thames Television production Rooms, a long-running series charting the lives of tenants in a block of bed-sits.[23] And in 1978, appearing in an episode of Scottish Television's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (the title role being played by Geraldine McEwan), she took the part of Irene Cibelli.[24]

All Quiet on the Western Front (1979) is a TV film about the First World War from the perspective of the German troops.[25] Filmed in Czechoslovakia, it starred Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine, and was adapted from the novel Im Westen nichts Neues by Erich Maria Remarque. Miller played Frau Kemmerich.

According to Jacqueline Pearce, the actress who played Servalan in the BBC sci-fi TV series Blake's 7 (1978–81), Miller turned down the role when offered it, and Pearce was cast.[26]

The 1980s

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Miller returned to London's Covent Garden in April 1981 to fulfil one half of a Royal Ballet production portraying the legendary artistic dancer Isadora Duncan in Kenneth MacMillan's ballet Isadora. She provided the voice of the subject, reading from Duncan's memoirs,[27] along with Merle Park who danced the moves.[28] She transferred to the United States with the production in July of that year, when Sandra Conley shared the dance interpretation with Park.[29]

Miller continued with her stage career, appearing in such productions as the 1983 run of the play Pack of Lies at the Lyric Theatre in London in October 1983, alongside Frank Windsor.[30]

She was part of a strong cast list assembled by Anglia Television in 1985 for the making of the fantasy puppet/live action feature Alice in Wonderland, based on the famous novel by Lewis Carroll. She provided the voices for the Mouse, Duck, Parrot, Longbeaked Bird, Pigeon, Cook and Baby.

In the 1987 Screen Two production "After Pilkington", the Prix Italia winner written by Simon Gray and starring Miranda Richardson, Miller played Deirdre Pilkington, the wife of a missing archaeologist.[31] After appearing in two episodes of Fay Weldon's The Heart of the Country for BBC Pebble Mill in the same year,[32] she became a regular member of the cast of the Anglia Television fantasy role-playing game format called Knightmare, usually playing the parts of Lilith or Mildread, in a total of 27 shows and finishing in 1988 (although the programme itself continued until 1994).

Later years

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In 1990, Miller appeared for two episodes in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders, as Frank Butcher's older sister, Joan Garwood, who turns up in Walford at Frank's request when their mother Mo develops Alzheimer's disease, and it is then decided that Mo should go and live with Joan and her husband in Colchester, Essex. The character would re-appear in the programme for one more episode in 1995, still being played by Miller.

Before that return, she went on to take parts in The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries (1993),[33] Casualty (1993),[34] and Cadfael (1995).[35] Then, in 1997, she appeared in two instalments of the Yorkshire Television drama series Trial & Retribution, playing Mrs. Gillingham.[36]

Her last recorded work was in the 2005 "updating" of Trial & Retribution by Lynda La Plante, in which Miller played a different character, Felicity Harper, in added on episodes.

Personal life

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Miller married the Scottish actor Bill Simpson (Dr. Finlay's Casebook) on 24 July 1965 at Callander near Menteith, Scotland. The couple had no children, and divorced in March 1969.[3] Miller spent the last eleven years of her life as a resident of Denville Hall, the actors’ retirement and nursing home in Northwood, Hillingdon, where she died on 11 July 2020, at the age of 90.[37]

Filmography

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Television

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Year Title Role Notes
1959 The Golden Spur Alice Chandler 2 episodes
1961 The Younger Generation Various 8 episodes
1962 ITV Play of the Week Ruth Hanwell Episode: "The Casualties"
1962 Harpers West One Carol Gaskell Episode: #2.8
1963 Armchair Theatre Joan Culver Episode: "The Hot Potato Boys"
1963 24-Hour Call Claire Hammond Episode: "The Trunker"
1964 The Protectors Tamara Petrovna Episode: "Freedom!"
1964 The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling Mrs. Denville Episode: "A Second-Rate Woman"
1965 Dixon of Dock Green Diana Gibbs Episode: "Other People's Lives"
1965 Front Page Story Jessie Langdon Episode: "Official Opening"
1965 The Troubleshooters Lizzie Episode: "Tosh and Nora"
1966 Theatre 625 Beatie Bryant Episode: "The Wesker Trilogy, Part 2: Roots"
1966 Mystery and Imagination Lucy Episode: "The Fall of the House of Usher"
1959–1966 No Hiding Place Ann Elsden

Anne Harrington

2 episodes
1966 Thirteen Against Fate Alice Episode: "The Suspect"
1967 Jackanory Storyteller 5 episodes
1967 Hobson's Choice Maggie Hobson 3 episodes
1967 Thirty-Minute Theatre Lady Torrance Episode: "Come Death"
1965–1968 Dr. Finlay's Casebook Molly Spalding

Sister Brown

2 episodes
1968 The Mock Doctor Martine 2 episodes
1966–1968 The Wednesday Play Freda Wills

Vera

2 episodes
1968–1969 Marty Various 8 episodes
1969 Barrister at Law Anna Television film
1970 Marty Amok Various Television film
1971 Marty Abroad Television film
1971 ITV Sunday Night Theatre Jean Episode: "A Windmill in the Windows"
1972 The Befrienders Anne Griffith Episode: "Odds Against"
1972 Sykes Miss Jones Episode: "Stranger"
1968–1972 ITV Playhouse Various 4 episodes
1973 The Gordon Peters Show Regular Episode: "The Prize"
1973 Away from It All Lou Episode: "The Quiet Half Hour"
1973 Late Night Theatre Hannah Episode: "The Old Days"
1973 Thinking Man As Hero Jenny Duncan Television film
1974 Sister's Day Jean Slater Television film
1974 Sing the Lady Out of Bed Television film
1975 Nightingale's Boys Sheila Taylor Episode: "Big Sid"
1975 Space: 1999 Freda Episode: "Death's Other Dominion"
1975 Shades of Greene Trevor's Mother Episode: "The Destructors"
1975 Old Times Anna Television film
1976 Couples Mrs. Partridge 3 episodes
1976–1977 Crown Court Angela Dunwoody QC 10 episodes
1977 Fathers and Families Denise Collins Episode: "Family Party"
1977 Rooms Fay Passmsore 12 episodes
1978 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Irene Cibelli Episode: "Giulia"
1979 All Quiet on the Western Front Mrs. Kemmerich Television film
1984 Missing from Home Mrs. Annan Episode: #1.3
1985 Alice in Wonderland Various 4 episodes
1987 Screen Two Deirdre Pilkington Episode: "After Pilkington"
1987 Heart of the Country Sally Rains 3 episodes
1987–1988 Knightmare Lillith

Mildread

25 episodes
1990 Making Out Events Organiser Episode: #2.8
1990 EastEnders Joan Garwood 4 episodes
1993 The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries Mrs. Freeman Episode: "Death at the Bar"
1993 Casualty Hilary Kingston 3 episodes
1994 Cadfael Richildis Episode: "Monk's Hood"
1997–2005 Trial & Retribution Felicity Harper

Mrs. Gillingham

3 episodes

References

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  1. ^ "The Golden Spur Part 1". BFI.org.uk. Archived from the original on 26 January 2009. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
  2. ^ "No Hiding Place: "The Talking Doll"". BFI.org.uk. Archived from the original on 19 January 2009. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
  3. ^ a b "Mary Elizabeth Miller". thePeerage.com. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
  4. ^ List of founder members of National Theatre Company, 1963–64: NationalTheatre.org.uk website. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
  5. ^ Origins of Kipling's Indian Tales Archived 10 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine: eBookMall.com website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  6. ^ The Dick Emery Show (1964 TV comedy series), comedic role: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  7. ^ The Troubleshooters (1965 TV series), synopsis: Screenonline.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  8. ^ Mystery and Imagination (1966 TV series), episode "The Fall of the House of Usher", as Lucy: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  9. ^ The Wednesday Play (1966 TV series), episode "A Hero of Our Time": BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  10. ^ No Hiding Place (1966 TV series), episode "Ask Me If I Killed Her", as Ann Harrington: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  11. ^ Hobson's Choice (1967 TV series), 3 episodes, as Maggie Hobson: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  12. ^ BFI | Film & TV Database | The PHOTOGRAPHER (1968) Chelsea Trilogy (1968 3-part TV play)], episode "The Photographer", as Anne: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  13. ^ "BFI | Film & TV Database | The MOCK DOCTOR: PART 1 [1968/03/13] (1968)". 15 January 2009. Archived from the original on 15 January 2009.
  14. ^ Marty Amok (TV comedy series), 1970: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  15. ^ Marty Abroad (TV comedy series), 1971: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  16. ^ "BFI | Film & TV Database | MILLER, Mary". 3 February 2009. Archived from the original on 3 February 2009.
  17. ^ Crown Court (1976 TV series), episode "Accepted Standards", as Angela Dunwoody QC: BFI.org.uk website; retrieved 12 March 2008.
  18. ^ Crown Court (1976 TV series), episode "Those in Peril", as Angela Dunwoody QC: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  19. ^ Crown Court (1976 TV series), episode "Death for Sale", as Angela Dunwoody QC: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  20. ^ Crown Court (1977 TV series), episode "A Matter of Faith", as Angela Dunwoody QC: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  21. ^ Otherwise Engaged (1975 stage play), by Simon Gray, as Beth: HaroldPinter.org website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  22. ^ Fathers and Families (1977 TV mini-series), episode "Family Party", as Denise Collins: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  23. ^ Rooms (1977 TV series), 11 episodes, as Fay Passmore: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  24. ^ The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1978 TV series), episode "Giulia", as Irene Cibelli: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  25. ^ All Quiet on the Western Front (1979 TV film), synopsis: Channel 4 website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  26. ^ "alternativeservalan.com – This website is for sale! – alternativeservalan Resources and Information". www.alternativeservalan.com. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  27. ^ Covent Garden: The Untold Story – Dispatches from the English, p 345, Norman Lebrecht, published by UPNE, 2001; ISBN 1-55553-488-0 Google Book Search version
  28. ^ Providing the voice for Isadora (1981 ballet): Barry Kay Archive website. Retrieved 6 April 2008.
  29. ^ Performing in the USA, with Isadora: from a review by the Time Magazine website. Retrieved 6 April 2008.
  30. ^ "1983 - Theater, Film: The People's Chronology". Archived from the original on 27 May 2011. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  31. ^ Screen Two (1987 TV series), "After Pilkington", as Deirdre Pilkington: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  32. ^ The Heart of the Country (1987 TV series), two episodes as supporting actress: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  33. ^ The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries (1993 TV series), episode "Death at the Bar", as Mrs. Freeman: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  34. ^ Casualty (1993 TV series), episode "Kill or Cure", as Hilary Kingston: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  35. ^ Cadfael (1995 TV series), episode "Monk's Hood", as Richildis: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  36. ^ Trial & Retribution (1997 TV drama series), two episodes, as Mrs. Gillingham: BFI.org.uk website. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
  37. ^ Baines, Christopher (24 July 2020). "Mary Miller obituary" – via www.theguardian.com.
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