ELIZABETH SPRIGGSElizabeth Spriggs, a versatile actor on stage and screen, died on 2 July, 2008, aged 78.
An Associate Artiste with the Royal Shakespeare Company, her career on the stage was as illustrious as her long and successful work on television.
Her best known television roles were in Shine on Harvey Moon (1982-85), Simon and the Witch (1987) and two episodes of Midsummer Murders (1999, 2005). She also appeared in Doctor Who and several BBC period dramas.
Born in Buxton, Derbyshire on 18 September, 1929, she was educated at the Royal School of Music. She began her career on the stage at the Bristol Old Vic and the Birmingham Repertory, this led on to her joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1958 and appearing in many stage productions including Cleopatra and The Cherry Orchard. In 1962 she joined the National Theatre Company.
She hadn't always found acting to be a comfortable experience: "You have to be open to new ideas. It's a little like an open wound, never healing ... It's vital to be constantly stretched. I hated most of my disciplining, but it taught me more than technique."
She went on to do admirable work with the National Theatre Company and appeared in numerous high end productions. Although she was satisfied with her time there she had already peaked at the RSC in terms of her career on stage.
During the mid to late seventies she began appearing in TV and motion picture productions. An evidently versatile actor, she resisted the urge of many theatrically trained actors to "play to the gallery" and worked in various different television genres.
Her feature film appearances included, An Unsuitable Job For a Woman, The Cold Room, Sakharov, Parker, Yellow Pages and Peter Hall's Work Is A Four-Letter World, in which she donned a PVC-clad costume as a personal manager along-side Cilla Black and David Warner. In 1995 she starred as Mrs Jennings in Emma Thompson's adaptation of Sense and Sensibility and in 2001 she took on the role of the Fat Lady in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
She was survived by her husband Murray Manson and a daughter from her first marriage.
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