Anita Reeves was an Irish stage and film actress.
13 Facts About Anita Reeves
1.
2.
Anita Reeves grew up on Sundrive Road in Dublin 12, where her father Jack was a sergeant at the Garda station on the same road.
3.
Anita Reeves was educated at St Louis High School, Rathmines and trained at night as an actor for four years at the Brendan Smith Academy in Dublin.
4.
Anita Reeves played an extra in a play during a festival, then quit her steady job at the complaints department of a laundry to be an assistant stage manager.
5.
Anita Reeves performed twice with Eamon Morrissey at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin.
6.
Anita Reeves considered Gaiety regular Maureen Potter an early influence in teaching her to connect with audiences.
7.
Anita Reeves was in the original production of Brian Friel's classic Dancing at Lughnasa as Maggie in 1990, which earned her a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for the Best Actress in a Supporting Role, when Patrick Mason's celebrated production went to the London West End.
8.
Anita Reeves toured for Elaine Murphy's play, Little Gem, as Kay, which debuted in Dublin in 2008.
9.
Anita Reeves twice played Juno in Juno and the Paycock, first in Dublin in 1988 and again in Minneapolis in 2015, both for director Joe Dowling.
10.
Anita Reeves had, said Dowling, grown even greater in the role, bringing an added elegance and finesse to the spirited mouthpiece of the Dublin tenements during the nationalist schisms of 1922.
11.
Anita Reeves was first married to Barry McGovern but separated after five months.
12.
Anita Reeves subsequently married Julian Erskine, executive producer for Riverdance, whom she met when she was 24 and he 17, but didn't marry until 2000.
13.
Anita Reeves died on 7 July 2016 in Dublin, following a short battle with cancer, at the age of 68.