38 Facts About Edith Evans

Edith Evans was best known for her work on the stage, but appeared in films at the beginning and towards the end of her career.

Edith Evans created roles in two of Shaw's plays: Orinthia in The Apple Cart, and Epifania in The Millionairess and was in the British premieres of two others: Heartbreak House and Back to Methuselah.

Edith Evans became widely known for portraying haughty aristocratic women, as in two of her most famous roles as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, and Miss Western in the 1963 film of Tom Jones.

Edith Evans was born in Pimlico, London, the daughter of Edward Edith Evans, a junior civil servant in the General Post Office, and his wife, Caroline Ellen nee Foster.

Edith Evans had one sibling, a brother who died at the age of four.

Edith Evans was educated at St Michael's Church of England School, Pimlico, before being apprenticed at the age of 15 in 1903 as a milliner.

Edith Evans commented in later years that she loved the rich and beautiful materials of the craft, but could not manage to make two hats alike.

Edith Evans put more into her few minutes than most of our approved 'stars' can suggest in leading parts.

In 1914, at Moore's instigation, Edith Evans was given a year's contract by the Royalty Theatre in Soho.

Edith Evans played character roles in comedies, as a junior member of casts that included Gladys Cooper and Lynn Fontanne.

Edith Evans played in a silent film called A Welsh Singer, directed by and featuring Henry Edwards in 1915, and had a minor role in another 1915 film, A Honeymoon for Three, starring Charles Hawtrey.

Edith Evans then appeared in East is East in 1917, but thereafter made no more films for over thirty years.

Edith Evans toured in Shakespeare with Ellen Terry's company in 1918, appeared in light comedy alongside the young Noel Coward and played five new Shavian roles, Lady Utterword in Heartbreak House and the Serpent, the Oracle, the She-Ancient and the ghost of the Serpent in Back to Methuselah.

Miss Edith Evans is the most accomplished of living and practising English actresses.

Edith Evans purred and challenged, mocked and melted, showing her changing moods by subtly shifting the angles of her head, neck and shoulders.

Edith Evans's words flowed on, phrasing and diction balanced in perfect cadences, as she smiled and pouted in delivering her delicious sallies.

Marriage to someone unconnected with the theatre suited Edith Evans, who did not share the taste of many of her colleagues for what Gielgud called "publicity, gossip and backstage intrigue".

Edith Evans returned, devastated, and encouraged by colleagues found solace by throwing herself into her work.

Edith Evans played the last of these on and off for seven years, on tour and in London, and by 1947, when a Broadway run was offered, she declined to act in the piece again.

Edith Evans played Lady Bracknell on film and television but never again on the stage.

Edith Evans toured for ENSA in Britain, Europe and India in 1944 and 1945.

The production was not liked by the critics, and Edith Evans's performance drew respectful rather than ecstatic reviews.

Edith Evans's performance divided the critics: opinions varied from "an agonising disaster" to "a joy to watch".

Edith Evans had never been classically good looking, but she was a great enough actress to "convey beauty without being conventionally beautiful".

Edith Evans told Gielgud, "I could never impersonate a woman who had such a peculiar notion of hospitality", which he took to mean that she could not contemplate the character's "explicit admission of evil".

Edith Evans once remarked, "I don't think there is anything extraordinary about me except this passion for the truth", a passion revered by Gielgud and others, but one that prevented her from attempting a character whose essence she could not understand.

In 1948 Edith Evans returned to the film studios after an absence of more than thirty years.

Edith Evans's performance divided opinion: in The Observer Ivor Brown wrote of "the glorious impact of an authentic genius at the highest level of world-theatre", but the anonymous reviewer in The Times thought that she "remains, a little mysteriously, outside of the character".

In 1960 Edith Evans played Judith Bliss in a television production of Noel Coward's Hay Fever.

Edith Evans's last public appearance was a BBC radio programme With Great Pleasure, a selection of her favourite works, given before an invited audience in August 1976.

Edith Evans died at her home in Cranbrook, Kent, on 14 October 1976 at the age of 88.

Edith Evans was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by King George VI in 1946.

Edith Evans received honorary degrees from the universities of London, Cambridge, Oxford and Hull.

Edith Evans was painted by Walter Sickert as Katharina in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

For many years a sculpted head of Edith Evans was on display at the Royal Court Theatre.

Edith Evans's ashes are interred at St Paul's, Covent Garden, London.

Edith Evans was nominated three times for an Academy Award between 1964 and 1968.

Edith Evans was cited as Best Supporting Actress by the National Board of Review for The Nun's Story in 1959.