Edith MacArthur (8 March 1926 – 25 April 2018) was a British actress noted for her elegant screen presence.

Early life

MacArthur was born in

Ardrossan Ardrossan (; ) is a town on the North Ayrshire coast in southwestern Scotland. The town has a population of 10,670 and forms part of a conurbation with Saltcoats and Stevenston known as the 'Three Towns'. Ardrossan is located on the east shore ...

North Ayrshire North Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Àir a Tuath, ) is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. The council area borders Inverclyde to the north, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire to the northeast, and East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire to the east and so ...

, the daughter of Donald MacArthur and Minnie Ross MacArthur. She studied at

Ardrossan Academy Ardrossan Academy is a Scottish secondary school, opened in October 1882, serving Ardrossan, with pupils also coming from nearby Saltcoats, West Kilbride, Seamill, Fairlie, Largs and other areas. Notable alumni * June Andrews, nursing ex ...

and the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she worked at the Admiralty Map Correction station in

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

Career

MacArthur began acting with the amateur Ardrossan & Saltcoats Players. She worked in various Scottish stage companies before moving to London in 1960. She made her London stage debut that year, in

Alec Coppel Alec Coppel (17 September 1907 – 22 January 1972) was an Australian-born screenwriter, novelist and playwright. He spent the majority of his career in London and Hollywood, specialising in light thrillers, mysteries and sex comedies. He is best ...

's ''

The Gazebo ''The Gazebo'' is a 1959 American black comedy CinemaScope film about a married couple who are being blackmailed. It was based on the 1958 play of the same name by Alec Coppel and directed by George Marshall. Helen Rose was nominated for the A ...

,'' at the Savoy. With the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...

in the 1960s, she played Lady Montague in ''Romeo and Juliet''. She was twice in London productions of ''The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'', in different roles, in 1966 and in 1994–1995. She and Tom Fleming were known for ''Carlyle and Jane,'' their staged readings of the letters of

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...

and

Jane Welsh Carlyle Jane Baillie Carlyle ( Welsh; 14 July 1801 – 21 April 1866) was a Scottish writer and the wife of Thomas Carlyle. She did not publish any work in her lifetime, but she was widely seen as an extraordinary letter writer. Virginia Woolf ca ...

.Inventory Acc.13182 Edith Macarthur
National Library of Scotland. She was long associated with the

Pitlochry Festival Theatre The Pitlochry Festival Theatre is large performing arts theatre located in the town and burgh of Pitlochry in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. The idea of a performance space in the area was conceived in the late 1940s by John Stewart, a leading p ...

. MacArthur was frequently seen on television, with a long list of credits including ''

Z-Cars ''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debuted ...

'', ''

The Borderers ''The Borderers'' is a British television series produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1970. Setting A historical drama series, ''The Borderers'' was set during the 16th century and chronicled the lives of the Ker family, who lived in the Scott ...

'', ''

The Troubleshooters ''The Troubleshooters'' (titled ''Mogul'' for the first series) is a British television series made by the BBC between 1965 and 1972, created by John Elliot. It recounted events in an international oil company – the "Mogul" of the title. Th ...

'', '' Sutherland's Law'', '' The Standard'', ''

The Omega Factor ''The Omega Factor'' (stylized as ''The Ωmega Factor'') is a British television series produced by BBC Scotland in 1979. It was created by Jack Gerson and produced by George Gallaccio, and transmitted in ten weekly episodes between 13 June an ...

'', ''

The Sandbaggers ''The Sandbaggers'' is a British spy drama television series about men and women on the front lines of the Cold War. Set contemporaneously with its original broadcast on ITV in 1978 and 1980, ''The Sandbaggers'' examines the effect of espionag ...

'', ''

Doctor Finlay ''Doctor Finlay'' is a British television series based on A. J. Cronin's stories about the fictional medical hero, Dr. Finlay. It was first broadcast on 5 March 1993 on ITV. It is a follow-up to ''Dr. Finlay's Casebook'', the successful BBC ...

'', ''

Hamish Macbeth Hamish Macbeth is the lackadaisical police constable of the fictional Scottish Highland town of Lochdubh, in a series of murder mystery novels created by M. C. Beaton (Marion Chesney). Considered by many to be a useless, lazy moocher, Macbeth ...

'', ''

Casualty Casualty may refer to: *Casualty (person), a person who is killed or rendered unfit for service in a war or natural disaster **Civilian casualty, a non-combatant killed or injured in warfare * The emergency department of a hospital, also known as ...

'' and ''

Sea of Souls ''Sea of Souls'' is a BBC paranormal drama series, recounting the fictional activities of a group of investigators into psychic and other paranormal events. Produced in-house by BBC Scotland and for the final season by Carnival Films, init ...

''. In 1972, she played the tragic Scottish mother Jean Guthrie in ''

Sunset Song ''Sunset Song'' is a 1932 novel by Scottish writer Lewis Grassic Gibbon. It is considered one of the most important Scottish novels of the 20th century. It is the first part of the trilogy ''A Scots Quair''. There have been several adaptations, ...

'', the television adaptation of

Lewis Grassic Gibbon Lewis Grassic Gibbon was the pseudonym of James Leslie Mitchell (13 February 1901 – 7 February 1935), a Scottish writer. He was best known for ''A Scots Quair'', a trilogy set in the north-east of Scotland in the early 20th century, of which ...

's novel. Her best-known role was the Lady

Laird Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in ...

Elizabeth Cunningham in ''

Take the High Road ''Take the High Road'' (renamed ''High Road'' from 1994 to 2003) was a Scottish soap opera produced by Scottish Television, which started in February 1980 as an ITV network daytime programme, and was broadcast until 2003. It was set in the ficti ...

'', which she portrayed from the first episode in 1980, until December 1986 when the character was killed off in a car crash. Macarthur was said to have discovered the future ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

'' actor

David Tennant David John Tennant (''né'' McDonald; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He rose to fame for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor (2005–2010 and 2013) in the BBC science-fiction TV show '' Doctor Who'', reprising the rol ...

. After seeing his first performance at age 10 in Paisley, she told his parents he would become a successful stage actor. Tennant went on to play Macarthur's son twice on stage, in '' Long Day's Journey into Night'' and ''Hay Fever''. In 2000, MacArthur was made an

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

for her contribution to the dramatic arts.

Personal life

MacArthur died 25 April 2018 at the age of 92, in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. In her obituary in ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

,'' she was described as "an actress whose breathtaking elegance and beauty – and uncompromising dedication to the craft she loved – was matched by a brilliant intelligence, and wicked, earthy sense of humour." Her papers are archived at the

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS) ( gd, Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba, sco, Naitional Leebrar o Scotland) is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. As one of the largest libraries in the ...

References

External links

* *
A 1996 photograph of Edith MacArthur
by Robert Trotter, in the

National Galleries of Scotland National Galleries of Scotland ( gd, Gailearaidhean Nàiseanta na h-Alba) is the executive non-departmental public body that controls the three national galleries of Scotland and two partner galleries, forming one of the National Collections o ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Macarthur, Edith 1926 births 2018 deaths Members of the Order of the British Empire People from Ardrossan Scottish television actresses Scottish stage actresses 20th-century Scottish actresses 21st-century Scottish actresses Alumni of the Royal College of Music People educated at Ardrossan Academy