Louisa MacGregor Rix (born 2 February 1955) is a former actress and interior designer. She is the daughter of actors

Brian Rix Brian Norman Roger Rix, Baron Rix, (27 January 1924 – 20 August 2016) was an English actor-manager, who produced a record-breaking sequence of long-running farces on the London stage, including ''Dry Rot'', '' Simple Spymen'' and ''One for ...

and

Elspet Gray Elspet Jean Gray, Baroness Rix (née Gray; 12 April 1929 – 18 February 2013) was a Scottish actress, who first became known for her partnership with her husband, Brian Rix, and later was cast in many television roles in the 1970s and 1980s. S ...

. She studied drama at

LAMDA LaMDA, which stands for Language Model for Dialogue Applications, is a family of conversational neural language models developed by Google. The first generation was announced during the 2021 Google I/O keynote, while the second generation was a ...

and acted for many years on TV and in the theatre. Rix gained early theatre experience at the

Nottingham Playhouse Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in 1948 when it operated from a former cinema in Goldsmith Street. Directors during this period included Val May and Fr ...

while

Richard Eyre Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre (born 28 March 1943) is an English film, theatre, television and opera director. Biography Eyre was born in Barnstaple, Devon, England, the son of Richard Galfridus Hastings Giles Eyre and his wife, Minna Ma ...

was the artistic director, and in

Peter Cheeseman Peter Barrie Cheeseman, CBE (27 January 1932, Cowplain, Hampshire – 27 April 2010, Stoke-on-Trent) was a British theatre director who is credited with having pioneered "theatre in the round". Early life His father's work as a Naval Commun ...

's company at Stoke-on-Trent. Her subsequent West End appearances included roles in ''

How the Other Half Loves ''How the Other Half Loves'' is a 1969 play in two acts by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It is a farce following the consequences of an adulterous affair between a married man and his boss’s wife and their attempts to cover their tracks ...

'' and '' Man of the Moment'' by

Alan Ayckbourn Sir Alan Ayckbourn (born 12 April 1939) is a prolific British playwright and director. He has written and produced as of 2021, more than eighty full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of ...

; ''

The Pocket Dream ''The Pocket Dream'' is a play by Elly Brewer and Sandi Toksvig, published in English circa 1992. A production of the play was put on at the Nottingham Playhouse, Albery Theatre in London in 1991-2 and starred Clive Mantle. In 2004 it was perform ...

'' by

Sandi Toksvig Sandra Birgitte Toksvig (; ; born 3 May 1958) is a Danish-British writer, comedian and broadcaster on British radio, stage and television. She is also a political activist, having co-founded the Women's Equality Party in 2015. She has written ...

& Elly Brewer; and '' Whose Life is it Anyway?'' by Brian Clark, as well as several productions at the National Theatre. Rix is known for playing Kevin the teenager's mum (Mrs Patterson) in the TV series ''

Harry Enfield and Chums ''Harry Enfield & Chums'' (originally titled ''Harry Enfield's Television Programme'') is a British sketch show starring Harry Enfield, Paul Whitehouse and Kathy Burke. It first broadcast on BBC2 in 1990 in the 9 pm slot on Thursday night ...

'', and in the movie ''

Kevin & Perry Go Large ''Kevin & Perry Go Large'' is a 2000 British teen coming of age sex comedy film based on the Harry Enfield sketch Kevin the Teenager. The film was written by Dave Cummings and Harry Enfield and directed by Ed Bye. Enfield, Kathy Burke and Louisa ...

''. For

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

she co-starred with

Tim Bentinck Timothy Charles Robert Noel Bentinck, 12th Earl of Portland, Count Bentinck und Waldeck Limpurg, (born 1 June 1953), commonly known as Tim Bentinck, is an English actor and writer, known for his long-running role as David Archer in the BBC ...

in ''Made In Heaven''. She played

Mel Smith Melvyn Kenneth Smith (3 December 1952 – 19 July 2013) was an English comedian, actor and director. Smith worked on the sketch comedy shows ''Not the Nine O'Clock News'' and ''Alas Smith and Jones'' with his comedy partner, Griff Rhys Jones. S ...

's girlfriend in two series of ''

Colin's Sandwich ''Colin's Sandwich'' is a British sitcom that was broadcast on BBC2 in 1988 and 1990. It starred Mel Smith as Colin Watkins, a British Rail administrator who aspired to be a horror writer. The show was written by Paul Smith and Terry Kyan and ra ...

'' and starred in two series of '' Side By Side'', both for the BBC. In ''

Brookside Brookside may refer to: Geography Canada * Brookside, Edmonton * Brookside, Newfoundland and Labrador * Brookside, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Brookside, Berkshire, England * Brookside, Telford, an area of Telford, England United States * Br ...

'' she performed with

Anna Friel Anna Louise Friel (born 12 July 1976) is an English actress. Born in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, she has been acting professionally since age 13. Friel achieved fame with her portrayal of Beth Jordache on the British soap opera ''Brookside'' ( ...

as the solicitor representing the Jordache family in the 'body under the patio' storyline. She played the vocally-challenged night club singer Melody Lane in a feature-length ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

'' special with the QEII as the location. One of her final acting roles was as the Home Secretary in ''

The Execution of Gary Glitter ''The Execution of Gary Glitter'' is a ninety-minute television drama, produced by Juniper Communications Limited and broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK, which follows an imaginary trial and execution by hanging of former glam rock singer Gary Glit ...

''. Having originally studied art before she went to drama school, Rix retired from acting to pursue her passion for design. Since 2012, she has run the interior design company Forbes Rix Designs with her business partner Natalie Forbes.

Personal life

In 1980, Rix married actor

Jonathan Coy Jonathan Coy (born 24 April 1953, in Hammersmith, London) is a British actor. He has worked since 1975 largely in television, notably as Henry in the long-running legal series ''Rumpole of the Bailey'' and as Bracegirdle in the television seri ...

, with whom she has two children, Charlotte and

Jolyon Coy Jolyon Coy (born 9 March 1985) is an English actor and writer. He won a drama scholarship to Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, then trained at LAMDA, graduating in 2007. Theatre credits *Toby Maitland in the premiere of POSH at the Royal Cou ...

. Charlotte Elizabeth (born 1983) is married to

Tom Mison Thomas James Mison (born 23 July 1982)''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005''. Ancestry.com; accessed 6 February 2014. is an English film, television, and theatre actor, voice artist, and writer. He has had leading ...

. Jolyon is married to Blanche Schofield, daughter of David Schofield and Lally Percy. Rix and Coy divorced in 1990. She married writer Richard Ommanney in 1994. Louisa's elder sister Shelley was born with

Down Syndrome Down syndrome or Down's syndrome, also known as trisomy 21, is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21. It is usually associated with physical growth delays, mild to moderate intellectual dis ...

. From the date of her birth onward, her father, actor Brian Rix, promoted awareness and understanding of learning disabilities. Shelley died in 2005. Their brother

Jamie Rix Jamie Rix (born 27 April 1958) is an English children's author, television comedy writer, and media producer. He is best known for the book series ''Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids'' and '' The War Diaries of Alistair Fury''; both were adapted i ...

is a television producer and an author of children's books, while their other brother, Jonty Rix, is a Professor of Participation and Learning Support at the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

and author of the rites-of-passage novel ''Some Hope''. Their paternal aunt,

Sheila Mercier Sheila Betty Mercier (''née'' Rix; 1 January 1919 – 4 December 2019) was an English actress, of stage and television, best known for playing Annie Sugden in the soap opera ''Emmerdale'' for over 20 years, from the programme's first episode in ...

, played Annie Sugden in ''

Emmerdale Farm ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British soap opera that is broadcast on ITV1. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, '' ...

'' for over 20 years. Rix is a member of the House Committee at

Denville Hall Denville Hall is a historic building in Northwood, a town in the London Borough of Hillingdon, England, which is used as a retirement home for professional actors, actresses and members of other theatrical professions. The present building inc ...

, and a Trustee.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rix, Louisa 1955 births Living people British film actresses British television actresses Actresses from London Daughters of life peers People from Kensington 20th-century British actresses 21st-century British actresses 20th-century English women 20th-century English people 21st-century English women 21st-century English people