Shirley Dynevor (15 May 1933 – 10 January 2023) was a Welsh actress.

Early life

Shirley Teague was born on 15 May 1933 in Cardiff to Nancy (née Sutton), a nurse, and Hedley Teague, a landscape gardener. She attended Hereford Grammar School for Girls and afterwards worked as a rep in Pontypridd before moving to London.

Career

In 1953, she was invited to join the

Theatre Workshop Theatre Workshop is a theatre group whose long-serving director was Joan Littlewood. Many actors of the 1950s and 1960s received their training and first exposure with the company, many of its productions were transferred to theatres in the West En ...

, where she would later meet her future husband Gerard Dynevor. Between 1953 and 1959, she performed in many productions with the workshop at

Theatre Royal Stratford East The Theatre Royal Stratford East is a 460 seat Victorian producing theatre in Stratford in the London Borough of Newham. Since 1953, it has been the home of the Theatre Workshop company, famously associated with director Joan Littlewood, whose ...

including ''A Christmas Carol'' (1953), ''The Dutch Courtesan'' (1954), ''

Richard II Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father died ...

'' (1954) and ''An Italian Straw Hat'' (1955). In the 1950s, Dynevor had a starring role in the series '' Charlesworth''. Other television roles included ''

Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...

'', ''

Armchair Theatre ''Armchair Theatre'' is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by ABC Weekend TV. Its successor Thames Television took over from mid-1968. The Canadi ...

'', ''Family Solicitor'', ''The Liars'', ''

Crown Court The Crown Court is the court of first instance of England and Wales responsible for hearing all Indictable offence, indictable offences, some Hybrid offence, either way offences and appeals lied to it by the Magistrates' court, magistrates' court ...

'' and ''

The Wednesday Play ''The Wednesday Play'' is an anthology series of United Kingdom, British television plays which ran on BBC One, BBC1 for six seasons from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually original works written for television, although dramati ...

''. After her husband's death in 1966, Dynevor had to step away from acting to look after her two sons, but continued to take the occasional role, such as in 1976, when she starred as

Eva Braun Eva Anna Paula Hitler (; 6 February 1912 – 30 April 1945) was a German photographer who was the longtime companion and briefly the wife of Adolf Hitler. Braun met Hitler in Munich when she was a 17-year-old assistant and model for his ...

in '' Rogue Male''. For the last 15 years of her career, Dynevor worked as a stage manager on ''

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 ...

''.

Personal life and death

In 1954, she met actor Gerard Dynevor after he joined the Theatre Workshop. He invited her to a café within minutes of meeting, where he proposed to her. Later that year, she would give birth to a son, Jonathan. They would later have another son, Tim. After Gerard decided to leave acting, the family moved to Altrincham where Gerard worked as a director at

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 ...

. Gerard died in 1966. Dynevor married for a second time in 1989 to guitarist Simon White. She is the grandmother of actress

Phoebe Dynevor Phoebe Harriet Dynevor (; born 17 April 1995) is an English actress. Dynevor is known for her role as Daphne, the fourth Bridgerton child, in the Netflix period drama ''Bridgerton'' (2020–present). She began her career as a child actress, ...

. In 2009, Dynevor was diagnosed with dementia. On 10 January 2023, Dynevor died at the age of 89.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dynevor, Shirley 1933 births 2023 deaths 20th-century Welsh actresses 21st-century Welsh actresses Actresses from Cardiff Welsh film actresses Welsh stage actresses Welsh television actresses