Sylvia Syms (singer) Albums

Sylvia May Laura Syms (6 January 1934 – 27 January 2023) was an English stage and screen actress. Her best-known film roles include ''My Teenage Daughter'' (1956), '' Woman in a Dressing Gown'' (1957), for which she was nominated for a BAFTA Award, '' Ice Cold in Alex'' (1958), '' No Trees in the Street'' (1959), '' Victim'' (1961), and ''The Tamarind Seed'' (1974).

Known as the "Grand Dame of British Cinema", Syms was a major player in films from the mid-1950s until mid-1960s, usually in stiff-upper-lip English pictures, as opposed to kitchen sink realism dramas, before becoming more of a supporting actress in both film and television roles. On television, she was known for her recurring role as dressmaker Olive Woodhouse on the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''. She was also a notable theatre player.

Syms portrayed Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in the 2006 biopic '' The Queen''.

Early life and education

Syms was born in Woolwich, London, England, in 1934, the daughter of Daisy (''née'' Hale) and Edwin Syms, a trade unionist and civil servant. With the outbreak of World War II, Syms was evacuated to Kent and subsequently Monmouthshire. She grew up in Well Hall, Eltham."Well Hall" entry of ''London Gazetteer'' by Russ Willey, (Chambers 2006) (online extrac

When Syms was 12, her mother died from a brain tumour. At 16, she suffered a nervous breakdown and contemplated taking her own life until an intervention from her stepmother. Syms was educated at convent schools before deciding to become an actress and attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1954. She later served on RADA's council.

Syms's career began in repertory theatre in Eastbourne and Bath. She made her West End debut in ''The Apple Cart'' with Noël Coward.

Film career

Syms appeared in a TV play ''The Romantic Young Lady''. This led to two offers, one to make a film for Herbert Wilcox, ''My Teenage Daughter'', another to sign a long-term contract with Associated British. She accepted both. In ''My Teenage Daughter'' (1956), Syms played Anna Neagle's troubled daughter. The film was successful at the British box office.

For Associated British she made ''No Time for Tears'' then appeared in ''The Birthday Present''. Syms had the third lead in '' Woman in a Dressing Gown'' for director J. Lee Thompson which was very popular. She then made the English Civil War film, '' The Moonraker'' and the war film '' Ice Cold in Alex'', also directed by Thompson. In early 1958 she made a third film for Thompson, ''No Trees in the Street''. She announced she would make her first screen comedy ''The Light Blue''. This became '' Bachelor of Hearts''. In March 1959 she was voted Variety Club's Film Actress of 1958.

In 1959, Syms appeared in the film '' Expresso Bongo'' as Maisie King, opposite Cliff Richard. She played opposite Dirk Bogarde in the 1961 film '' Victim'', as the wife of a barrister who is a closet homosexual. The film is thought to have broadened the debate that led to the decriminalisation of homosexual acts in private in the United Kingdom.

Syms made ''Ferry to Hong Kong'', ''The World of Suzie Wong'' and ''Conspiracy of Hearts''. A May 1962 article in ''Variety'' called her the top female star in British films "with little competition, as yet".

Syms travelled to Ireland to play opposite Patrick McGoohan as the wife of a condemned man in '' The Quare Fellow''.

She played Tony Hancock's wife in '' The Punch and Judy Man''. The film also featured her nephew, Nick Webb. In 1963 she ended her contract with Associated British which by then guaranteed her £10,000 a year but which she felt was too restrictive. She appeared in ''East of Sudan''. In 1965 she appeared on stage in ''Dual Marriageway''.

Later career

Other comedies followed, such as '' The Big Job'' (1965), but it was for drama that she won acclaim, including ''The Tamarind Seed'' (1974) with Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif, for which she was nominated for a British Film Academy award.

In 1970, Syms changed direction playing Beatrice opposite Julian Glover's Benedick in a production of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. The Prospect Theatre Company production, directed by Tony Richardson, was first presented at the Edinburgh International Festival and subsequently toured the United Kingdom.

Syms featured in the husband-and-wife TV comedy ''My Good Woman'' from 1972 to 1974 and on the weekly BBC programme ''Movie Quiz'' as one of two team captains.

In 1975, Syms headed the jury at the 25th Berlin International Film Festival.

In 1989, Syms guest-starred in the ''Doctor Who'' story '' Ghost Light''. Shortly after the end of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's term in office in 1990, Syms portrayed her in '' Thatcher: The Final Days'' (1991), a Granada television film for ITV, which dramatises the events surrounding Thatcher's removal from power, a role she recreated for the stage. From 2000 to 2003, she played Marion Riley in the ITV comedy-drama ''At Home with the Braithwaites''. She also featured in the serial '' The Jury'' (2002) and in the same year contributed ''Sonnet 142'' to the compilation album ''When Love Speaks''.

For Stephen Frears's biopic ''The Queen'' (2006), Syms was cast as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. She also appeared in '' The Poseidon Adventure'' (2005), an American TV film that was a loose remake of the 1972 feature film. Syms also took up producing and directing.

In 2009, Syms appeared in the film ''Is Anybody There?'' alongside Michael Caine and Anne-Marie Duff.

In 2009, she featured in the ITV drama series '' Collision''. In 2010, she guest-starred as a patient in BBC One's drama series '' Casualty'', having played a different character in an episode in 2007. Syms also appeared as another character in ''Casualty''s sister series ''Holby City'' in 2003. From 2007 to 2010, she had a recurring role in BBC One's ''EastEnders'', playing dressmaker Olive Woodhouse. In 2010, Syms took part in the BBC's ''The Young Ones'', a series in which six celebrities in their seventies and eighties attempt to overcome some of the problems of ageing by harking back to the 1970s. From 2013 to 2019, Syms was the narrator of ''Talking Pictures'', which aired on BBC Two.

Syms had numerous theatre roles, including in productions of ''Much Ado About Nothing'', ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' and ''Antony and Cleopatra''.

Personal life

From 9 June 1956 to 1989, Syms was married to Alan Edney, whom she had dated since she was a teenager. In 1961 they lost a baby daughter, Jessica. Later that year Syms and her husband adopted a son, Benjamin Mark. In October 1962 she gave birth to a daughter, Beatie Edney who is also an actress. Syms and her husband divorced in 1989 when she discovered he had a mistress for several years and that they shared a two-year-old daughter.

She was the aunt of musicians Nick and Alex Webb.

Her sister Joan married Norman Webb, the Cambridge-educated statistician who invented the Television Audience Measurement system, and was later a chief executive of Gallup.

Syms was a longtime supporter of the Stars Foundation for Cerebral Palsy, serving on its board as an officer for 16 years until 2020, with singer Vera Lynn.

In the last year of her life, Syms lived at Denville Hall, a retirement home for actors in London. She died there on 27 January 2023, three weeks after her 89th birthday.

Legacy

In the words of ''Filmink'' magazine:

I don’t think any actress in English speaking cinema of this era had such a variety of love interests as Sylvia Syms. It helped that she was beautiful, of course ... that she could act: it's hard to think of a bad Sylvia Syms performance – sometimes she was miscast, but never bad. She always brought a level of intelligence to her roles along with a sense of fun. And she was highly adept playing "smouldering hot lava of emotion and sensuality under an outwardly straight-laced and sensible facade" that made her – and this is meant with nothing but the greatest respect to the recently departed – sexy as hell.

Filmography

Source:

Film

* 1955 ''The Driving Seat'' as Sylvia Bayton
* 1956 ''My Teenage Daughter'' as Janet Carr
* 1957 '' The Birthday Present'' as Jean Scott
'' Woman in a Dressing Gown'' as Georgie
'' No Time for Tears'' as Nurse Margaret Collier
* 1958 '' The Moonraker'' as Anne Wyndham
'' Ice Cold in Alex'' as Sister Diana Murdoch
'' Bachelor of Hearts'' as Ann Wainwright
* 1959 '' No Trees in the Street'' as Hetty
''Ferry to Hong Kong'' as Liz Ferrers
'' Expresso Bongo'' as Maisie King
* 1960 ''Conspiracy of Hearts'' as Sister Mitya
'' The World of Suzie Wong'' as Kay O'Neill
* 1961 '' Amazons of Rome'' as Clelia
'' Flame in the Streets'' as Kathie Palmer
'' Victim'' as Laura Farr
* 1962 '' The Quare Fellow'' as Kathleen
* 1963 '' The Punch and Judy Man'' as Delia Pinner
''The World Ten Times Over'' as Billa
* 1964 ''East of Sudan'' as Miss Woodville
* 1965 '' Operation Crossbow'' as Flight Officer Constance Babington-Smith
'' The Big Job'' as Myrtle Robbins
* 1966 '' Bat Out of Hell'' as Diana Stewart
* 1967 ''Danger Route'' as Barbara Canning
* 1968 '' Hostile Witness'' as Sheila Larkin
''The Fiction Makers'' as Amos Klein
* 1969 '' Run Wild, Run Free'' as Mrs. Ransome
'' The Desperados'' as Laura
* 1972 '' Asylum'' as Ruth
* 1974 ''The Tamarind Seed'' as Margaret Stephenson
* 1978 '' Give Us Tomorrow'' as Wendy Hammond
* 1980 '' There Goes the Bride'' as Ursula Westerby
* 1986 '' Absolute Beginners'' as Cynthia Eve
* 1988 '' A Chorus of Disapproval'' as Rebecca Huntley-Pike
* 1989 ''Shirley Valentine'' as Headmistress
* 1992 '' Shining Through'' as Linda's Mother
* 1993 '' Dirty Weekend'' as Mrs. Crosby
* 1994 '' Staggered'' as Margaret
* 1997 ''The House of Angelo'' as Mrs. Harvey-Brown
* 1998 '' Food of Love'' as Alice Angelo
* 2002 '' Deep Down'' as Vera
* 2003 '' What a Girl Wants'' as Princess Charlotte
'' I'll Sleep When I'm Dead'' as Mrs. Bartz
* 2004 ''Mavis and the Mermaid'' as Gioga
* 2006 '' The Queen'' as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
* 2008 ''Is Anybody There?'' as Lilian
* 2009 ''Bunny and the Bull'' as Hotelier
* 2012 ''Booked Out'' as Mrs. Nicholls
'' Run for Your Wife'' as Hospital Patient
* 2018 '' Together'' as Rosemary

Television

* 1955 '' Life with the Lyons'' (13 July 1955)
*1955 '' The Romantic Young Lady''
* 1962 ''It's a Square World'' (11 August 1962)
* 1964 ''The Saint'' (" The Noble Sportsman") as Lady Anne Yearley
* 1964 ''The Saint'' (" Jeannine") as Jeannine Roger
* 1965 '' Danger Man'' (" It's Up to the Lady") as Paula Glover
* 1965 '' The Human Jungle'' (" Success Machine") as Margo
* 1965 ''The Baron'' (" Farewell to Yesterday") as Cathy Dorne
* 1966 ''Bat out of Hell'' as Diana
* 1968 ''The Saint'' ("The Fiction Makers") as Amos Klein
* 1968 ''The Saint'' (S6,E1, "The Best Laid Schemes") as Arlene
* 1969 '' Strange Report''
* 1971 ''Paul Temple''
* 1972 '' The Adventurer''
* 1972–1974 ''My Good Woman''
* 1982 '' Nancy Astor'' as Nanaire Langhorne
* 1982 ''It's Your Move'' (TV Short) as The Wife
* 1985 '' Miss Marple: A Murder is Announced'' as Mrs Easterbrook
* 1989 ''Doctor Who'' ('' Ghost Light'') as Mrs Pritchard
* 1991 '' Thatcher: The Final Days'' as Margaret Thatcher
* 1991 '' Countdown'' – guest in Dictionary Corner
* 1993 ''Mulberry'' as Springtime
* 1993–1995 '' Peak Practice'' as Isabel de Gines
* 1995 '' The Glass Virgin'' as Lady Constance
* 1998 ''Heartbeat'' ("Where There's a Will") as Peggy Tatton
* 1998 ''Neville's Island'' as Mrs Champness
* 2000–2003 ''At Home with the Braithwaites'' as Marion Riley
* 2002 ''Doctor Zhivago'' as Madame Fleury
* 2005 '' The Poseidon Adventure'' as Belle Rosen
* 2006 '' Dalziel and Pascoe'' episode: " The Cave Woman" as Maisie Barron
* 2007, 2009, 2010 ''EastEnders'' as Olive Woodhouse
* 2008 '' New Tricks'' ("Communal Living") as Beatrice
* 2009 '' Blue Murder''
* 2009 '' Agatha Christie's Marple'' (" Murder Is Easy") as Lavinia Enid Pinkerton
* 2010 ''Doctors''
* 2011 ''Case Histories''
* 2011 ''Rev.'' as Joan
* 2014 '' Playhouse Presents'' as Alice
* 2019 '' Gentleman Jack'' as Mrs Rawson

Theatre

*1953 ''The Apple Cart'' – with Noël Coward
*1966 ''Peter Pan''
*1970 '' Much Ado About Nothing'' – Beatrice
*1984 ''The Vortex''
*1985 ''Entertaining Mr Sloane'' – with Adam Ant
*1988 ''Better in My Dreams'' – director
*1991 ''Anthony and Cleopatra''
*1991 ''The Price'' – director
*1992 ''The House of the Stairs''
*1993 ''For Services Rendered''

References

External links

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Sylvia Syms
at the British Film Institute
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Parliament & the Sixties- Sylvia Syms- 1962 – UK Parliament Living Heritage
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Syms, Sylvia
1934 births
2023 deaths
20th-century English actresses
21st-century English actresses
Actors from the Royal Borough of Greenwich
Actresses from London
Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
English film actresses
English soap opera actresses
English stage actresses
English television actresses
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People from Woolwich