Rosanna Todd, 96; actress & producer cast Plummer in his first Shakespeare role
Hyfler/Rosner
Mentor cast Plummer in his first Shakespeare role
Eccentric Canadian 'inspired great devotion and loyalty from
those who worked with and for her'
F.F. LANGAN
Special to The Globe and Mail
April 11, 2009
TORONTO -- Rosanna Todd was an eccentric Canadian born
actress and producer, who started her professional career in
Britain in the 1930s. Back in her native Montreal after the
war, she started the Open Air Playhouse theatre and gave
Christopher Plummer his start.
"Rosanna was the first person to give me a break. I was 16
or 17 and she gave me the role of Posthumus in Cymbeline. It
was my introduction to Shakespeare," Mr. Plummer said from
his home in Connecticut.
He remembered that Ms. Todd acted in all her productions and
"was able to attract top actors and directors to what was
really a small outdoor theatre near Beaver Lake on
Mont-Royal. She was devoted to the theatre," Mr. Plummer
said.
Her childhood friend Raymonde Chevalier Bowen said there was
a reason she could get famous people, and others, to work
with her. "Rosanna inspired great devotion and loyalty from
those who worked with and for her," she said.
Rosanna Seaborn Todd was born into a rich family in Montreal
in October of 1912. She lived a life that was in many ways
more 19th century than 20th: grand country houses,
governesses and servants. Her father was a doctor, a
world-famous specialist in tropical medicine, and her mother
was an heiress, the daughter of Sir Edward Seaborn Clouston,
one of the early executives and founders of the Bank of
Montreal.
Sir Edward was also one of the founders of the Royal Trust
and a mentor to a young man from New Brunswick, Max Aitken,
who went on to become Lord Beaverbrook. He always felt a
loyalty to any member of the Clouston clan and that helped
young Rosanna make connections when she moved to London as a
young woman.
The Todd family lived in Montreal and had a country estate
on the Lake of Two Mountains in Senneville on the western
tip of the island of Montreal. In the winters, the entire
family including grooms and horses moved to South Carolina.
Mr. Plummer, younger than Ms. Todd, knew her from childhood.
"The Todd family bought my great-grandfather's [Sir John
Abbott, the prime minister] house and we lived next to
them," said Mr. Plummer, who spent his summers in
Senneville.
In a Montreal Gazette interview 10 years ago, Ms. Todd
talked about the details of Mr. Plummer's first stage job.
"Chris was not getting paid," she said and was at pains to
point out hiring him was not nepotism. "His grandmother's
sister married my great-uncle. No blood relation at all."
Ms. Todd used to say she never went to school, but was
tutored at home.
"I never went to high school. I always had a governess," she
told an interviewer. One thing she and her friends did was
make films. They wrote scripts, dramas and mysteries, and
shot them on the lanes and lawns of Senneville. The results
were quite accomplished for amateurs and the experience left
Mr. Plummer and Ms. Todd hooked on acting.
She may not have gone to high school but she did go to
finishing school in South Carolina, where she met Doris
Duke, the only child of the one of the richest men in the
United States. They remained friends and when Ms. Duke died
16 years ago, she left Ms. Todd $1-million in her will.
Shortly after finishing school, Ms. Todd moved to London and
attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the top drama
school in Britain. From there she worked at the old Vic and
in repertory theatre in England.
During the war she volunteered as a social worker with the
Red Cross. Her younger sister Biddy came to England as a
driver for the military and her other sister, Jackie, was a
driver in Canada.
After the war the privations of living with rationing meant
England was no place for an actress. It was then she
returned to Canada and started her playhouse.
One thing her father insisted on was that his daughters
learn French. Not only did she learn the language, but also
she became fascinated with Quebec's history.
Ms. Todd was obsessed with the uprising of 1837, in
particular the bloody battle at St. Eustache near Montreal.
She collected what Le Devoir described as "the most
important private collection of the 1837 Rebellion."
The collection consisted of more than 1,200 objects
including books and private letters from 'les Patriotes'
including speeches from Louis-Joseph Papineau and a
description of the rebellion from William Lyon Mackenzie.
Her obsession produced a film script, The Great Burning,
which she spent the last half of her life trying to produce.
"The main character in the story is Charlotte, the daughter
of a local seigneur. She falls in love with a British
officer and that is the core of the story," said Ms. Todd's
niece, Alison Hackney, who still farms on the family
property in Senneville. "My aunt was sympathetic to both
sides. But she insisted on historical accuracy. When a
producer suggested a sex scene between Charlotte and the
officer, she said no because it wouldn't have happened." Her
friends say her failure to produce what was the main work of
her life frustrated her.
"It was the great disappointment of her life," Ms. Chevalier
Bowen said.
Mr. Plummer had perhaps a more realistic view of her failure
to get her project produced.
"She wouldn't let people change her script. I told her when
I lunched with her that she had to accept changes, but she
wouldn't. In the end she saw herself as a misunderstood
doyenne of the theatre and film world," he said.
At one stage she became partners with Suzanne Cloutier,
Peter Ustinov's ex-wife. The two women started a production
company called Deux Montagnes, named for the lake on which
Ms. Todd grew up in Senneville.
Five years ago she sold off her collection of 1837
memorabilia to help finance her project but nothing could
bring it to life.
For the past 30 years she lived in the Bahamas. She did a
great deal of travelling and spent several months a year in
Montreal, always staying at the Ritz, having lunch with her
friends in the garden when it was open.
She produced two plays for the local theatre in the Bahamas
and in 1992 starred in Driving Miss Daisy at the Dundas
Centre for the Performing Arts in Nassau when she 80. She
was perfect for the part.
Rosanna Todd
Rosanna Seaborn Todd, was born in Montreal on October 25,
1912. She died at Lyford Cay in the Bahamas on March 14,
2009. She was 96.
wmat...@gmail.com
wmat...@gmail.com
Sarah Ehrett
>I walked past the burned down house in lyford cay, New Providnce, the Bahamas
And a Plummer ? Who Plummer, what Plummer?
David Uri
wrote:
searched for something on Google and been dumped into Google Groups.
He/she has no idea what Google Groups or usenet are.
Does that make sense? (Plummer was Christopher of that ilk, by the
way.)
Regards,
--
David Uri.
Please visit my town - http://allezblancs.miniville.fr
Every visitor increases the population by one.
Email: davidu...@bigfoot.com (remove VEST to reply)
Facebook: http://facebook.com/daviduri
Sarah Ehrett
wrote:
>On Wed, 02 Jan 2013 19:46:16 -0500, Sarah Ehrett <nine...@cox.net>
>wrote:
>
>>On Wed, 2 Jan 2013 16:37:09 -0800 (PST), wmat...@gmail.com wrote:
>>
>>>I walked past the burned down house in lyford cay, New Providnce, the Bahamas
>>
>>That's just great, Moonbeam.
>>
>>And a Plummer ? Who Plummer, what Plummer?
>
>It's a reply to a four year-old post by Amelia from someone who has
>searched for something on Google and been dumped into Google Groups.
>He/she has no idea what Google Groups or usenet are.
>Does that make sense? (Plummer was Christopher of that ilk, by the
>way.)
pa...@deweymedia.com
Many thx,
Paul D