Sheila Keith; actress (cult horror films)
Hyfler/Rosner
Gentle actress who played terrifying roles
23 October 2004
photos:
http://www.smallbaldman.com/dvdimages/FRIGHTMARE.jpg
http://www.cinemorgue.com/sheilakeith.html
http://www.tvheaven.ca/stephen.JPG
Sheila Keith, actress: born London 9 June 1920; (one son);
died Chertsey, Surrey 14 October 2004.
In contrast to the courteous, gentle nature for which she
was known in her private life, Sheila Keith was capable of
frightening the pants off audiences and fellow actors alike
on screen and stage. With a benign smile, she portrayed
terrifying characters in cult British horror films, as well
as in television and stage comedies.
The actress will probably be best remembered for her role in
Frightmare (1974), as the electric drill- and
red-hot-poker-wielding Dorothy Yates, a cannibal pensioner
who goes on a murderous rampage again after being freed from
an asylum. As she lures young people into her home in the
guise of telling their fortunes, Dorothy's devoted husband
covers up her bloodletting antics, in a film described as
Britain's answer to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
It followed Keith's role as a psychotic warder in a
correctional institute for girls in House of Whipcord
(1974), from the same director, Pete Walker, a master of
horror exploitation. "I'm going to make you ashamed of your
body," she tells one girl, with relish. "I'm going to see to
that personally."
In both films, Keith perfectly embodied the theme developed
by Walker and his collaborator, the writer David
McGillivray, of the elderly dominating and posing danger to
the young generation.
She also appeared in the last of Walker's "suburban horror"
trilogy, House of Mortal Sin (1975), as a Roman Catholic
priest's one-eyed housekeeper who threatens his infirm
mother: "He's gone out again, I'm afraid. You're all alone
again . . . with me."
Born in London in 1920, of Scottish parents, Keith moved to
Aberdeen at the age of two to be brought up by her Auntie
Bella after the death of her mother from tuberculosis.
Longing to act, she trained at theWebber Douglas Academy, in
London, then gained stage experience the traditional way, at
repertory theatres in Worthing, Liverpool, Ipswich, Bromley
and at the Bristol Old Vic and the Pitlochry Festival.
When she graduated to London's West End, Keith was directed
by the stage and film actor Nigel Patrick in Present
Laughter (Queen's Theatre, 1965) and appeared alongside the
musical star Ginger Rogers in Mame (Theatre Royal, Drury
Lane, 1969).
At about the same time, Keith broke into television, with
character parts in series such as Sherlock Holmes (1965),
Public Eye (1966) and The Saint (1968), and a regular role
as Mrs Cornet in the soap opera Crossroads (1967).
But her face became best known on the small screen in
sitcoms, playing Auntie Ethel in Moody and Pegg (1974), Mrs
Bagworth in A Roof Over My Head (1977), the stern but caring
Mother Stephen in Bless Me, Father (1978-81) and Mrs Lilley
in The Other 'Arf (1984).
Remaining a firm favourite of the horror film director Pete
Walker, she was also cast by him in The Comeback (1977), as
the housekeeper looking after a ghostly country mansion that
becomes home to a pop singer trying to revive his career,
and in a similar role in House of the Long Shadows
(alongside Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing,
1983).
She was also seen in the writer Michael Frayn's film comedy
Clockwise (1986), playing the mother of an old flame
(Penelope Wilton) reunited with the usually punctilious
headteacher who is late for a conference (John Cleese).
On the West End stage, the actress also appeared in
Deathtrap (Garrick Theatre, 1978), the writer John Wells's
satire Anyone for Denis? (Whitehall Theatre, 1982) and An
Italian Straw Hat (Shaftesbury Theatre, 1986).
Anthony Hayward
Hyfler/Rosner
Sheila Keith
(Filed: 29/10/2004)
Sheila Keith, the actress who died on October 14 aged 84,
was a regular fixture in Peter Walker's cult horror films of
the 1970s, and worked extensively on British television,
appearing in sitcoms, soaps and dramas.
In Walker's Hammer Horror series, she specialised in
demented matriarchs who gleefully torture and kill their way
through younger co-stars. Her performances were not for the
squeamish. In Walker's spectacularly nasty Frightmare
(1974), she played Dorothy Yates, a cannibal granny let out
of the asylum who lures the unsuspecting into her home to
have their fortunes read, then gets to work with electric
drill, hatchet and red-hot poker.
In House of Whipcord (1974), she was a warder in a covert
correctional institute for sinful women whose owners
specialise in abducting innocent young girls: "I'm going to
make you ashamed of your body," Sheila Keith tells one naked
unfortunate. "I'm going to see to that - personally."
In House of Mortal Sin (1976), as Mrs Brabazon, the one-eyed
housekeeper of a psychotic Roman Catholic priest, she
terrorises her employer's ageing mother ("He's gone out
again, I'm afraid. You're all alone with me.") and reacts
with cool nonchalance after stumbling across a victim the
good father has strangled with his rosary beads.
In The Comeback (aka The Day the Screaming Stopped, 1978)
she played Mrs B, the sinister housekeeper of a spooky
manor, investing with malevolent intent lines such as:
"Perhaps I can spread the butter for you."
Sheila Keith played these parts with gruesome relish, but in
person she could not have been more different from her gory
screen persona. She was a delightful, gentle woman whose
talents as an actress, many felt, were underrated.
Scottish by background, she was born in London on June 9
1920. Her mother died from tuberculosis when Sheila was two,
and she was sent to Aberdeen to be brought up by an aunt.
She wanted to act from childhood, and enrolled at the Webber
Douglas Academy in London before spending several years in
provincial rep. In 1961 she played Lady Alice opposite the
young Ian McKellen in A Man for All Seasons at Coventry. She
also became a regular at the Pitlochry Festival.
She made her West End debut in 1956 in Dido Milroy's Always
Afternoon at the Garrick. She appeared in Coward's Present
Laughter at the Queen's Theatre (1965), and in 1969 played
alongside Ginger Rogers in Mame at the Theatre Royal, Drury
Lane. She was Tom Conti's ferocious mother-in-law in The
Italian Straw Hat at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1987. She
also appeared in Anyone for Denis and Deathtrap.
In the 1960s Sheila Keith took character roles in many
television dramas, including Lovejoy, Sherlock Holmes and
The Saint, and had a regular role as Mrs Cornet in
Crossroads. She moved into comedy, appearing in such shows
as The Ronnie Barker Playhouse, The Liver Birds, Some
Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em and Bless Me Father (in which she played
Arthur Lowe's nemesis, Mother Stephen).
In the 1970s she played Lady Rosina in The Pallisers, Aunt
Morag in Hinge and Bracket's Dear Ladies and Aunty Ethel in
Moody and Peg. In later life she played opposite John Cleese
and Penelope Wilton in Michael Frayn's comedy Clockwise
(1986), and made her last appearance in 2001 in an episode
of Steve Coogan's spoof series Dr Terrible's House of
Horrible.
Sheila Keith is survived by a son.
MadCow57
through younger co-stars. Her performances were not for the
squeamish. In Walker's spectacularly nasty Frightmare
(1974), she played Dorothy Yates, a cannibal granny let out
of the asylum who lures the unsuspecting into her home to
have their fortunes read, then gets to work with electric
drill, hatchet and red-hot poker.<<
Whew! For a minute I thought it was one of my many AO fans talking about me
again!