Jenny Tomasin, Ruby of "Upstairs, Downstairs" (Wash Post)

[tanguera]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/television/jenny-tomasin-known-as-maid-ruby-finch-on-upstairs-downstairs-dies/2012/01/20/gIQAeUwKnQ_story.html

By Adam Bernstein,

Jenny Tomasin, a British actress forever known to hundreds of millions
of television viewers as the clumsy, disheveled, Valentino-obsessed
kitchen maid Ruby Finch in “Upstairs, Downstairs,” has died at her
home in London.

She died Jan. 3 of hypertensive heart disease, according to the
coroner’s office in her neighborhood. She was 73, according to the
membership records officer for the actor’s union Equity in Great
Britain. Other reference guides put her age at 75. She had no
immediate survivors, delaying confirmation of her death.

“Upstairs, Downstairs,” one of the most beloved and literate
television dramas of all time, chronicled the decline of a British
aristocratic family and the fate of their servants from the Edwardian
era through World War I, the Jazz Age and the stock market crash of
1929.

The program was produced between 1970 and 1975, drew audiences
worldwide and has endured in public television re-runs ever since. It
had a direct influence on films including Robert Altman’s “Gosford
Park” (2001) and shows such as “Downton Abbey,” now airing on public
television.

“Upstairs, Downstairs” was celebrated for its finely drawn portrait of
the British class system — including the hierarchy of servants.
Although Conservative politician Richard Bellamy (David Langton) was
the master upstairs at the fictional 165 Eton Place in London’s
Belgravia neighborhood, downstairs was the domain of the formidable
head butler Hudson (Gordon Jackson) and the tyrannical cook Mrs.
Bridges (Angela Baddeley).

Ruby — gray-faced, thatchy-haired and hopeless in the kitchen — was
distinctly at the bottom of the social ladder. Few who saw the series
will fail to remember Mrs. Bridges’s taking pity on the “poor girl”
but also erupting in her trademark bellow, “Roo-BEEE!”

Ms. Tomasin joined the show in 1972 after an earlier scullery maid
committed suicide. During World War I, the maladroit Ruby leaves for a
short-lived job in a munitions factory. Having left Eton Place proud
of her independence, Ruby returns blackened when the plant explodes.

In later interviews, Ms. Tomasin said she was devastated when her
career plummeted after the success of “Upstairs, Downstairs.” She
appeared in small roles in London’s West End and in touring
productions.

There was a melancholy consistency to her sporadic television work.
She twice appeared on the British soap opera “Emmerdale” — in the
early 1980s and in the mid-2000s — and each time her character was
killed off.

Jenny Tomasin was born in Leeds, in northern England, on March 22,
1938, according to the actors’ union. Other reference works say she
was born Nov. 30, 1936, with no explanation for the discrepancy of
day, month and year.

She said her parents, who were working class, were unsupportive of her
ambition to act. She had a middling career until “Upstairs,
Downstairs” producer John Hawkesworth exclaimed on seeing her photo in
a British casting directory, “That’s the face!”

Ms. Tomasin appeared in reunion documentaries of “Upstairs,
Downstairs,” often noting with mixed feelings how the show affected
her life.

“I had to wear these drab outfits and no makeup,” she said in a 2002
documentary, according to the London Independent. “There was one
particular incident when I was out with my boyfriend for a meal. I was
feeling sexy and attractive, and suddenly somebody yelled out, ‘Oh,
look, there’s Ruby!’ I looked at my boyfriend and said, ‘I don’t want
to stay here.’ It just felt awful.”

Staff writer Emily Langer contributed to this report.

[Charlene]

On Feb 3, 1:28 pm, tanguera <marina.wal...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/television/jenny-tomasin-...

>
> By Adam Bernstein,
>
> Jenny Tomasin, a British actress forever known to hundreds of millions
> of television viewers as the clumsy, disheveled, Valentino-obsessed
> kitchen maid Ruby Finch in “Upstairs, Downstairs,” has died at her
> home in London.
>
> She died Jan. 3 of hypertensive heart disease, according to the
> coroner’s office in her neighborhood. She was 73, according to the
> membership records officer for the actor’s union Equity in Great
> Britain. Other reference guides put her age at 75. She had no
> immediate survivors, delaying confirmation of her death.

Perhaps understandably, this is more of an obituary of Ruby Finch than
of Jenny Tomasin.

wd47

[Charlene]

That tempting, tempting Enter key.

I meant to say, it's perhaps understandable because someone with no
immediate survivors isn't going to have anyone who can fill in those
blanks about the person herself. It's not really sad - her life was
what it was, and having someone to recount it after the fact doesn't
really mean anything in the long run - but I'd still like to have
learned more about her.

wd47

[Brigid Nelson]

Santa brought me the complete series re-issue last Christmas. Just last
week I finished listening to the commentaries. Jenny was in a few of
them and she never sounded particularly resentful of her career after
Up/Down, rather it was Karen Dotrice who sounded like a bitter old hag
in her solo commentary. I got the impression that Tomasin had worked
somewhat steadily in live theatre since the end of the series, Her
distinctive looks must have made it somewhat challenging to find work,
even in England where standards of beauty aren't as rigidly adhered to.
I am shocked to learn that she was as old as that, she would have been
in her late 30's during filming and yet she always seemed to be as young
as the other junior servants.

Another Obit from:

http://www.thestage.co.uk/features/obituaries/feature.php/35092/jenny-tomasin

Jenny Tomasin

Published Wednesday 1 February 2012 at 15:59 by Richard Anthony Baker

Cast in a minor role as the accident-prone scullery maid, Ruby Finch, in
the drama Upstairs Downstairs, Jenny Tomasin often stole the scene.

Depicting an Edwardian aristocratic family living in a townhouse in
Belgravia, waited on by a selection of servants, Upstairs Downstairs
became so popular that a spin-off was planned. Tomasin was to play Ruby
again, but this time helping to run a seaside boarding house with her
two colleagues, Angela Baddeley, who had portrayed the cook, Mrs
Bridges, and Gordon Jackson, who had been the butler, Angus Hudson. But
plans for the series were scrapped when Baddeley died.

Thereafter, Tomasin seemed destined to play maids - in Crossroads, in
Philip King’s farce, See How They Run, at Greenwich, and in two Coward
comedies, Blithe Spirit and The Marquise. She was born into a working
class family, who at the outset showed little interest in her career.
Money was short and Tomasin had to sell her books of Green Shield saving
stamps to pay the fare to the audition for Upstairs Downstairs.

She joined the cast for the second series and remained an integral part
of life below stairs until the end of the fifth series in 1975, taking
part in 41 episodes in all. By then, the show had won seven Emmy awards,
two Baftas and was being shown in 70 countries. Tomasin found it
difficult to come to terms with the end of the series.

“I felt that I belonged to a wonderful, happy family - and then all of a
sudden the family broke up,” she said in a newspaper interview. “It was
terribly hard to adjust.”

In 1985, she appeared in Doctor Who and also played two characters in
Emmerdale, one in 1980, the other in 2006. Both were killed off.

Jenny Tomasin, who was born on March 22, 1938, died on January 3, aged 73.

• A funeral service will take place on Thursday, February 9 at 3pm,
Islingon and Camden Cemetery, 278 High Road, East Finchley, London N2 9AG.

• Simon Williams writes:

On Upstairs Downstairs we all had to surrender to the charge of being
typecast - but of all the characters it was Jenny’s adorable, doe-eyed
Ruby, the scullery maid who stole the nation’s heart. While the rest of
us were being primped and preened in the make-up room, Jenny’s face was
scrubbed clean and her hair left unwashed.

She had no vanity. She was a modest, generous, instinctive and dedicated
actress.

When I last telephoned Jenny, her voicemail message told me that if it
was about work ‘I’m free…’ And I hope she is, God bless her.


And a notice in Doctor Who News:
http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2012/01/dwn190112145112-jenny-tomasin-1936-2012.html

The actress Jenny Tomasin has died at the age of 75.

Tomasin played the role of Tasambeker, an employee of Tranquil Repose,
in the 1985 Doctor Who story Revelation of the Daleks.

She was best known for her portrayal of the long-suffering Ruby in the
London Weekend Television production Upstairs Downstairs, appearing in
41 episodes. Her role, as the put-upon kitchen maid who nurtured dreams
of running away with Rudolph Valentino, made her one of the most popular
characters in the series.

In 1981 Tomasin had a small part in Emmerdale Farm as Naomi Tolly. She
also had parts in Crossroads and Martin Chuzzlewit. During the nineties
she performed in many regional pantomimes, and in 2005 she returned to
Emmerdale, this time playing Noreen Bell, a cantankerous villager, who
was eventually killed off in July 2006.

Jenny Tomasin was born on November 30, 1936 in Leeds, West Yorkshire. It
is believed she died earlier this week.

UPDATE - 3rd February 2012: Upstairs, Downstairs co-star Simon Williams,
who appeared in the following Dalek story Remembrance of the Daleks, has
paid tribute to Tomasin in an obituary in The Stage. The Independent has
also run an obituary.