Meriel Forbes, 86: Actress/Sir Ralph Richardson's widow
saintkiss
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Lady Richardson
Devoted wife of Sir Ralph Richardson and, as Meriel Forbes, an actress
with a natural gift for light comedy
LADY RICHARDSON, who has died aged 86, held a place of dual distinction
in the theatre world, as the wife of Sir Ralph Richardson, and as an
elegant and accomplished actress in her own right as Meriel Forbes.
Known as "Mu", she first came to Ralph Richardson's attention in 1936
when she played opposite his lead role in The Amazing Doctor
Clitterhouse at the Haymarket Theatre, cast as Daisy, a part which
required her to fall in love with him at first sight. This aspect at
least, she later said, was easy.
Richardson's first wife, Muriel (Kit), was then in the throes of a long
illness. She died in October 1942 and two years later, on January 26
1944, Mu became Richardson's wife, at which time he was serving as
Lieutenant-Commander RNVR. From then on, she saw it as her role to
support and protect her husband, both on and off stage.
Theirs was an unlikely union, Ralph being a pipe-smoker and
parrot-owner, who raced about London on a motor-cycle and had once let
off a box of unwelcome rockets in the Oliviers' newly decorated Durham
Cottage. Mu, on the other hand, was rather fey, and preferred a more
sober existence, her drawing room filled with Staffordshire china, and
books on Proust and Alain-Fournier, each in their place.
But appearances were deceptive, and the relationship survived a
melodramatic phase during which Mu was pursued by the Hollywood writer,
Garson Kanin (husband of the diminutive actress, Ruth Gordon). While Sir
Ralph rushed about brandishing a revolver, Mu went to the hairdresser,
and Kanin pleaded with Paul-Emile Seidmann (husband of Ginette Spencer),
to save him from imminent extinction.
Mu was born in Fulham as Meriel Forbes-Robertson on September 13 1913.
The daughter of Frank Forbes-Robertson, who ran an actors' company, she
was great-niece to Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, the Victorian
actor-manager of the Lyceum. She was educated at Eastbourne and hoped to
be a pianist, studying in Brussels and Paris.
By the age of 16, she spoke fluent French and Italian, and took her
first part in the provinces in her father's company as Mrs de Hooley in
Jerome K Jerome's morality play, The Passing of the Third Floor Back (an
earlier triumph of Sir Johnston's).
She made her debut in London in a French-speaking role in Porcupine
Point at the Gate Theatre in 1931, then toured with the Birmingham Rep,
before her first appearance in the West End in Dinner at Eight at the
Palace Theatre in 1933, when she understudied for an actress who was
taken ill.
This lucky break led to a succession of parts throughout the 1930s. J B
Priestley described her as "never as good an actress" as her
great-uncle, and Robert Morley, to whom she was briefly engaged,
detected a lack of ambition in her. But she had a facility for light
comedy.
During the war she worked as a VAD, and then played several parts in
Norman Marshall's company. In 1944 she and Vivien Leigh both suffered
from tuberculosis, and annoyed their husbands by keeping the telephone
lines open for hours on end as they tackled The Times crossword
together. On January 1 1945 her son, Charles, was born and she devoted
some time to caring for him.
After a four-year break from the theatre, Mu teamed up with Sir Ralph in
Royal Circle at Wyndham's in 1948, playing his mistress, Katerina
Fantina. Thereafter, the couple frequently appeared together on stage
and in films. Among their joint ventures were two plays by R C Sherriff
(author of Journey's End). These were Home at Seven at Wyndham's in
1950, in which Richardson played a bank manager who disappears without
explanation for 24 hours and Meriel Forbes played the barmaid who proves
the dea ex machina; and The White Carnation at the Globe in 1953, in
which he played a man locked out of his house who discovers he has
become a ghost. In 1952 they both appeared in the film of Home at Seven
in the same parts. By this time, they were one of the stage's grandest
couples, Sir Ralph often at the wheel of his Rolls-Royce.
In 1955 Meriel Forbes accompanied Richardson on a lengthy tour of
Australia, appearing with him in Separate Tables and The Sleeping
Prince. They were joined by Lewis Casson and Sybil Thorndike, the latter
finding the Richardsons reserved and unwilling either to meet people or
to explore. But Dame Sybil said: "Mu gave an exquisite performance,
almost too subtle for all but the most perceptive audiences." The
Richardsons later went to America, in Jean Anouilh's The Waltz of the
Toreadors.
Meriel Forbes's natural elegance and distinction led to her being cast
in many an aristocratic role, notably as a duchess in Noel Coward's Look
After Lulu in 1959. This play was directed by Tony Richardson and
starred Vivien Leigh, then on the point of being left by Olivier. Mu
comforted the distraught star in her dressing room between the afternoon
and evening performances.
In 1962 Meriel Forbes played Lady Sneerwell in Sheridan's A School for
Scandal in Sir John Gielgud's production at the Haymarket, though the
reviews suggested she had insufficient malice in her character to play
the part with conviction. In 1964 the Richardsons led a British Council
tour through South America and Europe to mark Shakespeare's 400th
anniversary. In 1973 they took Lloyd George Knew My Father to Australia,
Mu taking over from Celia Johnson.
In 1966 she joined Sir Ralph in a television series of P G Wodehouse's
Blandings Castle, in which she played the formidable Lady Constance,
with Stanley Holloway as the butler Beach, and Richardson as Lord
Emsworth. At the time she joked that her husband's part was a distinct
step up for an actor who had begun his career in 1921 banging petrol
cans together under the stage at Brighton to simulate air raid noises.
Meriel Forbes also appeared in numerous films, including Borrow a
Million (1935), Young Man's Fancy (1939), The Captive Heart (1946), with
a cameo role in Oh! What a Lovely War (1969).
She and Sir Ralph lived in a large house near Regent's Park, for some
years, where they entertained their theatrical friends. Both were
staunch royalists, Sir Ralph being taught bingo by Princess Alice,
Countess of Athlone, on a banana boat.
Following Sir Ralph's death in 1983, she moved first to North Kensington
and then to Belgravia, where she guarded Sir Ralph's posthumous
reputation with zeal. She disliked Garry O'Connor's lively biography of
him (published in 1982), in which she herself appears as a shadowy
figure, and commissioned a somewhat pedestrian authorised biography,
which was published in 1995.
Until recently, she could still be seen at major theatrical occasions,
accompanied by friends such as the late Sir Lindsay Anderson, and she
gave a lunch at the Connaught for Sir John Gielgud's 90th birthday in
1994. She was a keen supporter of theatrical charities.
Her son, Charles, a stage manager in television, predeceased her.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Terrymelin
>parrot-owner, who raced about London on a motor-cycle and had once let
>off a box of unwelcome rockets in the Oliviers' newly decorated Durham
>Cottage. Mu, on the other hand, was rather fey
Even more unusual in that Sir Ralph was a homosexual.
Terry Ellsworth
