Gwen Watford

Gwen Watford was an English actress who began her career after John Gielgud noticed her in a school production; he helped her early steps, and she made her London professional debut in 1945. She worked simultaneously in theater and television, taking parts that ranged from Shakespeare and Shaw to plays by contemporary writers. On television she became one of Britain's leading actresses, winning the best television actress honor from the Society of Film and Television Arts twice. Her cinema work included The Very Edge (1963) and Cleopatra (1963), while she was also seen in The Fall of the House of Usher (1950). She joined the Old Vic company for the 1960-61 season, played Masha in Three Sisters with Robin Phillips's company, and later turned to comedy in Don't Forget to Write! and Noël Coward's Present Laughter, and in 1981 she earned a Society of West End Theatre Award for that role. She died in 1994.