Madge Ryan

Madge Ryan was an Australian actress who built a long career on British stages and screens after starting out in radio in her Queensland hometown. Born in Townsville, she began performing in radio serials as a teenager, then joined Sydney's Independent Theatre Company, where her roles included The Seagull and The Barretts of Wimpole Street. She played Pearl Cunningham in a 1954 Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust production of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, and after moving to the United Kingdom in 1957 she took the same role to Broadway. In London she became known for challenging roles, often misfits and villains, among them Kath in the original production of Entertaining Mr Sloane in 1964, and she played the lead in Mother Courage at the Old Vic in 1965. Her films included A Clockwork Orange (1971), Frenzy (1972) and Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978), and she appeared on television in plays and serials. She died in 1994.