Peggy Ashcroft

Peggy Ashcroft was an English actress whose stage and screen career lasted more than sixty years. Born in Croydon, Surrey, she was set on acting from childhood and trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She worked in small theaters before graduating, and within two years was starring in the West End. For five decades she was a leading figure in British theater, performing with the Old Vic, John Gielgud's companies, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Though known for Shakespeare, she also appeared in modern plays by Brecht, Beckett and Pinter. She concentrated on live theater until the 1980s, when she turned to film and television. Her films included The 39 Steps (1935) and A Passage to India (1984), for which she won a BAFTA and an Academy Award. She also won a BAFTA for the television series The Jewel in the Crown. She died in 1991.