Betty Marsden
Betty Marsden ( born February 24, 1919 in Liverpool, † July 18, 1998 in London) was a British actress.
Life
Originally from a poor background Marsden left home at the age of six years and was raised by a music teacher from Somerset. These early recognized the talent of her protégé and promoted them. At age 12, Betty Marsden won a scholarship to the Italia Conti drama school and received first performances. During World War II she worked for the troops care ( " Ensa ").
Although she sought a career as a stage actress in classic roles, she was usually set to comic roles due to their comedic talent. In the fifties, she starred in numerous revues, inter alia, at the Edinburgh Festival, in London's West End as the youngest Peter Pan actress of her time, and in addition to Stanley Baxter in the revue The Brighter Side.
However, especially had great success Betty Marsden as a radio comedian. In 1958 she participated in radio broadcasts Beyond Our Ken and Round the Horne Kenneth Horne and Kenneth Williams next. They also played numerous sketches from the pen of writers Barry Took and Marty Feldman and embodied today in their homeland popular characters like " Daphne Whitethigh ", " Fanny Haddock ", " Dame Celia Volestrangler " and "Lady Beatrice Counterblast ". As Kenneth Horne died in 1969, these radio broadcasts were discontinued.
In the aftermath Betty Marsden played in various film productions such as What the butler saw ( with Michael Ward, directed by Lindsay Anderson) and two films of the Carry-on ... film series: Carry on Regardless and Carry on Camping.
Later Marsden shifted her artistic focus back on stage. She played the "Lady Bracknell " in Oscar Wilde's Importance of Being Earnest, the " Martha " in Edward Albee's Who 's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and joined a few months before her death in a Peter Pan production at the National Theatre on.
In addition, she continued to work for the radio as well as a speaker for audio books. Their last production was a radio play version of CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia for the BBC in July 1998.
Betty Marsden died after several heart attacks on 18 July 1998 at the age of 79 years.