Rachel Thomas (actress)

Rachel Thomas OBE (10 February 1905 - 8 February 1995), was a Welsh character actress.[1]

Rachel Thomas

OBE
Born(1905-02-10)10 February 1905
Alltwen, Wales
Died8 February 1995(1995-02-08) (aged 89)
Cardiff, Wales
OccupationActress

Born in the village of Alltwen, near Pontardawe, Glamorgan, Wales, she appeared in such classic films as The Proud Valley (1940) with Paul Robeson, Blue Scar (1949) and Tiger Bay (1959). In 1943, she appeared as Maria Petrovitch in the Ealing war film Undercover, an account of the guerrilla resistance movement in Yugoslavia during the Second World War. In 1954 she was part of the original BBC Radio cast of Dylan Thomas' radio play Under Milk Wood, playing the roles of Rosie Probert, Mary Ann Sailors and Mrs. Willy Nilly. She played Mary Ann Sailors in the 1972 film version.[2][3][4]

She almost always played the stereotypical Welsh mother (or grandmother in her later years) and appeared on both Welsh and English language television.[5]

In 1968 she was awarded the OBE for her services to Wales.[6]

She died two days before her 90th birthday following a fall in her home in Cardiff.[7]

References
  1. Obituary: Rachel Thomas, The Independent, 10 February 1995. Accessed 5 September 2015
  2. Under Milk Wood on IMDb
  3. Rachel Thomas on IMDb
  4. "Rachel Thomas; Actress, 90", New York Times, 10 February 1995. Accessed 5 Sept 2015
  5. "The National Library of Wales :: Dictionary of Welsh Biography". wbo.llgc.org.uk.
  6. McFarlane, Brian (16 May 2016). "The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition". Oxford University Press – via Google Books.
  7. Staff, Variety (20 March 1995). "Rachel Thomas".
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.