Elizabeth Jean Spriggs (18 September 1929 – 2 July 2008) was an English actress.
Spriggs' roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company included Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Gertrude in Hamlet, and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. In 1978, she won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for Arnold Wesker's Love Letters on Blue Paper. She received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility. Her other films included Richard's Things (1980), Impromptu (1991), Paradise Road (1997), and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001).
Early life and career Born in Buxton, Derbyshire, in 1929, Spriggs had an unhappy childhood, later stating that she "grew up entirely without affection". Possessing a mezzo-soprano voice, she studied opera at the Royal College of Music, and taught speech and drama in Coventry. Her first marriage at 21 was a disaster and, in what she called "the most painful decision of my life", she left her husband and young daughter to pursue her acting dream. "The desire to act was like a weight within me", she later said, "and I knew if I didn't do anything about it, it would destroy me."Elizabeth Spriggs: Versatile character actress, The Independent, 5 July 2008 She wrote to a repertory company in Stockport, Cheshire, asking for a job and was taken on. She worked with many companies, including in Birmingham and Bristol, before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 1962.
Stage career Spriggs was a regular performer with the RSC under Peter Hall until 1976, playing many important Shakespearean roles, including Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, an acclaimed Gertrude in Hamlet opposite David Warner, Calpurnia in Julius Caesar, Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and a witty Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. She also featured in RSC productions of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance, Shaw's Major Barbara and Dion Boucicault's comedy London Assurance, playing Lady Gay Spanker alongside Donald Sinden.
In 1976, she moved with Hall from the RSC to the National Theatre when the company's own theatre opened. In the first season she played the eccentric medium Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit. Among her many other plays for the National were Volpone with Paul Scofield, The Country Wife and Macbeth with Albert Finney. In 1978, Spriggs won the Society of West End Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actress for Arnold Wesker's Love Letters on Blue Paper,Smith, Alistair; "RSC stalwart Spriggs dies" TheStage.co.uk, 7 July 2008 (Retrieved: 31 July 2009) playing the wife of a dying trade union leader who recalls their early life together (a part she first played on BBC television in 1976).
Her later stage work included a West End revival of J. B. Priestley's When We Are Married in 1986, and Arsenic and Old Lace at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1991.
Television and film Spriggs did not work regularly on television until the mid-1970s. She was in Frederic Raphael's The Glittering Prizes (1976), starred as Eleanor Pressett in the BBC drama We, the Accused (1980), played Connie, the head of a battling South London family in the thirteen-part drama Fox (1980), was Martha in Tales of the Unexpected (1980) and was the formidable Nan in the ITV comedy series Shine on Harvey Moon (1982–85). She appeared in three plays by Alan Bennett: Afternoon Off (1979), Intensive Care (1982) and Our Winnie (1982). She played Calpurnia and Mistress Quickly for the BBC's Shakespeare series, appeared in Doctor Who in the 1987 Sylvester McCoy serial Paradise Towers, and was the titular witch in the Children's BBC series Simon and the Witch (1987).
In 1990, she was one of the God-fearing gossips in the BBC adaptation of Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and in 1992, was in television versions of Kingsley Amis's The Old Devils and Angus Wilson's Anglo-Saxon Attitudes. In 1994, she played the midwife Mrs Gamp in the BBC's adaptation of Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit and was Mrs Cadwallader in Middlemarch by George Eliot. She continued to work on television, in series like Heartbeat, Midsomer Murders (playing a murder victim in the pilot episode of the series in 1997 and returning in 2006 as the character's identical twin sister) and Poirot.
She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1998, when she was surprised by Michael Aspel at Shepperton Studios.
Her early film appearances included Work Is a Four-Letter Word (1968) and 3 into 2 Won't Go (1969), both directed by Peter Hall. Her later character roles included Mrs Jennings in Emma Thompson's Oscar-winning adaptation of Sense and Sensibility (1995), a role for which she was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (losing out to co-star Kate Winslet) and the Fat Lady in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001). Her final film was Is Anybody There? (2008) with Michael Caine, released shortly after her death.
Personal life and death Spriggs's first two marriages, to Kenneth Spriggs and a fellow RSC actor, Marshall Jones, were dissolved. In 1977, she married her third husband, Murray Manson, a mini-cab driver and musician whom she had met while performing in London Assurance. She had a daughter from her first marriage.
Spriggs died on 2 July 2008, at the age of 78. Her funeral service and interment took place at Saint Mary the Virgin's Churchyard in Thame, Oxfordshire and was attended by family and friends, including Sinéad Cusack, James Ellis and Lesley Sharp, Jeremy Irons, Robert Hardy and Peter Vaughan, who all paid tribute to their friend and fellow actor.
Filmography Film +YearTitleRoleNotes1968Work Is a Four-Letter WordMrs Murray19693 into 2 Won't GoMarcia1980Richard's ThingsMrs Sells1981Lady Chatterley's LoverLady Eva1982An Unsuitable Job for a Woman Miss Markland1985Yellow PagesMrs Van Der Reuter1991ImpromptuBaroness Laginsky1993The Hour of the PigMadame Langlois1995Sense and SensibilityMrs Jennings1996The Secret AgentWinnie's MotherThe Snow Queen's RevengeBrendaVoice1997Paradise RoadMrs RobertsFor My BabyOlga Jenikova1998The Barber of SiberiaPerepelkina2001Harry Potter and the Philosopher's StoneThe Portrait of the Fat Lady2004The Queen of Sheba's PearlsLaura Pretty2008Is Anybody There?Prudence(final film role)
Television +YearTitleRoleNotes1973Second City FirstsZena PaulEpisode: Mrs. Pool's Reserves1974–1982Play for TodayVarious4 episodes, including Leeds United!1975Prometheus: The Life of BalzacComtesse de Berny4 episodesLucky FellaMrs. MepsteadPilotVillage HallMaggie SnapeEpisode: "Miss Health and Beauty"1976The ExpertMrs. KynestonEpisode: "A Family Affair"1979Afternoon OffMiss BeckinsaleTV film1979, 1982BBC Television ShakespeareCalpurnia/ Mistress QuicklyEpisodes: Julius Caesar/The Merry Wives of Windsor1980FoxConnie Fox1980–1981Tales of the UnexpectedAunt May/Martha SturgisEpisodes: "The Orderly World of Mr Appleby"/"The Way to Do It"1981BognorAlisa Potts6 episodesCrown Court Janet GodfreyEpisode: "Embers"1982Spider's WebMildred PeakeTV filmThe Haunting of Cassie PalmerMrs. Palmer6 episodes1982–1995Shine on Harvey MoonNan41 episodes1983Those Glory Glory DaysSchool MistressTV movie1984The Cold RoomFrau HoffmanStrangers and BrothersLady Muriel Royce3 episodes1985BergeracMs Mary-Lou CostainEpisode: "Return of the Ice Maiden"1986JackanoryStorytellerEpisode: London Snow1987–88Simon and the WitchThe Witch25 episodes1987Doctor Who TabbySerial: "Paradise Towers"1988–91WatchingAunt Peggy5 episodes1989SinglesPam's MotherEpisode: "Family Likeness"1990BoonMrs. WhitfieldEpisode: "The Tender Trap"Oranges Are Not the Only FruitMayMiniseries1991Soldier SoldierMrs. HenwoodEpisode: "Dirty Work"1992HeartbeatRene KirbyEpisode: "Rumours"The Ruth Rendell MysteriesEva PeterleesEpisode: "The Mouse in the Corner – Part 1"The Young Indiana Jones ChroniclesSchultzEpisode: "Austria, March 1917"1993The Case-book of Sherlock HolmesMrs. MasonEpisode: "The Last Vampyre"Jeeves and WoosterAunt Agatha2 episodesLovejoyDaphne ShortleyEpisode: "Fly the Flag"1994The Inspector Alleyn MysteriesLady LacklanderEpisode: "Scales of Justice"Martin ChuzzlewitMrs. GampMiniseriesMiddlemarchMrs. CadwalladerTakin' Over the AsylumGrandma1995The Tomorrow PeopleMillicent RutherfordSerial: "The Rameses Connection"1996Tales from the CryptMrs TraskEpisode: "A Slight Case of Murder"1997, 2006Midsomer MurdersIris Rainbird/Ursula GoodingEpisode: "The Killings at Badger's Drift"/"Dead Letters"1998CasualtyBarbara ThomasEpisode: "Eye Spy"1998–2002Playing the FieldMrs. Mullen26 episodes1999Alice in WonderlandThe DuchessTV filmA Christmas CarolMrs. RiggsWives and DaughtersMrs Goodenough3 episodes2000Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)Mrs GlauneckEpisode: "A Man of Substance"The SleeperCathMiniseries2001–2002Nice Guy EddieVera McMullen7 episodes2002ShackletonJanet Stancombe WillsMiniseries2003Wren: The Man Who Built BritainQueen AnneTV movie documentary2003–2004Swiss ToniSwiss Toni's Mother12 episodesThe RoyalDolly Smith2 episodes2005Where the Heart IsMaureenEpisode: "Care"HeartbeatMrs. AndrewsEpisode: "The End of the Road"JerichoEllen JerichoEpisode: "The Hollow Men"2006Agatha Christie's PoirotMrs LeadbetterEpisode: "Taken at the Flood"2008Love SoupPenny's MotherEpisode: "Integrated Logistics"
References
External links