Charlotte Mitchell
Tony Maiden as Albert Clifton (left), Charlotte Mitchell as Amy Winthrop (middle) and Roderick Shaw as Kevin Gordon (right) in the episode "The Ponies" of the first series of The Adventures of Black Beauty.
Born
Edna Winifred Mitchell

(1926-07-23)23 July 1926
Ipswich, Suffolk, England
Died2 May 2012(2012-05-02) (aged 85)
Chiswick, London, England
Years active1949–1996
Known forThe Adventures of Black Beauty
PartnerPhilip Guard (1952–1968)
ChildrenDominic Guard
Christopher Guard
Candy Guard
RelativesPippa Guard (niece)

Charlotte Mitchell (born Edna Winifred Mitchell; 23 July 1926 – 2 May 2012) was an English actress and poet.[1]

Biography

In the 1950s she provided lyrics, sketches, and occasionally acted in revues on London's West End. She was especially successful in her ventures providing lyrics for Madeleine Dring in Airs on a Shoestring (1953), Pay the Piper (1954), and Fresh Airs (1956), all productions of Laurier Lister.

She was once (allegedly) the girlfriend of Peter Sellers, and appeared in The Goon Show episodes Ye Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1954) as Maid Marian and Tales of Montmartre (1956) as Seagoon's love interest, Fifi. Charlotte Mitchell was married to the actor Philip Guard, from whom she separated in 1968, and was the mother of three children: actors Christopher Guard and Dominic Guard and animator and novelist Candy Guard.[2] Charlotte lived in West London during the later part of her life and continued to be active as a poet.[3]

She appeared on BBC Radio with Ian Carmichael in The Small, Intricate Life of Gerald C. Potter. Carmichael played Gerald C. Potter, mystery writer, while she played Diana, his wife, who, under the pseudonym of Miss Magnolia Badminton, wrote romantic novels. She also played, on radio, the Dowager Duchess (Lord Peter Wimsey's mother) in the radio adaption of Strong Poison that starred Ian Carmichael as Wimsey, and the character of Kath Miller in the BBC Radio 2 daily serial Waggoners' Walk.[4] On television, she played Amy Winthrop the housekeeper in The Adventures of Black Beauty (1972–74),[5] and Monica Spencer in And Mother Makes Five.[6]

Her poetry was published in collections such as Twelve Burnt Saucepans, Looking Round Dangerously, I Want to Go Home and Just in Case. These provided the basis of a series of popular programmes on BBC Radio 4 in which she read her own work. Her poetry is often requested and read on BBC Radio 4's Poetry Please, and one of her poems was chosen by Judi Dench and Michael Williams in their joint BBC Radio 4 programme With Great Pleasure.

Death

Mitchell died in Chiswick, London, on 2 May 2012, aged 85, from pneumonia. She had previously battled breast cancer and myeloma.[7]

Filmography

Films

Television

References

  1. ↑ "Charlotte Mitchell 23rd July 1926 – 2nd May 2012 « The Shakespeare Code". Theshakespearecode.wordpress.com. 23 May 2012. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
  2. ↑ "Candy Guard – David Higham Associates". Archived from the original on 5 January 2009. Retrieved 20 November 2008.
  3. ↑ Just in Case: Poems in My Pocket: Amazon.co.uk: Charlotte Mitchell: Books. ASIN 0285630601.
  4. ↑ "BBC Genome Project". Waggoners' Walk. 27 October 1975. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  5. ↑ Evans, Jeff (2001). The Penguin TV Companion. Penguin Books. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-140-51467-4.
  6. ↑ Sangster, Jim; Condon, Paul (2005). TV Heaven. HarperCollins. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-00-719099-7.
  7. ↑ Hayward, Anthony (7 June 2012). "Charlotte Mitchell obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 January 2018.

Further reading

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