Gwen Watford | |
|---|---|
 Watford (unknown year) | |
| Born | Gwendoline Watford 10 September 1927 London, England |
| Died | 6 February 1994 (aged 66) London, England |
| Spouse | |
Gwendoline Watford (10 September 1927 – 6 February 1994), professionally known after the mid-1950s as Gwen Watford,[n 1] was an English actress.
Watford's talent was spotted by John Gielgud while she was still a schoolgirl, and with his help she made her professional London debut in 1945. From then until her death she pursued a parallel career on stage and on television. She played a wide range of roles, from Shakespeare and Shaw to new works by playwrights including Willis Hall, David Hare, Hugh Leonard and David Mercer. For the BBC and ITV she appeared frequently from the mid-1950s onwards, and was dubbed one of British television's two leading ladies. She twice won the Society of Film and Television Arts's award (now the BAFTA award) for best television actress. Although she appeared in several cinema films, including Cleopatra, she remained chiefly known as a stage and television performer.
In later years Watford appeared in more comedy than in her earlier career, including the television series Don't Forget to Write! and in the West End Noël Coward's Present Laughter, for which she won a Society of West End Theatre Award in 1981. The last years of her career were curtailed by ill health, and she died aged 66.
- ^ "The Good Ladies", The Stage, 17 January 1957, p. 9; "Gwendoline Watford Superb ", The Stage, 9 May 1957, p. 7; "Time and the Conways", The Stage, 22 August 1957, p. 6; and "Time and the Conways", Daily Mirror, 24 August 1957, p. 4
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