Elizabeth MacLennan

{{Infobox person

| name = Elizabeth MacLennan

| image = Photo of Elizabeth MacLennan.jpg

| birthname = Elizabeth Margaret Ross MacLennan

| birth_date = {{birth date|1938|3|16|df=y}}

| birth_place = Glasgow

| death_date = {{death date and age|2015|6|23|1938|3|16|df=y}}

| death_place = London

| nationality = British

| occupation = Actress, writer, theatre professional

| parents = Hector MacLennan
Isabel Margaret Adam

| relatives = Robert MacLennan (brother)
David MacLennan (brother)

|spouse = John McGrath (1962-2002; his death)

|children = 3

}}

Elizabeth Margaret Ross MacLennan (16 March 1938 – 23 June 2015) was a Scottish actress, writer and radical popular theatre practitioner.

Early life

Elizabeth MacLennan was born in Glasgow, Scotland, daughter of Sir Hector MacLennan and Isabel Margaret (née Adam). Her father was a gynaecologist, president of the Royal Society of Medicine; her mother was also a physician and public health professional.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/obituaries/2015/obituary-elizabeth-maclennan/|title=Obituary: Elizabeth MacLennan {{!}} Obituaries|last=Quinn|first=Michael|date=2015-07-07|website=The Stage|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-16}}

Her older brother Robert Maclennan, Baron Maclennan of Rogart, was a politician; her younger brother David MacLennan was a fellow theatre professional.{{Cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/elizabeth-maclennan-actress-and-writer-who-co-founded-the-crusading-political-theatre-company-784-10366904.html|title=Elizabeth MacLennan: Actress and writer who co-founded the crusading|last=Farquhar|first=Simon|date=2015-07-05|website=The Independent|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-16}} Their grandfather, R. J. MacLennan, was editor of the Glasgow Evening News.

She attended Laurel Bank girls' school in Glasgow, and the Benenden School in Kent. She read modern history at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, where she became active in experimental theatre productions,{{Cite web|url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-elizabeth-maclennan-actress-and-writer-1501374|title=Obituary: Elizabeth MacLennan, actress and writer|last=McMillan|first=Joyce|date=27 June 2015|website=The Scotsman|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-16}} sharing the bill with fellow students Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and Ken Loach. She studied acting at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Career

MacLennan acted through the 1960s, on stage and in television and film. With her husband, playwright John McGrath, and brother, David MacLennan, she helped to found 7:84 Theatre Company (in 1971) and 7:84 Scotland (in 1973).Michael Billington, [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jun/29/elizabeth-maclennan "Elizabeth MacLennan obituary"], The Guardian, 29 June 2015. She performed in plays with 7:84 throughout the 1970s and 1980s, in such classics of British popular theatre as The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil (1973), Little Red Hen, Blood Red Roses, Trees in the Wind and Men Should Weep. She starred in McGrath's last play, HyperLynx (2002), directed by her daughter Kate McGrath.{{Cite news|last=Billington|first=Michael|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2002/aug/17/theatre.artsfeatures|title=Hyperlynx, Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh|date=2002-08-17|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-03-16|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}

In 1990, she published an account of her time with the 7:84 company, The Moon Belongs to Everyone,{{Cite book|last=MacLennan, Elizabeth.|title=The moon belongs to everyone : making theatre with 7:84|date=1990|publisher=Methuen|isbn=0-413-64150-3|location=London|oclc=25676297}} in which she acknowledges McGrath her "major 'influence' and life partner".MacLennan, Elizabeth. 1990. The Moon Belongs to Everyone: Making Theatre with 7:84 London: Methuen; {{ISBN|0-413-64150-3}}. In widowhood she wrote, including the play Wild Raspberries (2002),{{Cite book|last=MacLennan, Elizabeth.|title=Wild raspberries : a correspondence set in the not too distant future|date=2010|publisher=Fairplay Press|isbn=978-1-906220-38-9|location=Edinburgh|oclc=619891930}} a children's book, Ellie and Granny Mac (2009),{{Cite book|last=MacLennan |first=Elizabeth|title=Ellie and Granny Mac|date=2009|publisher=Walker|isbn=978-1-4063-1788-6|location=London|oclc=316428350}} and a book of poetry, The Fish that Winked (2013).{{Cite book|last=MacLennan |first=Elizabeth|title=The fish that winked|date=April 2015|isbn=978-1-909703-00-1|location=[Great Britain?]|oclc=925408165}}

Televised kiss

MacLennan participated in one of the earliest known examples of an interracial kiss on television in Britain during You in Your Small Corner, a Granada Play of the Week written by Barry Reckord and broadcast live on 5 June 1962,[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0926620/ "You in Your Small Corner (5 Jun. 1962)"], IMDb.Eleni Liarou, [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/537722/ "You in Your Small Corner (1962)"], BFI Screen Online. in which she kissed Jamaican actor Lloyd Reckord. A claim for that milestone had previously been made for Emergency – Ward 10, which post-dates the kiss between Reckord and MacLennan.{{cite news|last=Brown|first=Mark|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/nov/20/tv-archive-discovers-couple-who-beat-kirk-and-uhara-to-first-interracial-kiss|title=TV archive discovers couple who beat Kirk and Uhura to first interracial kiss|work=The Guardian|date=20 November 2015|accessdate=20 November 2015}} One earlier example (also involving Lloyd Reckord) has since been found.{{Cite web|url=http://www.thebritishblacklist.com/tbbs-descantdeb-opines-interesting-race-romance-2015-bfi-love-season/|title=TBB's @DescantDeb Opines: An Interesting Take on Race and Romance at the 2015 BFI Love Season|last=|first=|date=2016-01-27|website=The British Blacklist|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160127001900/http://www.thebritishblacklist.com/tbbs-descantdeb-opines-interesting-race-romance-2015-bfi-love-season/|archive-date=27 January 2016|access-date=2020-03-16}}

Personal life

MacLennan married playwright, screenwriter, and director John McGrath in 1962. They had three children, Finn, Danny, and Kate. She was widowed in 2002, and she died of leukaemia on 23 June 2015, in London, aged 77 years.{{cite web|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/tributes-as-elizabeth-maclennan-actress-and-784-founder-dies.129947280|author=Phil Miller|title=Tributes as Elizabeth MacLennan, actress and 7:84 founder, dies|work=Herald Scotland|date=25 June 2015}}

"MacLennan was one of nature's fiery spirits, who wholeheartedly put her beliefs into action", commented critic Michael Billington in her obituary in The Guardian. Her gravesite is with her husband's, in Rogart, Sutherland; their daughter Kate McGrath is now a theatrical producer.{{Cite web|url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/westend/article/Fuel-Director-Kate-McGrath-Announces-2019-Programme-In-The-Run-Up-To-Its-15th-Anniversary-20181220|title=Fuel Director Kate McGrath Announces 2019 Programme In The Run Up To Its 15th Anniversary|last=BWW News Desk|date=20 December 2018|website=BroadwayWorld|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181220182308/https://www.broadwayworld.com/westend/article/Fuel-Director-Kate-McGrath-Announces-2019-Programme-In-The-Run-Up-To-Its-15th-Anniversary-20181220 |archive-date=20 December 2018 |access-date=2020-03-16}}{{Cite web|url=https://fueltheatre.com/|title=Who We Are and What We Do|last=|first=|date=|website=Fuel Theatre|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040210165156/http://www.fueltheatre.com:80/ |archive-date=10 February 2004 |access-date=2020-03-16}}