Elizabeth Sellars

{{Short description|Scottish actress (1921–2019)}}

{{Use British English|date=September 2015}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Elizabeth Sellars

| image = Elizabeth Sellars in One Step Beyond (The Villa).jpg

| caption = Sellars in the TV series One Step Beyond, episode The Villa, 1961

| birth_name = Elizabeth Macdonald Sellars

| birth_date = {{birth date|1921|5|6|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland

| death_date = {{death date and age|2019|12|30|1921|5|6|df=yes}}

| death_place = Paris, France

| occupation = Actress

| years_active = 1949–1990

| alma_mater = Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

| spouse = {{marriage|Francis Austin Henley|1960|2009|end=died}}

}}

Elizabeth Macdonald Sellars (6 May 1921 – 30 December 2019) was a Scottish actress.

Early life and education

Sellars was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the daughter of Stephen Sellars and Jean Sutherland.{{Cite news|last=Bergan|first=Ronald|date=2020-01-06|title=Elizabeth Sellars obituary|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|location=UK|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jan/06/elizabeth-sellars-obituary|access-date=2020-07-23|issn=0261-3077|archive-date=24 July 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200724115423/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jan/06/elizabeth-sellars-obituary|url-status=live}} She appeared on the stage from the age of 15, and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.{{cite news |last1=Cornel |first1=Jean |title=Talent Is Still With Us |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14374279/elizabeth_sellars/ |work=Tucson Daily Citizen |date=24 August 1957 |location=Arizona |page=27 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=12 October 2017}} {{Open access}} She also studied law for five years in England.{{cite news |last1=Roe |first1=Dorothy |title=Actress Elizabeth Sellars Studies Law Between Performances |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14374744/elizabeth_sellars/ |work=Lubbock Avalanche-Journal |agency=Associated Press |date=9 November 1958 |location=Texas |page=64 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=12 October 2017}} {{Open access}}

Career

Sellars worked with ENSA during World War II, entertaining British troops. She made her first London stage appearance in 1946 in The Brothers Karamazov, directed by Peter Brook and sharing the stage with Alec Guinness. She later appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company as Elizabeth in Richard III, Helen in Troilus and Cressida, Gertrude in Hamlet and Hermione in The Winter's Tale. She played opposite Valentine Dyall, Louise Hampton, and Anthony Ireland in The Other Side, at the Comedy Theatre, London, in 1946.

Sellars entered films with Floodtide (1949), part of an all-Scottish cast, including Gordon Jackson. She appeared in a string of British films in the 1950s and 1960s, and also a few Hollywood films, usually in secondary roles, including The Barefoot Contessa (1954), Désirée (1954), Prince of Players (1955), The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960), 55 Days at Peking (1963), and The Chalk Garden (1964). She was the main female lead in a number of films, including The Long Memory (1953), The Last Man to Hang (1956), Never Let Go (1960), and The Webster Boy (1962). She also appeared frequently on television, most notably in A Voyage Round My Father (1982) with Laurence Olivier.{{Cite web|title=Remembering Elizabeth Sellars (1921-2019)|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/remembering-elizabeth-sellars-1921-2019|access-date=2020-07-23|publisher=British Film Institute|language=en|archive-date=24 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200824041816/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/remembering-elizabeth-sellars-1921-2019|url-status=live}}{{Cite magazine|last=Bartlett|first=Rhett|date=2 January 2020|title=Elizabeth Sellars, Actress in 'The Barefoot Contessa,' Dies at 98|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/elizabeth-sellars-dead-barefoot-contessa-actress-was-98-1265543|access-date=2020-07-23|magazine=The Hollywood Reporter|language=en|archive-date= 12 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212042149/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/elizabeth-sellars-dead-barefoot-contessa-actress-was-98-1265543|url-status=live }}

Personal life

On 8 September 1960, Sellars married surgeon Francis Austin Henley in Stow-on-the-Wold, England. They remained together until his death on 31 January 2009.{{cite news |title=Elizabeth Sellars Wed |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14374591/elizabeth_sellars/ |work=The Kansas City Times |agency=Associated Press |date=9 September 1960 |location=Kansas City, Missouri |page=12 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=12 October 2017}} {{Open access}} Sellars died on 30 December 2019 at her home in France, aged 98 years.{{Cite news|title=Sellars - Deaths Announcements|url= http://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/deaths/238367/sellars|access-date=2020-07-23|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|location=UK}}{{Cite magazine|last=Lenker|first=Maureen Lee|date=2 January 2020|title=Elizabeth Sellars, actress who played Bogart's wife in 'The Barefoot Contessa,' dies at 98|url=https://ew.com/movies/2020/01/02/actress-elizabeth-sellars-the-barefoot-contessa-dies/|access-date=2020-07-23|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|language=EN|archive-date= 23 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200723154228/https://ew.com/movies/2020/01/02/actress-elizabeth-sellars-the-barefoot-contessa-dies/|url-status=live}}

Partial filmography

{{div col}}

{{div col end}}

References

{{reflist}}