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}}
- Floodtide (1949) as Judy
- Madeleine (1950) as Christina Hackett
- Guilt Is My Shadow (1950) as Linda
- Cloudburst (1951) as Carol Graham
- Night Was Our Friend (1951) as Sally Raynor
- Hunted (1952) as Magda Lloyd
- The Gentle Gunman (1952) as Maureen Fagan
- The Long Memory (1953) as Fay Lowther
- The Broken Horseshoe (1953) as Della Freeman
- Recoil (1953) as Jean Talbot
- Three's Company (1953) as Diane Graham (segment "The Surgeon's Story")
- Forbidden Cargo (1954) as Rita Compton
- The Barefoot Contessa (1954) as Jerry Dawes
- Désirée (1954) as Julie Clary, Désirée's Sister
- Prince of Players (1955) as Asia Booth
- Three Cases of Murder (1955) as Elizabeth ("You Killed Elizabeth" segment)
- The Last Man to Hang (1956) as Daphne Strood
- The Man in the Sky (1957) as Mary Mitchell
- The Shiralee (1957) as Marge
- Law and Disorder (1958) as Gina Laselle
- Jet Storm (1959) as Inez Barrington
- The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960) as Iris Muldoon
- Never Let Go (1960) as Anne Cummings
- The Webster Boy (1962) as Margaret Webster
- 55 Days at Peking (1963) as Lady Sarah Robertson
- The Chalk Garden (1964) as Olivia
- The Mummy's Shroud (1967) as Barbara Preston
- The Hireling (1973) as Lady Franklin's mother
- A Voyage Round My Father (1982, TV movie) as Mother
- Play for Today ('Last Love') (1983) as Annabel Fox (co-starring Dave King (actor) (written by Reg Gadney)
- Farrington (1987, TV series) as Delia Murdock
- The Play on One: The Dunroamin' Rising (1988, TV play) as Jean Sutherland
- A Ghost in Monte Carlo (1990, TV movie) as Countess Kissler
{{div col end}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- {{IMDb name|id=0783288|name=Elizabeth Sellars}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sellars, Elizabeth}}
Category:Actresses from Glasgow
Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Category:Scottish film actresses
Category:Scottish stage actresses