Margaret Barton
{{Short description|British actress (born 1926)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Margaret Barton
| image =
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_name = Margaret Ann Barton
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1926|5|27|df=y}}
| birth_place = Finsbury Park, London, England
| death_date =
| death_place =
| resting_place =
| occupation = Actor
| years_active =
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- {{marriage|Raymond James
|1949|2016|end=died}} - {{marriage|Rob Cave|2018}}
}}
| website =
}}
Margaret Ann Barton (born 27 May 1926) is a British retired actress.{{cite web|url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/6925 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115091905/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/6925 |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 January 2009 |title=BFI | Film & TV Database | BARTON, Margaret |publisher=Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk |accessdate=2013-10-28}} She is best known for her role in the 1945 David Lean film Brief Encounter in which she played Beryl Walters, a girl who works in the railway station cafe.
Early career
Barton began acting in the theatre at the age of 12. Because she was small for her age, during World War II she portrayed children and young women. At 17 she appeared in Pink String and Sealing Wax at the Duke of York's Theatre and remembered performing while doodlebugs flew overhead. While on the West End stage she was spotted by David Lean and Noël Coward and cast for the part of Beryl in Brief Encounter. Her scenes were shot at Denham Film Studios and for other scenes she was invited by Lean to watch from behind the camera.{{cite news|publisher=BBC News|author=Tim Masters|date=27 May 2016|title=Brief Encounter's Margaret Barton: 'I was never a film star'|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36387445|accessdate=27 May 2016}}
Postwar
After the war, Barton continued acting on stage, in film, and for television. She married Raymond James; their son, Michael, died of cancer at the age of 30, and his parents set up the Michael James Music Trust in his memory. Raymond James died in 2016, aged 93.{{cite news |last1=Slade |first1=Darren |title=Town's love and warmth has helped me after husband's death |url=https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/14275600.towns-love-and-warmth-has-helped-me-after-husbands-death/ |access-date=2 December 2020 |work=Bournemouth Echo |date=14 February 2016}} Barton lives in Dorset, where she runs a tea room, and still receives many letters relating to Brief Encounter. On 30 August 2018, aged 92, she married Rob Cave, aged 91, in Wimborne. Their combined age of 183 was believed to make them Britain's oldest newlyweds.{{cite news |title=Rob Cave and Margaret James become Britain's oldest newlyweds |url=https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/16683953.rob-cave-margaret-james-become-britains-oldest-newlyweds/ |access-date=2 December 2020 |work=Bournemouth Echo |date=3 September 2018}}
Filmography
| class="wikitable" | |||
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | Brief Encounter | Beryl Walters – Tea Room Assistant | |
| 1947 | Temptation Harbour | Betty Mallison | |
| 1948 | Good-Time Girl | Agnes | |
| 1948 | Fly Away Peter | Myra Hapgood | |
| 1949 | Landfall | Rick's Sister | |
| 1949 | The Romantic Age | Bessie | |
| 1952 | The Happy Family | Anne | |
| 1954 | The Gay Dog | Peggy | |
| 1983 | Chautauqua Girl | Mrs. Lucas |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|0059200}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barton, Margaret}}
Category:English film actresses
Category:Actresses from London
Category:People from Finsbury Park
Category:Actors from the London Borough of Haringey
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