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Margaret Lacey

{{Short description|British actress (1911–1988)}}

{{EngvarB|date=November 2013}}

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{{Infobox person

| name = Margaret Lacey

| image = Margaret Lacey.jpg

| caption = Lacey as Mrs. Whistler in Diamonds are Forever 1971

| birthname = Margaret Brackenbury Lacey

| birth_date = 26 October 1911

| birth_place = Chorlton-cum-Hardy

| death_date = {{death-date and age|4 October 1988|25 October 1911}}

| death_place = Llandudno

| othername = Margaret Lacy

| yearsactive = 1957–1988

| spouse =

| homepage =

| awards =

}}

Margaret Brackenbury Lacey (26 October 1911 – 4 October 1988) was a British character actress and ballet teacher. She appeared in over 30 films between 1957 and 1985, usually playing a sweet old lady or motherly figure in minor roles.

Early life

Margaret Lacey was born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, near Manchester. She was baptised there, at the Church of St. Clement, in 1912, where her baptismal record gives her birthday as 26 October 1911, and her parents' names as Algernon Hearne Lacey and Florence Fanny.{{Cite web|url=http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Manchester/Chorlton-cum-Hardy/stclement/baptisms_1907-1914.html#508|title=Baptism record for Margaret Brackenbury Lacey|website=Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerk Project|access-date=2020-03-24}} She was raised in Wales, and attended Miss Hammond's School in Colwyn Bay.{{Cite web|url=https://thehammondschoolcentenary.wordpress.com/2016/10/29/student-of-the-week-no-7-margaret-lacey/|title=Student of the Week, No. 7 – Margaret Lacey|date=2016-10-29|website=History at The Hammond|language=en|access-date=2020-03-24}}

Career

Margaret Lacey was magician Jasper Maskelyne's assistant in London, as a young woman in the 1930s.

Lacey appeared in over 30 films between 1957 and 1985, mostly playing a sweet old lady or motherly figure in minor roles. Some of her film credits include Bomb in the High Street (1963), Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), Island of Terror (1966), and Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), Black Beauty (1971), and Richard's Things (1980).{{Cite news|last=Maslin|first=Janet|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/12/movies/richard-s-things.html|title='Richard's Things'|date=1981-06-12|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-03-24|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} She was a favorite face of film directors Roy Boulting and John Schlesinger, the latter of whom called her his "mascot".{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47269865/itv-london-weekend/|title=ITV London Weekend|date=1988-01-03|work=The Observer|access-date=2020-03-24|pages=26|via=Newspapers.com}}

Lacey is perhaps best remembered internationally for her minor role in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (1971) in which she played Mrs. Whistler, a seemingly innocent Christian school teacher who smuggles diamonds in her bible for the henchmen Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd. The character is later found murdered and her body recovered out of an Amsterdam canal.{{Cite book|last=DeMichael|first=Tom|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5s-GDwAAQBAJ&q=%22Margaret+Lacey%22+James+Bond&pg=PT434|title=James Bond FAQ: All That's Left to Know About Everyone's Favorite Superspy|date=2012-12-01|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-1-4803-3786-2|language=en}}

On television, Lacey appeared in Dr Finlay's Casebook, The Saint, Coronation Street, Weavers Green, and Z-Cars in the 1960s. Her last credited appearances were in Magnum, P.I. and The Brothers McGregor in the 1980s. In 1988, Extra Special: Margaret Lacey, a documentary about Lacey, aired on British television.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b797cb4a2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912225852/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b797cb4a2|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 September 2017|title=Extra Special: Margaret Lacey (1988)|website=BFI|language=en|access-date=2020-03-24}}

For some years in the 1950s and 1960s she held regular dancing classes at the former Metropole Hotel in Colwyn Bay.Audrey Parry and José Dixon, "Dancing Schools: Miss Margaret Lacey" in [https://colwynbayheritage.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Colwyn-Bay-Memories-TALES-OUT-OF-SCHOOL-Edition-1-2018.pdf Colwyn Bay Memories: Tales out of School] (2018), Colwyn Bay Heritage. She also organized concerts and choreographed entertainments at the Prince of Wales Theatre. She was a fixture in the Llandudno Victorian Extravaganza, playing Queen Victoria in the festivities.{{Cite web|url=https://victorian-extravaganza.com/our-history|title=Wales' Largest Free Annual Family Event!|last=Extravaganza|first=Llandudno Victorian|website=Llandudno Victorian Extravaganza|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-24}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.dailypost.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/history-llandudno-victorian-extravaganza-11173793|title=History of the Llandudno Victorian Extravaganza|last=Welton|first=Blake|date=2016-04-18|website=NorthWalesLive|access-date=2020-03-24}}

Personal life

Lacey lived in retirement in Wern Cottage, Rowen, Conwy. "Margaret Lacey was a rather eccentric lady," recalled one of her students in a local history. "Her outfits were colourful, and the layers did not always match. Her hair was worn in a rather dishevelled bun, but her bearing was always ladylike." She died in 1988, aged 76, in Llandudno.

Selected filmography

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References

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External links

  • {{IMDb name|id=0479941}}
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20170426051530/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba721ed6b Margaret Lacey] at the British Film Institute{{better source needed|reason=Help request: a live link can be searched for at https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/search/expert - if available, replace the archive URL with the live link. Or if none found, remove this 'better source needed' template. | date=October 2023}}

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Category:1911 births

Category:1988 deaths

Category:People from Llandudno

Category:People from Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Category:British film actresses

Category:20th-century British actresses

Category:Actresses from Manchester

Category:Actresses from Conwy County Borough