Pat Keen

{{Short description|English actress (1933–2013)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}

{{One source|date=May 2013}}

Patricia Margaret "Pat" Keen (21 October 1933 – 1 March 2013) was an English actress whose career on stage, television and film ran from the 1950s to the 2000s.

Born in Willesden, Brent, London, Keen trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in the company of the novelist Paul Bailey, and after graduating in 1956, was offered a job at the Oxford Playhouse.Paul Bailey [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/mar/21/pat-keen Obituary: Pat Keen], The Guardian, 22 March 2013 Her first West End appearance came with the role of Margaret in the first stage production of Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons in 1960, in which Susannah York was cast in the later film version.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/a-man-for-all-seasons-v31129/cast-crew|title=A Man for All Seasons (1966) – Fred Zinnemann | Cast and Crew | AllMovie|publisher=AllMovie}}

Before acting, she worked for two years in the Foreign Office, which she attributed to her ability to speak French. {{Cite news |last=Bailey |first=Paul |date=2013-03-21 |title=Pat Keen obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/mar/21/pat-keen |access-date=2024-10-17 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

In David Copperfield (1974), a Sunday tea time serial for the BBC, Keen played the "perfect" Clara Peggotty, however the actress was best known for playing strident, bossy middle-aged women throughout the 1970s and 1980s, such as Virginia in the Fawlty Towers episode "The Anniversary" (1979), and as an anxious mother in Clockwise (1986).{{Cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba1ec9ba9|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161027015202/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba1ec9ba9|url-status=dead|archive-date=27 October 2016|title=Pat Keen|publisher=British Film Institute}} She was also known for playing Addy (the mother in law) in the TV series Down to Earth (2000–2001).{{Cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9eee0ed6d7ec4ac6bd32c17ace3bc91a|title=Down to Earth|date=28 August 2000|issue=3992|pages=80|publisher=BBC Genome}}