Rita Tushingham

Tushingham was born on 14 March 1942 in the Garston area of Liverpool, where her father was a grocer who ran three shops.{{cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/465090/|title=Rita Tushingham at screenonline|access-date=23 August 2014|work=screenonline.org}} She grew up in the Hunt's Cross district of the city. She attended the Heatherlea School in Allerton and the La Sagesse School in Grassendale (which later became part of St Julie's Catholic High School) and studied shorthand and typing at a secretarial school. She wanted to be an actress from an early age and trained at the Shelagh Elliott-Clarke School before working as an assistant stage manager at the Liverpool Playhouse.{{cite web|url=http://ritatushingham.com/1942.htm|title=Rita Tushingham 1942|access-date=23 August 2014|work=ritatushingham.com}}

Tushingham's screen debut was in A Taste of Honey (1961). In 2020, she said of the film: "We shocked audiences without intending to. I only learned later that Paul and I did the first interracial kiss on screen. ... A lot of the reaction was, 'People like that don’t exist' – by which they meant homosexuals, single mothers and people in mixed-race relationships. But they did." A Taste of Honey was banned in several countries.

Other performances by Tushingham have included Girl with Green Eyes (1964), The Leather Boys (1964),The Knack ...and How to Get It (1965), Doctor Zhivago (1965), The Trap (1966), Smashing Time (1967), The Bed Sitting Room (1969), and The 'Human' Factor starring George Kennedy and John Mills (1975). She also co-starred as Margaret Sheen in the TV film Green Eyes (1977).

In the 1960s, Tushingham performed several plays for the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre: The Changeling (1961), The Kitchen (1961), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1962), Twelfth Night (production without décor, 1962) and The Knack (1962).

Tushingham has won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award, and was a member of the jury at the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival in 1972{{cite web|url=http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1972/04_jury_1972/04_Jury_1972.html|title=Berlinale 1972: Juries|access-date=15 March 2010|work=berlinale.de}} and at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival in 1990.{{cite web|url=http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1990/04_jury_1990/04_Jury_1990.html|title=Berlinale: 1990 Juries|access-date=14 March 2011|work=berlinale.de}}

Her later roles include the film Being Julia (2004), starring Annette Bening, and on television in "The Sittaford Mystery" (2006), an episode of Marple. She appeared in Series 2 of the BBC Three zombie drama In The Flesh as Mrs Lamb, broadcast in May 2014. In 2020 she appeared in the BBC One adaptation of The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie.

Clips from Tushingham's performance in The Leather Boys appeared in The Smiths' music video for the single "Girlfriend in a Coma", in 1987.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/the-smiths-the-open-secret-of-girlfriend-in-a-coma-197566/|title=The Smiths: The Open Secret of 'Girlfriend in a Coma'|first1=Armond|last1=White|magazine=Rolling Stone |date=August 10, 2017}} She is also mentioned in the Franz Ferdinand song "L. Wells", the Cleaners From Venus song "Ilya Kuryakin Looked at Me" and the Television Personalities song "Favourite Films". In 1999, she was featured on This Is Your Life.{{cite web|url=http://ritatushingham.com/1990.htm|title=Credits & Photos 1990 – 1999 {{!}} The Rita Tushingham Home Page|website=ritatushingham.com/1990.htm|access-date=25 February 2024}}

File:Rita Tushingham 2006.jpg

Tushingham married photographer Terry Bicknell in 1962. They had two daughters, Dodonna and Aisha, before divorcing in 1976. In 1981, she married Iraqi cinematographer Ousama Rawi, spending eight years in Canada with him before they separated. They were not legally divorced until 1996. She later divided her time between Germany and London with German writer Hans-Heinrich Ziemann, her partner since 1994. {{As of|2020}} she lives alone in London, near her daughter Aisha and her grandchildren.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jan/28/rita-tushingham-interview-taste-of-honey-shock-60s|title=Rita Tushingham on life after A Taste of Honey: 'It was a shock when the 60s ended'|newspaper=The Guardian |first=Stuart|last= Jeffries|date= 28 January 2020|access-date=10 May 2021}}

In April 2005, at the age of 33, Tushingham's daughter Aisha was diagnosed with breast cancer. She recovered and later gave birth to a son. Tushingham subsequently became an activist for breast cancer health and support.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/health/2006/08/21/hknack21.xml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311101630/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/health/2006/08/21/hknack21.xml|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 March 2007|work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London|title=The knack of coping with cancer|first=Victoria|last=Lambert|date=21 August 2006|access-date=22 May 2010}} She is a prominent supporter of Cancer Research UK's Relay For Life and has given a number of interviews to raise breast cancer awareness.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-us|title=About us|date=22 August 2013|website=Cancer Research UK}}

In July 2009, Tushingham received an Honorary Fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University for "outstanding and sustained contributions to the performing arts".{{cite web | url = https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/about-us/about-liverpool-john-moores-university/fellows/honorary-fellows-2009/rita-tushingham|title = Rita Tushingham - Oration presented by Professor Frank Sanderson|date = 2009|publisher = Liverpool John Moores University |access-date = 2018-09-16|quote = And we are delighted to honour her today for her outstanding and sustained contributions to the performing arts.}} In a 2020 interview, she described herself as a "lifelong football fan" and a Liverpool F.C. supporter.

In June 2022, Tushingham was the guest for BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. Her choices included "You'll Never Walk Alone" by Gerry and the Pacemakers, "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" by Ella Fitzgerald and "Bridge over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel. Her book choice was Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable and her requested luxury item was a photograph of her family inside a book of Matt cartoons wrapped in a mosquito net.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0018frv|title=BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Rita Tushingham, actor|website=BBC|date=June 2022}}

Tushingham was made Honorary Associate of London Film School.

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• {{Screenonline name|465090}}

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{{Bafta Award for Most Promising Newcomer}}

{{Prix d'interprétation féminine 1960–1979}}

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Category:1942 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century English actresses

Category:21st-century English actresses

Category:Actresses from Liverpool

Category:BAFTA Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles winners

Category:Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners

Category:English film actresses

Category:English stage actresses

Category:English television actresses

Category:New Star of the Year (Actress) Golden Globe winners

Category:People from Garston

Category:People from Hunt's Cross