Eileen Atkins

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dame Eileen June Atkins DBE (born 16 June 1934) is an English writer and award-winning film and theatre actress.

Eileen Atkins was born in a Salvation Army women's hostel in North London, the Cockney daughter of barmaid and a traffic meter reader.

Among her accomplishments are the creation of two television series, including the concept for an original television series, created with Jean Marsh, titled Behind the Green Baize Door, which became the award-winning ITV series Upstairs, Downstairs.

The same team was also responsible for the BBC series The House of Eliott. Her noteworthy television work has included The Three Sisters (1970), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1971), The Lady from the Sea (1974), Electra (1974), Sons and Lovers (1981), Oliver Twist (1982), Titus Andronicus (1985), The Burston Rebellion (1985), The Lost Language of Cranes (1991), Cold Comfort Farm (1995), Talking Heads (1998), Madame Bovary (2000), David Copperfield (2000), Wit (2001) and Bertie and Elizabeth (2002).

In recent years Dame Eileen has held a virtual monopoly on Virginia Woolf. She has played the writer on stage (A Room of One's Own and Vita and Virginia) and screen (the 1990 television version of Room); she also provided the screenplay for the 1997 film adaptation of Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway -- starring Vanessa Redgrave (her stage costar in Vita and Virginia) -- and made a cameo appearance in the 2002 film version of Michael Cunningham's Woolf-themed novel The Hours.

Her other big-screen films include Equus (1977), The Dresser (1983), Wolf (1994), Jack and Sarah (1995), Gosford Park (2001), Cold Mountain (2003), Vanity Fair (2004) and Ask the Dust (2006).

She has appeared in countless stage productions in and around London, including A Delicate Balance (1997), Cymbeline (1988), Honour (2003), John Gabriel Borkman (1996), Mountain Language (1988), The Night of the Iguana (1992), The Unexpected Man (1998).

Dame Eileen has appeared on Broadway many times as well, scoring four Tony nominations as Best Actress in a Play. Her debut was in 1966, in Frank Marcus' The Killing of Sister George. Next was the Russian play The Promise (which closed after less than a month in 1967). In 1972's premiere of Robert Bolt's Vivat! Vivat! Regina!, she played Elizabeth I to Claire Bloom's Mary, Queen of Scots.

The Scandinavian novelty The Night of the Tribades barely ran for two weeks in 1977. A bit more successful were 1995's new version of Jean Cocteau's Indiscretions (which co-starred Kathleen Turner and Broadway debutant Jude Law) and 2004's The Retreat from Moscow, William Nicholson's play about a marriage in ruins, with costars John Lithgow and Ben Chaplin.

In January 2006 she took over the lead role in the Broadway production of John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer-prize winning play Doubt opposite Ron Eldard and Jena Malone.

Her off-Broadway work has included A Room of One's Own (1991) and The Unexpected Man (2001)

She was propositioned by Colin Farrell on location in 2004, shortly before she turned 70; she said the incident helped her pass that milestone far more easily than she otherwise would have expected.

Eileen Atkins was created a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1990, and raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 2001.

She was married to Julian Glover from 1957 to 1966, but they were later divorced. She has been married to her current husband, Bill Shepherd, since 2 February 1978. She has no children.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995.