Vivien Merchant

Vivien Merchant

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Vivien Merchant (born Ada Thompson 22 July 1929 – 3 October 1982) was a British actress. She performed in many stage productions and several films, including Alfie (1966) and Frenzy (1972). Her performance in Alfie earned her Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress, and the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was the first wife of the playwright Harold Pinter, whom she met when working as a repertory actress and married in 1956. Their son, Daniel, was born in 1958. Having performed the role of Rose in a production of his first play, The Room (1957) at the Hampstead Theatre in 1960, she also appeared in many of Pinter's subsequent works, including as Ruth in The Homecoming (1964) on stage (1965) and screen (The Homecoming, 1973). The last of his plays in which she performed was Old Times (1971) as Anna. Their marriage began disintegrating in the mid-1960s. From 1962 to 1969, Harold Pinter had a clandestine affair with Joan Bakewell, which informs Pinter's play Betrayal and his film adaptation, also called Betrayal. In 1975 Pinter began a serious affair with the historian Lady Antonia Fraser, the wife of Sir Hugh Fraser, which he confessed to his wife that March. At first, Merchant took it very well, saying positive things about Fraser, according to her friend artist Guy Vaesen (as cited by Billington); but, Vaesen recalled, after "a female friend of Vivien's trotted round to her house and poisoned her mind against Antonia ... Life in Hanover Terrace [where the Pinters then lived] gradually became impossible". Pinter left, and Vivien Merchant filed for divorce and gave interviews to the tabloid press, expressing her distress.The Frasers' divorce became final in 1977 and the Pinters' in 1980. In 1980 Pinter married Antonia Fraser. Vivien Merchant never overcame her grief and bitterness at losing Pinter, dying at the age of 53 on 3 October 1982, from acute alcoholism Description above from the Wikipedia article Vivien Merchant , licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For: Acting

Born: Manchester, Lancashire, England, UK, 1929-07-22

Died: 1982-10-03

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1960	A Night Out	Girl	0
2	1960	Night School	Sally Gibbs	0
3	1963	The Lover	Sarah	50
4	1965	Tea Party		0
5	1966	A Month in the Country		0
6	1966	Alfie	Lily Clamacraft	65
7	1967	Opus	Ruth (The Homecoming)	50
8	1967	Accident	Rosalind	63
9	1968	Funeral Games	Tessa	0
10	1969	Alfred the Great	Freda	43
11	1972	Under Milk Wood	Mrs. Pugh	62
12	1972	Frenzy	Mrs. Oxford	71
13	1972	A War of Children		72
14	1973	The Offence	Maureen Johnson	68
15	1973	The Common	Jane Noble	0
16	1973	The Homecoming	Ruth	60
17	1975	The Maids	Madame	55
18	1977	The Man in the Iron Mask	Reine Maria Theresa	64
19		The Collection	Stella	0

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1962	Studio 4	Olivia	50
2	1962	Studio Four	Olivia	60
3	1965	BBC Play of the Month	Evelyn Daly	50
4	1965	BBC Play of the Month	Dona Ana	50
5	1965	BBC Play of the Month	Jane Noble	50
6	1967	NBC Experiment in Television	(voice)	0
7	1977	Secret Army	Mlle. Gunet	75
8	1980	A Tale of Two Cities		50

Vivien Merchant

Film

Television