Mary Wimbush (19 March 1924, Kenton, Middlesex — 31 October 2005, Birmingham, West Midlands) was an English actress, whose career spanned sixty years from the 1940s to the 2000s. Active across film, television, theatre and radio, she was perhaps best known for her role as the character of Julia Pargetter in BBC Radio 4's popular soap opera The Archers, a part she played from 1992 until her death.
Biography[]
Wimbush's father was a schoolmaster and her mother had trained at RADA, but did not pursue a stage career. Wimbush was educated at the Berkhamsted School for Girls and at St Agnes & St Michael's, an Anglican convent in East Grinstead. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, before joining Amersham rep.
Wimbush had one son (from her 1946 marriage to the actor Howard Marion-Crawford), and later two grandchildren through him. From 1958 she was the lover of the poet and playwright Louis MacNeice, until his death in 1963.
She died on the evening of 31 October 2005, at The Mailbox studios of BBC Birmingham, shortly after completing work on a recording session for The Archers
Work in Radio[]
She first acted on radio for the BBC in 1945, preferring the medium as it gave her more time to look after her young family, and it continued to be the medium in which she was the most active throughout her career. She played roles in hundreds of series, serials and plays, including various Shakespeare productions; Mrs Dale's Diary, The Governor's Consort (a part written especially for her by Peter Tinniswood), The Mystery of Edwin Drood and The Horse's Mouth. For the latter two productions she won Best Actress at the 1991 Sony Awards. In 2004 she played Eurycleia in BBC Radio 4's acclaimed dramatization of The Odyssey.
In The Archers in 1951 her character Jane Maxwell was the original stumbling block to the engagement of Phil Archer and his future (first) wife Grace. In 1965 she played schoolteacher Elsie Catcher, and was a regular on the programme for two years until the character retired. In 1969 she returned as Lady Isabel Lander, before she finally came back in 1992 as Julia Pargetter.
Radio Roles[]
Film and Television[]
In 1959 she had acted in a radio play opposite Richard Attenborough, and when he was making his first film as a director, 1969's Oh! What a Lovely War, he remembered her performance and cast her as the mother of the Smith family. Her first film role, the production won her a nomination as Best Supporting Actress at the British Academy Film Awards. She later appeared in two other films, Fragment of Fear (1970) and Vampire Circus (1972).
On television, she appeared in a variety of high-profile series in supporting roles, and later in her career appeared on stage as well.