Geraldine Mcewan
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
Like Judi Dench, Geraldine McEwan is a British actress best known for her stage roles who has also made the occasional foray into film and television. Born and raised in Windsor, she began her acting career as a teenager and gradually made her way through various repertory companies to land in the mid-1950s at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon. After joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1961, McEwan distinguished herself in such roles as Beatrice in "Much Ado About Nothing" and Ophelia in "Hamlet." Over the course of the next three decades, the actress amassed a formidable array of credits, originating roles in such contemporary classics as Joe Orton's "Loot" (1965) and tackling many of the classics like "The School for Scandal" (her Broadway debut in 1963), "The Rivals" (in 1983) and more recently, the absurdist "The Chairs" (a return to Broadway in 1998).
McEwan has made only a handful of feature appearances including starring opposite Laurence Olivier in Strindberg's "The Dance of Death" (1968). She was suitably aristocratic in the uneven comedy "Foreign Body" (1986) and provided an amusing turn as the maid teaching English to the French queen (Emma Thompson) in Kenneth Branagh's stirring remake of "Henry V" (1989). More recently, she won plaudits as the town eccentric in "The Love Letter" (1999). Her small screen roles have allowed McEwan better showcases for her talents. She dominated the Scottish miniseries version of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (shown on PBS in 1979), all but erasing memories of Maggie Smith's Oscar-winning bravura performance. McEwan did battle with Prunella Scales as social rivals in the amusing London Weekly Television miniseries "Mapp & Lucia" (1985-86). Among her other notable small screen appearances was her strong turn as the deeply religious mother of a lesbian in the BBC miniseries "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" (1990).
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1946
Stage acting debut as an attendant to Hippolyta in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Windsor, England
1951
London debut in "Who Goes There!"
1955
Had the title role in "Patience" in Brighton
1956
Early British TV credit, "George and Margaret" for ITV
1957
Played Frankie Adams in the London production of "A Member of the Wedding"
1958
Toured the Soviet Union with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre
1961
Film acting debut in "No Kidding/Beware of Children"
1961
Was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company; essayed such roles as Olivia in "Twelfth Night", Beatrice in "Much Ado About Nothing" and Ophelia in "Hamlet"
1963
Broadway debut as Lady Teazle in "The School for Scandal"
1964
American TV acting debut in "The Thomas Hart Benton Story", an episode of the NBC series "Profiles in Courage"
1965
Appeared in the original production of Joe Orton's black comedy "Loot"
1968
Co-starred with Laurence Olivier in the film version of Strindberg's "The Dance of Death"
1976
Had role of Lady Bellaston in "The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones"
1978
Played the title role in the Scottish TV miniseries "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (aired in the USA on PBS)
1982
Co-starred in the British miniseries "The Barchester Chronicles" (aired on "Masterpiece Theatre" in the USA in 1984)
1989
Appeared as Alice in Kenneth Branagh's version of "Henry V"
1990
Played the heroine's starchy evangelist mother in the three-part BBC miniseries "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" (an edited version aired on A&E in the USA)
1991
Last film role to date, Mortianna in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves"" in the TNT miniseries
1996
Cast as Miriam, the sister of Ben Kingsley's "Moses
1998
Returned to Broadway opposite Richard Briers in Eugene Ionesco's "The Chairs"
1999
Made cameo appearance in "Titus"
1999
Had featured role as the town busybody in "The Love Letter"
2000
Co-starred in Kenneth Branagh's musicalization of "Love's Labour's Lost"
2003
Co-starred in the Irish-set drama "Magdalene Sisters"
2005
Voice-acted as Miss Thripp in "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"
Family
Companions
