Rachel Roberts Movies and Career Information

Rachel Roberts (20 September 1927 – 26 November 1980) was a Welsh actress noted for her fervour and passion; Roberts is best remembered for her forthright screen performances in two key films of the 1960s, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and This Sporting Life, in both of which she played the older mistress of the central male character. After a Baptist upbringing (against which she rebelled), followed by the University of Wales and RADA, she began working with a repertory company in Swansea in 1950. She made her film debut in the Welsh-set comedy Valley of Song (1953; directed by Gilbert Gunn). Her portrayal of Brenda in Karel Reisz's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) won her a BAFTA. Lindsay Anderson cast her as the suffering Mrs Hammond in This Sporting Life (1963, another BAFTA and an Oscar nomination). Both films were significant examples of the British New Wave of film making. In theatre, she performed at the Royal Court and was the life-enhancing tart Maggie May in Lionel Bart's musical (1964). In films she continued to play women with lusty appetites as in Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man! (1973), although the haunting Australian-made Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975,