Natasha Parry

Natasha Parry
Born	Natalie Wills (1930-12-02)2 December 1930 London, England
Died	22 July 2015(2015-07-22) (aged 84) La Baule, France
Resting place	Jouars-Pontchartrain Churchyard, Île-de-France
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1949–2014
Spouse	Peter Brook (m. 1951)
Children	Irina Brook Simon Brook
Parent	Gordon Parry (father)

Natasha Parry (2 December 1930 – 22 July 2015) was an English actress of Russian descent. The daughter of film director Gordon Parry, she was married to theatre director Peter Brook from 1951 until her death, and is the mother of filmmakers Irina Brook and Simon Brook.

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Early life

Born in London,^[1] Parry was the daughter of the Anglo-Greek film director Gordon Parry and his Russian wife.^[2] (Some sources say Gordon Parry was her stepfather^[3]).

Stage

Parry made her stage debut at age 12^[4] in The Wingless Victory. At 14, she was in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and later she played in Big Ben and Bless the Bride.^[5] On Broadway she appeared in The Fighting Cock (1959–1960).^[6] Toward the end of her career, she was in The Tragedy of Hamlet at the Young Vic in London.^[1]

Film

Parry made her screen debut in Dance Hall (1950).^[7] She appeared in many of her husband's productions including a live American television version of King Lear (1953) opposite Orson Welles,^[8] in Anouilh's The Fighting Cock with Rex Harrison,^[9] Meetings with Remarkable Men, The Cherry Orchard, and Happy Days.^[10]

Personal life

Parry stopped performing for a year after contracting tuberculosis in 1952.^[3]

Marriage

In 1951, she married director Peter Brook at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God and All Saints, Ennismore Gardens, Knightsbridge, London.^[11] The couple had two children, Irina and Simon.^[12]^[13]

Death

Parry died on 22 July 2015 (Some sources say 23 July 2015^[1]) while on holiday in La Baule, Brittany, France, at the age of 84 after a stroke.^[2]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
1949	Golden Arrow	Betty Felton
1950	Dance Hall	Eve
1950	Midnight Episode	Jill Harris
1951	The Dark Man	Molly Lester
1952	Crow Hollow	Ann Amour
1953	King Lear	Cordelia
1954	Knave of Hearts	Patricia
1957	Windom's Way	Anna Vidal
1959	The Rough and the Smooth	Margaret Goreham
1960	Midnight Lace	Peggy Thompson
1961	The Fourth Square	Sandra Martin
1963	Girl in the Headlines	Perlita Barker
1968	Romeo and Juliet	Lady Capulet
1969	Oh! What a Lovely War	Sir William Robertson's Lady
1979	Meetings with Remarkable Men	Vitvitskaia
1981	La fille prodigue	La mère
1982	Le Lit	Eva
2014	Le goût des myrtilles	Jeanne

Selected television

Sir Francis Drake – The Prisoner (1961) as Countess Inez

The Count of Monte Cristo (1964) as Mercédès

Selected theatre

King Lear (1953)
Tchin-Tchin (1984, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris)

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Natasha Parry obituary". The Guardian. 26 July 2015. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
^ ^a ^b Chazan, David (24 July 2015). "Actress Natasha Parry dies aged 84". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
^ ^a ^b "Natasha Parry: Actress hailed for her grace and control who forged a solo career while also working with husband Peter Brook". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
^ Shulman (5 June 1953). "The Beauties of 1953". London Evening Standard.
^ "English Girl Has Enviable Stage Credits". The Odessa American. 28 September 1968. p. 24. Retrieved 15 October 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Natasha Parry". Playbill Vault. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
^ Charles Barr (1998). Ealing Studios. University of California Press. pp. 201–. ISBN 978-0-520-21554-2.
^ King Lear, Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
^ R. Helfer; G. Loney (12 November 2012). Peter Brook: Oxford to Orghast. Routledge. pp. 103–. ISBN 978-1-136-65040-6.
^ Happy Dats with Natasha Parry: review, The Guardian. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
^ Kustow, Michael (2006). Peter Brook: a biography. London: Bloomsbury. p. 62. ISBN 0-7475-7913-X.
^ Profile, Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
^ Profile, ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 24 July 2015.