Alison Leggatt

Alison Joy Leggatt (7 February 1904 – 15 July 1990) was an English character actress born in the Kensington district of London. She trained under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Drama, which was then housed in the Royal Albert Hall. Her stage career began in earnest with Miles Malleson's The Fanatics in 1927, a performance that The New York Times credited with establishing her as one of the most promising theatrical newcomers of her generation.

Leggatt's stage work spanned several decades and encompassed a wide range of significant productions. She appeared in the original 1931 Drury Lane production of Noël Coward's Cavalcade, and went on to take part in the original West End runs of Bernard Shaw's Geneva in 1938, T.S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party in 1950, and Eliot's The Confidential Clerk in 1954. She also performed at Stratford and appeared in Harold Pinter's A Slight Ache in 1961 and N.F. Simpson's One Way Pendulum in 1959. Her Broadway career, which ran from 1958 to 1959, came about through the New York transfer of John Osborne's Epitaph for George Dillon, in which she had originated a role in the West End production.

Her film career began in earnest with the 1944 Noël Coward adaptation This Happy Breed, in which she played Aunt Sylvia. She appeared opposite Petula Clark on three separate occasions: in Here Come the Huggetts (1948), The Card (1952), and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969). Among her other notable film roles was Mrs. Hurst in John Schlesinger's 1967 adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd. She also appeared in the 1964 film version of One Way Pendulum, playing Mrs. Groomkirby. Her final screen credit was the 1976 Sherlock Holmes film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, in which she played Mrs. Hudson.

Leggatt's television work included Jonathan Miller's 1966 production of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in which she portrayed the Queen of Hearts, and the 1975 miniseries Edward the Seventh, where she played Princess Victoria, the Duchess of Kent and mother of Queen Victoria. She also appeared in a 1978 episode of the prison drama Within These Walls, playing Alice Drewett, the narcissistic sister of an inmate. Leggatt died of natural causes in London at the age of 86.