Avril Elgar

Avril Elgar Williams was born on 1 April 1932 at barracks in Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of John and Annie (née Rose) Williams. Her early childhood was marked by frequent relocation: the family lived in Catterick, North Yorkshire, and Royal Arsenal before her father was posted to India. They returned to Britain in 1945 and settled in Penzance. She trained at the Old Vic Theatre School in London. She died in Bristol on 17 September 2021, at the age of 89.

Elgar built an extensive career across stage, radio, and television in Britain. Her theatre work began at the Royal Court Theatre in London, where she played Young Macduff and Second Witch in a 1958 production of Macbeth. That same year she appeared at the Royal Court as Norah in Epitaph for George Dillon, written by John Osborne and Anthony Creighton and directed by William Gaskill — a production that also transferred to Broadway in 1958. She returned to the Royal Court numerous times over the following decade, taking on roles including Alice Maitland in Harley Granville-Barker's The Voysey Inheritance in 1966 and Olga in Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters in 1967, as well as appearing in two John Osborne works in 1962: The Blood of the Bambergs, directed by John Dexter, and Under Plain Covers, directed by Jonathan Miller.

Working with the 59 Theatre Company under director Casper Wrede, Elgar played Lucille in Georg Büchner's Danton's Death at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, in 1959, and Asta in Henrik Ibsen's Little Eyolf at the same venue in 1960. Her association with Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre became a defining strand of her career. There she played Aase in Ibsen's Peer Gynt in 1970, directed by Michael Elliott for 69 Theatre at the University Theatre, Manchester, and twice performed Agatha in T. S. Eliot's The Family Reunion, directed by Elliott, in 1973 and again in 1979. Her husband, the American actor-director James Maxwell, directed her in several Royal Exchange productions, among them Miss Moffatt in Emlyn Williams's The Corn is Green in 1981, Miss Havisham in a 1985 adaptation of Great Expectations, Amanda Wingfield in Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie in 1989, and Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest in 1994. Maxwell also directed the world premiere of a Pride and Prejudice adaptation at the Royal Exchange in 1991. Elgar and Maxwell had married in 1952 and had two sons together; Maxwell died in 1995.

Among her other notable stage credits, Elgar played Linda in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman at the Royal Exchange in 1985, directed by Greg Hersov, and appeared in the world premiere of Michael Wall's Among Barbarians, directed by James Maxwell, at the same theatre in 1989. She took the role of The Concierge in Victoria Benedictsson's The Enchantment at the Royal National Theatre in 2007, directed by Paul Miller. Her final stage appearance was as Maria in Andrew Hilton's production of Uncle Vanya, presented by Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory at the Bristol Old Vic in 2009.

On screen, Elgar appeared in a range of British film and television productions. Her film credits include Room at the Top (1959), Ladies Who Do (1963), Spring and Port Wine (1970), The Medusa Touch (1978), Betrayal (1983), Thirteen at Dinner (1985), and Wilde (1997). On television she appeared in series including Dixon of Dock Green, Midsomer Murders, and Tales of the Unexpected, and played Ethel Pumphrey, the sister of Mildred Roper, in George and Mildred.