Lally Bowers

Kathleen "Lally" Bowers was an English actress born on 21 January 1914 in Oldham, Lancashire. She was educated at Hulme Grammar School before working as a secretary, a career she left behind when she began walking on and understudying at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Bowers made her London debut in 1944 and went on to accumulate hundreds of stage credits across regional repertory theatres in Manchester, Sheffield, Southport, Guildford, Liverpool, Birmingham, and the Bristol Old Vic. Among her West End successes was Dinner With the Family, for which she received a Clarence Derwent Award in 1957. Additional West End appearances included Difference of Opinion, Dear Octopus, The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B, and The Killing of Sister George, the last of which also transferred to Broadway in 1966, marking her sole appearance on the New York stage.

Her film work spanned more than two decades and included roles in We Joined the Navy (1962), Tamahine (1963), The Chalk Garden (1964), I Start Counting (1970), All the Way Up (1970), Up Pompeii (1971), Our Miss Fred (1972), Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), The Slipper and the Rose (1976), and Screamtime (1983). On television, Bowers appeared in the sitcoms You're Only Young Twice, Going Straight, Hi-de-Hi!, My Name Is Harry Worth, and A Fine Romance. In 1982 she portrayed Mrs. Ariadne Oliver in The Case of the Discontented Soldier, part of the television anthology series The Agatha Christie Hour.

Bowers died on 18 July 1984 in London.