Margaret Leighton

Margaret Leighton (26 February 1922 – 13 January 1976) was an English actress born in Barnt Green, Worcestershire, whose career spanned stage, film, and television across four decades. She made her stage debut in 1938 playing Dorothy in Laugh with Me, a production that was also broadcast that year on BBC Television. After building her reputation through extensive work at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in the early 1940s, she joined the Old Vic company, appearing in productions including Richard III, Uncle Vanya, and Henry IV Parts I and II at the New Theatre in London.

Leighton made her Broadway debut in 1946 as the Queen in Henry IV, part of the Old Vic's American visit starring Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson. The company brought five productions from its repertoire to New York that season, including Uncle Vanya, Oedipus Rex, and The Critic, before returning to London. Her Broadway career continued through 1967, encompassing productions such as Separate Tables, Much Ado About Nothing, Tchin-Tchin, The Night of the Iguana, The Chinese Prime Minister, Slapstick Tragedy — which included The Mutilated — and a revival of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, in which she played Birdie Hubbard.

A four-time Tony Award nominee, Leighton won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play twice. Her first win came for Separate Tables in 1957, and her second for The Night of the Iguana in 1962, in which she portrayed Hannah Jelkes opposite Bette Davis as Maxine Faulk. She received Tony nominations for Much Ado About Nothing (1959) and Tchin-Tchin (1962).

Her film work began with a role in Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948), in which she played Flora MacDonald opposite David Niven, followed that same year by The Winslow Boy, directed by Anthony Asquith, which became her first credited film role. She subsequently appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Under Capricorn (1949), Powell and Pressburger's The Elusive Pimpernel, George More O'Ferrall's The Holly and the Ivy, and the crime picture Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951). Later film credits included Martin Ritt's The Sound and the Fury, John Guillermin's Waltz of the Toreadors, Franklin J. Schaffner's The Best Man (1964), in which she played the wife of a presidential candidate, Tony Richardson's The Loved One, John Ford's 7 Women, and Joseph Losey's Galileo. Her role as Mrs. Maudsley in Losey's The Go-Between (1971) earned her the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She had previously received a BAFTA nomination for Best British Actress for her performance in Carrington V.C. (1954).

On television, Leighton accumulated credits including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Ben Casey, and Burke's Law. She was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1966 for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama for four episodes of Dr. Kildare. She won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Drama for the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Hamlet, starring Richard Chamberlain, which aired on NBC in November 1970. Her final television appearance was in the first season of Space: 1999, playing Queen Arra in the episode "Collision Course."

Leighton was married three times: to publisher Max Reinhardt from 1947 to 1955, to actor Laurence Harvey from 1957 to 1961, and to actor Michael Wilding from 1964 until her death. She had no children. She was appointed a CBE in 1974. Leighton died of multiple sclerosis on 13 January 1976, in Chichester, Sussex, at the age of 53.