Mary Ellen Ray

Mary Ellen Ray (January 3, 1931 – September 10, 2004) was an American-born actress who built a career spanning both the United States and the United Kingdom. Born Mary Ellen McPherson in Springfield, Missouri, she was the daughter of Hayzle McPherson and Owen M. McPherson. Her parents divorced in 1937, and following her mother's remarriage to Earl Ray, she took her stepfather's surname.

Ray trained at the ACT Theatre for two years before joining the American Shakespeare Festival Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut, where her stage work included productions of The Crucible, Endgame, and Under Milk Wood. In 1970 she made her debut at the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario, taking on the roles of Mariana in All's Well That Ends Well and Mrs. William Dudgeon in The Devil's Disciple. That same year, in September 1970, she appeared in Othello at the American Shakespeare Festival Theatre, marking her Broadway credit. She subsequently performed with repertory companies in both the United States and Britain.

Her British television career began with a small role as a Telephone Operator in Long Distance in 1958. She went on to appear in the BBC Sunday-Night Theatre episode "Shadow of Heroes" in 1959 and in ITV Television Playhouse in 1960. Through the early 1960s she progressed to named roles, including Nora in the Somerset Maugham Hour episode "The Closed Shop" in 1962 and Miss Cleaver in the Detective episode "The Night of the Horns" in 1964. She appeared in Theatre 625 in 1966 and provided the voice of Mrs. Dilber in the Oscar-winning animated television special A Christmas Carol in 1971.

Ray's film work included roles in The Sender (1982), The Lords of Discipline (1983), and Invitation to the Wedding (1983). Her television credits continued through subsequent decades with appearances in Tender Is the Night (1985), Back Home (1989), Selling Hitler (1991), Jeeves and Wooster (1992), and Unnatural Pursuits (1992). She played Rose Whitfield in The Bill in 1994, appeared in Holby City in 2000, and took the role of Eleanor Forsyth in Doctors in 2004. On stage, she played Mrs. Pascal in The House of Yes at the Gate Theatre in London in 1993.

In her personal life, Ray sailed from New York to Spain aboard the RMS Queen Mary in 1952, accompanied by her mother and two younger siblings. In Spain she met British poet Anthony Edkins, who was teaching English in Ibiza. The two married in Madrid in 1955 and had two daughters, Sarah Edkins and Lucy Edkins. In 1966 the family relocated to the United States for three years to support Ray's acting career; the couple separated in 1972 and divorced in 1974. Ray later met playwright David Pownall in 1973, with whom she had a son, Tom, born in 1974. She and Pownall collaborated through the theater company Paines Plough in Lancaster and London. Ray died in Kensington, London, in 2004 at the age of 73.