Patience Collier

Patience Collier, born Irene Marjorie Ritscher on 19 August 1910 in London, England, was a British actress who worked across theatre, film, and television until her death on 13 July 1987. She was married to scientist Henry Oswald Jackson Collier, with whom she had three children: daughters Susan and Sarah, who went on to found the textiles company Collier Campbell, and son Joe Collier, a clinical pharmacologist.

Collier launched her theatrical career in Manchester before establishing herself on the London stage. In 1956 she took on the role of Maria in The Power and the Glory, a production adapted by Denis Cannan and Pierre Bost that ran at the Phoenix Theatre alongside Brian Wilde, Roger Delgado, and Paul Scofield. That same year she appeared opposite John Gielgud in Noël Coward's Nude with Violin, which played in Dublin in September. In 1960 she brought her stage work to Broadway, appearing in The Hostage. Beginning 25 May 1966, she performed in Sławomir Mrożek's Tango at the Aldwych Theatre, a production directed by Trevor Nunn that also featured Ursula Mohan, Mike Pratt, Peter Jeffrey, and Dudley Sutton.

Her film career spanned nearly two decades and included The Third Secret (1964), Decline and Fall... of a Birdwatcher (1968), Baby Love (1969), House of Cards (1969), Perfect Friday (1970), Every Home Should Have One (1970), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Countess Dracula (1971), Endless Night (1972), and The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981). On television, she appeared in an episode of The Avengers in 1961, portrayed a retiring schoolteacher in the 1973 ITV episode "The Classroom" from The Frighteners alongside Clive Swift, and took on the role of Katerina Matakis in Who Pays the Ferryman and Emma Mullrine in Sapphire & Steel. She also appeared in David Copperfield (1974–75), Edward the Seventh (1975), Love in a Cold Climate (1980), and The Pickwick Papers (1985). Collier portrayed Elizabeth I on multiple occasions, including in the 1978 television series Will Shakespeare.