Rachel Gurney

Rachel Gurney (5 March 1920 – 24 November 2001) was an English actress born in Buckinghamshire, England. Her father, Samuel Gurney Lubbock, was a housemaster at Eton, and her mother, Irene Scharrer, was a concert pianist. Growing up in a large house shared with 42 boys, Gurney was frequently surrounded by visiting artists and musicians. As a teenager she attended Dr Challoner's High School in Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire, before enrolling at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in 1938.

World War II delayed the start of her professional career, and Gurney made her stage debut in 1945 with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre under director Barry Jackson. The following year she made her West End debut at the Criterion Theatre, playing Lynne Hartley in Warren Chetham-Strode's The Guinea Pig. Additional stage work in this period included Lady Katherine in A Sleeping Clergyman at the Criterion Theatre in 1947, the fiancée in Peter Watling's Rain on the Just at the Old Vic in 1948, and Thea in Black Chiffon at the Westminster Theatre in 1949. In 1946 she married novelist Denys Rhodes; the marriage ended in divorce in 1950. They had one daughter together, actress Sharon Gurney.

Gurney remained a consistent presence on the London stage throughout the 1950s, with several of her performances broadcast live on BBC Sunday Night Theatre, including The Tragedy of Pompey the Great (1950), The Doctor's Dilemma (1951), and Eden End (1951). Her stage credits during the decade included Mabel in First Person Singular and Mrs. Pless in The Trap at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1952, Alice in The Voysey Inheritance at the Arts Theatre, Mrs. George Lamb in Caro William at the Embassy Theatre, and Valerie Carrington in Carrington VC at the Westminster Theatre in 1953. She also appeared as Avice Brunton in The Bombshell (1954), Portia in The Merchant of Venice (1955), Olivia in The Chalk Garden (1956), and in 1959 replaced Celia Johnson as Hilary in The Grass is Greener at the St. Martin's Theatre. Her film work began with Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951), followed by The Blakes Slept Here (1953), Room in the House (1955), Port Afrique (1956), and A Touch of Larceny (1959). Television credits from this period included Night River (1955), The Scarlet Pimpernel (1956), Colonel March of Scotland Yard (1956), Our Mutual Friend (1958), and The Moonstone (1959).

During the 1960s Gurney continued working across theatre, film, television, and radio. In 1961 she played Marian in the BBC radio adaptation of L.P. Hartley's novel The Go-Between. On stage she appeared opposite John Gielgud as Hermione in a 1965 production of A Winter's Tale and as Lady Chiltern in An Ideal Husband at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1966. She also starred in the 1969 touring production of George Bernard Shaw's On the Rocks alongside David Tomlinson, Robert Flemyng, and Jack Hulbert. Film roles in this period included Funeral in Berlin (1966) and I Want What I Want (1972). Her television work encompassed Dixon of Dock Green (1961), The Saint (1963), Mystery and Imagination (1966), The Portrait of a Lady (1968), and Upstairs, Downstairs (1971–1973), the ITV period drama in which she played Lady Marjorie Bellamy, the role for which she became best known. Further television credits included Dangerous Corner (1974) and Fall of Eagles (1974).

In 1975 Gurney appeared as Mrs. Darling in Peter Pan at the Palladium. Two years later she made her American stage debut off-Broadway, playing Mrs. Clandon in George Bernard Shaw's You Never Can Tell at the Roundabout Theatre in New York City in 1977. Her Broadway debut followed in 1980 in Major Barbara. She returned to Broadway in The Dresser, which ran from 1981 to 1982, and again in Breaking the Code in 1988. She also appeared in the Noël Coward play Mr. and Mrs. Edgehill in 1985. Television productions from her later career included A.D. (1985), Lost Empires (1986), Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986), Richard III (1989), and Little Sir Nicholas (1990).

Gurney died in Norfolk, England on 24 November 2001 from pneumonia due to Alzheimer's disease.