Vivien Merchant

Vivien Merchant, born Ada Brand Thomson on 22 July 1929 in Manchester, England, was an English actress whose career spanned stage, film, and television from the 1940s through the 1970s. She died on 3 October 1982 at the age of 53. Her professional name was constructed from two sources: the first name of actress Vivien Leigh and the occupation of her brother, who worked as a merchant seaman.

Merchant began acting professionally in 1942, taking supporting juvenile roles in repertory theatre before advancing to West End productions, among them Noël Coward's Sigh No More and Ace of Clubs. By the early 1950s she had established herself as a lead in repertory. Her marriage in 1956 to playwright Harold Pinter shaped much of her subsequent stage work, as she appeared in numerous productions of his plays. These included the 1960 Hampstead Theatre revival of The Room, as well as A Slight Ache, A Night Out, The Collection, and The Lover. Her television performance in The Lover, opposite Alan Badel for Associated Rediffusion, earned her both an Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Newcomer and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress, both in 1963. She and Pinter had one son, Daniel, born in 1958.

In 1965, Merchant appeared as Wendy in Tea Party opposite Leo McKern, and that same year she originated the role of Ruth in Pinter's The Homecoming on the London stage. She brought that role to Broadway in 1967, earning a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play. Also in 1967, she played Lady Macbeth opposite Paul Scofield's Macbeth for the Royal Shakespeare Company, in a production directed by Peter Hall. She later reprised the role of Ruth in the 1973 film adaptation of The Homecoming. The final Pinter premiere in which she appeared on stage was Old Times in 1971, in which she played Anna.

Merchant's film work brought her significant recognition as well. Her performance in Alfie in 1966 resulted in Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress, along with the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer and the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her subsequent film credits included Accident in 1967, The Offence and Frenzy both in 1972, and The Maids in 1975, the last of which was a film adaptation of Jean Genet's play in which she had performed the role of Madame at the Greenwich Theatre alongside Glenda Jackson and Susannah York. In 1975, she also co-starred with Timothy Dalton in a Greenwich Theatre revival of Coward's The Vortex.

Merchant's marriage to Pinter deteriorated during the mid-1960s. In 1975, Pinter confessed to an affair with historian Lady Antonia Fraser, and he subsequently left the marriage. Merchant filed for divorce, which was finalized in 1980, the same year Pinter married Fraser. Following the end of the marriage, Merchant suffered from depression and alcoholism. She died on 3 October 1982 from alcoholism, at the age of 53.