Rona Anderson obit

Rona Anderson obituary

This article is more than 11 years old

Star of British film thrillers who specialised in the role of the classy girlfriend 

She was not on the list.

In the 1950s, while watching a second feature before the "big picture" at their local cinema, regular British filmgoers would often have seen Rona Anderson, who has died aged 86. Anderson starred in 20 movies between 1950 and 1958, mostly well-crafted, low-budget thrillers. Opposite such luminaries as Robert Beatty, Jimmy Hanley, John Bentley, Paul Carpenter and Lee Patterson, Anderson was the classy girlfriend who helps the hero solve a murder, usually via a visit to the criminal underground, all within the hour allotted to the film.

According to the Scottish comedian Stanley Baxter, Anderson "had this incredible, porcelain-like face, too beautiful for film … The camera likes angularity, to see the edges, and I think Rona's face was just too perfect." Whatever the reason, Anderson made few major movies, though she appeared in many popular television series, such as The Human Jungle (1964), Dr Finlay's Casebook (1965), Dixon of Dock Green (1966-71) and Bachelor Father (1970-71), and on stage throughout her career. She was also busy in the 1960s, bringing up her two sons with the actor Gordon Jackson, to whom she was married from 1951 until his death in 1990.

For the actor Kenneth Williams, a friend for more than 30 years, the Jacksons were a surrogate family. In an entry in his diary for 8 July 1957, Williams notes: "Gordon & Rona at 7.30 which was as delightful as ever. A sweet most delectable pair whom I enjoy enormously." Seven years later, the more usually waspish Williams writes: "Went up to see Gordon & Rona. They gave me lunch and I stayed till about five. I had a lovely time. The boys were marvellous. They're a lovely family."

Unlike Jackson, for so long the token Scotsman in British war films and action movies, who later found wide fame as the butler Mr Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs, Anderson had a "posh" English accent – obligatory for British leading actors in the 50s – although she was born, raised and educated in Scotland, with a short time as an evacuee in Ottawa, Canada, during the second world war.

Anderson, born in Edinburgh, started acting at an early age, training at the Glover Turner Robertson School in her home town. From 1945 until 1949, she was a member of the Citizens' theatre, Glasgow. Her first film role was as one of the passengers in the spy thriller Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948). Her second was opposite her future husband in Floodtide (1949), a romantic drama set and shot mainly on Clydeside.

In the episodic Poet's Pub (1949), Anderson was Joanna, the daughter of obnoxious Professor Benbow (James Robertson Justice), the nemesis of her poet boyfriend, Saturday Keith (Derek Bond). One of her rare A-pictures was Scrooge (1951), with Alastair Sim in the title role. In a tender scene with George Cole as Scrooge's earlier self, Anderson plays his one true love, telling him that they must part forever because "another idol has replaced me in your heart. A golden idol."

In the cold war "quota quickie" spy drama Little Red Monkey (1955), Anderson got the chance to play opposite the Hollywood tough guy Richard Conte. After two tepid pictures in the 1960s – The Bay of St Michel (1963), about the search for Nazi loot, and Devils of Darkness (1965), in which Anderson tangles with vampires in Brittany – she had the role of Miss Lockhart, the chemistry teacher, in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), a rival of Maggie Smith's Miss Brodie for the attention of the music teacher, Mr Lowther, played by Jackson.

From time to time through her career, Anderson returned to the stage. At the 1960 Edinburgh festival, she appeared in the Scottish poet Sydney Goodsir Smith's epic historical play The Wallace; she was in the first stage production of Brian Clark's Whose Life Is It Anyway? at the Mermaid theatre, London, in 1978, in a cast headed by Tom Conti and Jane Asher; and in 1981, she played the mother of Diana, princess of Wales in the Ray Cooney comedy Her Royal Highness …? at the Palace theatre, London, with Marc Sinden as Prince Charles.

Anderson is survived by her two sons, Roddy and Graham.

 Rona Anderson, actor, born 3 August 1926; died 23 July 2013.

 

Actress

Danny Dyer, Denise Van Outen, and Sarah Harding in Run for Your Wife (2012)

Run for Your Wife

2.6

2012

 

Brenda Blethyn in The Labours of Erica (1989)

The Labours of Erica

7.2

TV Series

Myrna Burton

1989–1990

5 episodes

 

Paul Eddington and Nanette Newman in Let There Be Love (1982)

Let There Be Love

6.7

TV Series

Sales assistant

1983

1 episode

 

Lewis Collins, Gordon Jackson, and Martin Shaw in The Professionals (1977)

The Professionals

8.0

TV Series

Mrs. Grant

1983

1 episode

 

Jack Shepherd in Bill Brand (1976)

Bill Brand

7.6

TV Mini Series

Mrs. Marples

1976

1 episode

 

Bachelor Father (1970)

Bachelor Father

6.5

TV Series

Mary

1970–1971

6 episodes

 

Jack Warner in Dixon of Dock Green (1955)

Dixon of Dock Green

6.9

TV Series

Laura

Mrs. Palmer

Mrs. Carter

1966–1971

3 episodes

 

W. Somerset Maugham (1969)

W. Somerset Maugham

7.8

TV Series

Mrs. MacPhail

1970

1 episode

 

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

7.6

Miss Lockhart

1969

 

Brian Rix Presents ... (1960)

Brian Rix Presents ...

TV Series

Janet

Jill Wilding

1963–1969

2 episodes

 

River Rivals (1967)

River Rivals

7.1

TV Series

1967

 

Alfred Burke in Public Eye (1965)

Public Eye

8.5

TV Series

Anna Munro

1966

1 episode

 

Marius Goring in The Suspect (1966)

Thirteen Against Fate

TV Series

Germaine Stévenard

1966

1 episode

 

Anne Lawson and Brian McDermott in Walter and Connie Reporting (1965)

Walter and Connie Reporting

TV Series

Hospital Sister

1965

1 episode

 

Devils of Darkness (1965)

Devils of Darkness

4.9

Anne Forest

1965

 

Dr. Finlay's Casebook (1962)

Dr. Finlay's Casebook

7.7

TV Series

Dorothy Hay

1965

1 episode

 

The Human Jungle (1963)

The Human Jungle

7.9

TV Series

Sister Campbell

1964

3 episodes

 

Bob Dylan, David Warner, Ursula Howells, Reg Lye, and Maureen Pryor in The Madhouse on Castle Street (1963)

BBC Sunday-Night Play

8.6

TV Series

Susan

Rosemary Vining

1960–1963

2 episodes

 

Operation Mermaid (1963)

Operation Mermaid

6.1

Pru Lawson

1963

 

No Wreath for the General

5.8

TV Series

Alison Campbell

1960

6 episodes

 

Interpol Calling (1959)

Interpol Calling

7.3

TV Series

Lena

1960

1 episode

 

The Flying Doctor (1959)

The Flying Doctor

7.7

TV Series

Jessie McKenzie

1959

1 episode

 

The Other Dear Charmer

TV Movie

Mrs. Nancie Maclehose

1959

 

Philip Friend, Julia Lockwood, and Barbara Shelley in The Solitary Child (1958)

The Solitary Child

5.8

Jean

1958

 

Man with a Gun (1958)

Man with a Gun

6.2

Stella

1958

 

The Sky Larks

TV Series

Felicity Wiggin-Fanshawe

1958

2 episodes

 

Uncle Harry

TV Movie

Lucy Forrest

1958

 

Saturday Playhouse (1958)

Saturday Playhouse

TV Series

Lady Blackenham

1958

1 episode

 

Wishing Well

TV Movie

Ann Murray

1957

 

White Hunter (1957)

White Hunter

6.5

TV Series

Lenore Mason

1957

1 episode

 

Rise Above It

TV Movie

Hilary Marsden

1957

 

The Hideout (1956)

The Hideout

5.5

Helen Grant

1956

 

Festival Fever

TV Movie

Elizabeth

1956

 

ITV Television Playhouse (1955)

ITV Television Playhouse

7.8

TV Series

Dorothy Wilson

1956

1 episode

 

Spin a Dark Web (1956)

Spin a Dark Web

6.1

Betty Walker

1956

 

Stock Car (1955)

Stock Car

5.5

Katie Glebe

1955

 

A Time to Kill (1955)

A Time to Kill

5.9

Sallie Harbord

1955

 

The Flaw (1955)

The Flaw

5.6

Monica Oliveri

1955

 

Richard Conte and Rona Anderson in The Case of the Red Monkey (1955)

The Case of the Red Monkey

5.6

Julia McCullum

1955

 

Shadow of a Man (1955)

Shadow of a Man

4.9

Linda Bryant

1955

 

The Black Rider (1954)

The Black Rider

5.5

Mary Plack

1954

 

Double Exposure (1954)

Double Exposure

5.8

Barbara Leyland

1954

 

BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950)

BBC Sunday-Night Theatre

7.6

TV Series

Poppy Faire

Catherine Strawbridge

1953–1954

2 episodes

 

Black 13 (1953)

Black 13

5.7

Claire

1953

 

Noose for a Lady (1953)

Noose for a Lady

6.1

Jill Hallam

1953

 

Rona Anderson and Patrick Holt in Circumstantial Evidence (1952)

Circumstantial Evidence

5.9

Linda Harrison

1952

 

Black Eye

TV Movie

Elspeth Crawford

1952

 

Richard Carlson and Greta Gynt in Whispering Smith vs. Scotland Yard (1952)

Whispering Smith vs. Scotland Yard

6.3

Ann Carter

1952

 

A Christmas Carol (1951)

A Christmas Carol

8.1

Alice

1951

 

Home to Danger (1951)

Home to Danger

5.9

Barbara Cummings

1951

 

I Done a Murder

TV Movie

Vera Gresland

1951

 

The Bishop Misbehaves

TV Movie

Hester Grantham

1951

 

The Taming of Dorothy (1950)

The Taming of Dorothy

5.7

Stellina

1950

 

Paper Gallows

5.1

Joan

1950

 

Rona Anderson and Robert Beatty in The 20 Questions Murder Mystery (1950)

The 20 Questions Murder Mystery

6.2

Mary Game

1950

 

Poet's Pub (1949)

Poet's Pub

6.1

Joanna Benbow

1949

 

Rona Anderson, Gordon Jackson, and John Laurie in Floodtide (1949)

Floodtide

6.9

Mary Anstruther

1949

 

Jean Kent and Albert Lieven in Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948)

Sleeping Car to Trieste

6.6

Joan Maxted (as Introducing Rona Anderson)

1948