VM
Photo of Vivien Merchant

Vivien Merchant

Actor
Born July 22, 1929Died October 3, 1982 (53 years)
​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Vivien Merchant (born Ada Thompson 22 July 1929 – 3 October 1982) was a British actress. She performed in many stage productions and several films, including Alfie (1966) and Frenzy (1972). Her performance in Alfie earned her Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress, and the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress.

She was the first wife of the playwright Harold Pinter, whom she met when working as a repertory actress and married in 1956. Their son, Daniel, was born in 1958. Having performed the role of Rose in a production of his first play, The Room (1957) at the Hampstead Theatre in 1960, she also appeared in many of Pinter's subsequent works, including as Ruth in The Homecoming (1964) on stage (1965) and screen (The Homecoming, 1973). The last of his plays in which she performed was Old Times (1971) as Anna.

Their marriage began disintegrating in the mid-1960s. From 1962 to 1969, Harold Pinter had a clandestine affair with Joan Bakewell, which informs Pinter's play Betrayal and his film adaptation, also called Betrayal.

In 1975 Pinter began a serious affair with the historian Lady Antonia Fraser, the wife of Sir Hugh Fraser, which he confessed to his wife that March. At first, Merchant took it very well, saying positive things about Fraser, according to her friend artist Guy Vaesen (as cited by Billington); but, Vaesen recalled, after "a female friend of Vivien's trotted round to her house and poisoned her mind against Antonia ... Life in Hanover Terrace [where the Pinters then lived] gradually became impossible". Pinter left, and Vivien Merchant filed for divorce and gave interviews to the tabloid press, expressing her distress.The Frasers' divorce became final in 1977 and the Pinters' in 1980. In 1980 Pinter married Antonia Fraser.

Vivien Merchant never overcame her grief and bitterness at losing Pinter, dying at the age of 53 on 3 October 1982, from acute alcoholism

Description above from the Wikipedia article Vivien Merchant ,  licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies & Shows on Plex

  • The Man in the Iron Mask

Known For

  • Frenzy
  • Alfie
  • The Offence
  • Accident
  • The Man in the Iron Mask
  • The Maids
  • Under Milk Wood
  • The Homecoming
  • Alfred the Great
  • A Tale of Two Cities
  • Tea Party
  • Opus

Filmography

1980
1980
Breakaway (TV Series) · as Isabel Black
1980
Breakaway (1980) (TV Series) · as Isabel Black
1977
Secret Army (TV Series) · as Mlle. Gunet
1977
The Man in the Iron Mask · as Reine Maria Theresa
1975
The Maids · as Madame
1973
The Homecoming · as Ruth
1973
The Offence · as Maureen Johnson
1972
1972
Crown Court (TV Series) · as Her Honour Justice Forester-Phillips
1972
Frenzy · as Mrs. Oxford
1971
Under Milk Wood · as Mrs. Pugh
1969
Softly Softly Task Force (TV Series) · as Maggie Jarman
1969
Alfred the Great · as Freda
1969
ITV Saturday Night Theatre (TV Series) · as Audley
1967
ITV Playhouse (TV Series) · as Tessa
1967
Accident · as Rosalind
1967
NBC Experiment in Television (TV Series) · as (voice)
1967
Opus · as Ruth (the Homecoming)
1966
Alfie · as Lily Clamacraft
1965
Play of the Month (TV Series) · as Evelyn Daly
1965
Thirty-Minute Theatre (TV Series) · as Ella
1965
1964
Theatre 625 (TV Series) · as Gertrude
1956
Armchair Theatre (TV Series) · as Girl
1955
ITV Play of the Week (TV Series) · as Joan Brown
1955
ITV Television Playhouse (TV Series) · as Angela Fairbourne
1950
Sunday Night Theatre (TV Series) · as Elsa Perkins

Take Plex everywhere

Watch free anytime, anywhere, on almost any device.
See the full list of supported devices