Janet Key

Career

Key was born in Bath, Somerset, and trained at the nearby Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Her stage career included stints with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, alongside touring and fringe productions. Between 1970 and 1975 Key appeared in four horror films, as well as the sex comedy Percy and historical drama Lady Caroline Lamb. Her only other cinema appearance came later in Nineteen Eighty-Four, although she also featured in several made-for-TV dramas, including the role of Charmian in the Jonathan Miller production of Antony and Cleopatra for the ambitious BBC Television Shakespeare project. Key became a familiar face on British television through many guest appearances in a wide variety of popular series ranging from crime and espionage through to comedy.

Private life

Key married actor Gawn Grainger in 1970. The couple had two children. Key died of cancer on 26 July 1992, aged 47. In 1994, Grainger married actress Zoë Wanamaker, who had been an acquaintance of Key's.

An obituary by Sebastian Graham-Jones in The Independent said: "Janet Key was an actress of particular versatility. She was a high-spirited beauty with an acerbic style and talent that were entirely her own."