Years active 1948-2012 Name Rona Anderson | Role Film actress | |
Born 3 August 1926 ( 1926-08-03 ) Edinburgh, Scotland Died July 23, 2013, Hampstead, United Kingdom Spouse Gordon Jackson (m. 1951–1990) Children Roddy Jackson, Graham Jackson Parents Evelyn Anderson, James Anderson Movies Home to Danger, Scrooge, The Prime of Miss Jean Bro, Sleeping Car to Trieste, Devils of Darkness Similar People Gordon Jackson, Brian Desmond Hurst, Vernon Sewell, Wolf Rilla, Ken Hughes | ||
Rona Anderson (3 August 1926 – 23 July 2013) was a Scottish stage, film, and television actress. Her first stage appearance took place at the Garrison Theatre in April 1945. She also appeared in the original production of Whose Life Is It Anyway?. Anderson's first major film was the drama Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948).
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In 1951, she married fellow actor Gordon Jackson (OBE), with whom she had appeared in Floodtide (1949). Her last major film was The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), after which she appeared in various plays and television series. Jackson died of bone cancer on 15 January 1990 in London. The couple had two sons, Graham and Roderick.
Biography
Rona Anderson was born in Edinburgh to James and Evelyn (née Thomson) Anderson. She was educated in her home town and in Ottawa. She trained for the stage at the Glover Turner-Robertson School in Edinburgh. She married actor Gordon Jackson in 1951 after having appeared alongside him in the romantic drama Floodtide in 1949.
Stage work
Anderson made her first appearance on the stage at the Garrison Theatre in April 1945 in a production of Peg o' My Heart. From 1945 through 1949, she played various parts with the Glasgow Citizens Theatre. At the 1950 Edinburgh Festival, Anderson played the role of Venus in a production of The Queen's Comedy. She made her London debut in October 1951 at the Piccadilly Theatre. Anderson went on two tours in 1955. In March of that year, she toured as Sabrina in Sabrina Fair. In September 1955, she toured as Mary in All for Mary.
In October 1958, she played Mary Tufnell in Once a Rake at the Theatre Royal, Windsor. Anderson appeared in the premier of Savages in 1973. She appeared at the Mermaid Theatre in their 1978 production of Whose Life Is It Anyway?, which transferred to the Savoy Theatre. In 1981, she played Frances Shand Kydd in the Ray Cooney comedy, Her Royal Highness at the Palace Theatre, London.
Film career
Rona Anderson's first major film was the drama Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948) directed by John Paddy Carstairs. Anderson played the role of Alice (originally named "Belle" by Dickens) in Scrooge (1951), a film adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. She appeared alongside Lee Patterson in Man with a Gun (1958), directed by Montgomery Tully, while her last major film appearance was in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). Following this film she continued her work on the stage and in television series.
From 1953 through 1983, Anderson appeared in several British television programs. She appeared in three episodes of The Human Jungle (1964–65) during its second season. Anderson played the role of Mary on the British sitcom Bachelor Father (1970–71). Anderson later appeared in a 1983 episode of the long-running crime series The Professionals, in which her husband, actor Gordon Jackson, played George Cowley.
Critical assessment
Of her numerous roles in British B films in the 1950s, the film historians Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane say: "She was essentially crisp and wholesome, in her open Scots prettiness, and brought a proper spirited resourcefulness to these assorted plucky heroines, making them a good deal more endearing and credible than the screenplays deserved."
Death
Anderson died on 23 July 2013, two weeks before her 87th birthday.