Elspet Gray

Elspet Gray

Born: February 18, 1929
Died: February 18, 2013
in Inverness, Inverness Shire, Scotland, UK
Elspet Jean Gray, Baroness Rix (née Gray; 12 April 1929 – 18 February 2013) was a Scottish actress, who first became known for her partnership with her husband, Brian Rix, and later was cast in many television roles in the 1970s and 1980s. She played Lady Collingford in the television series Catweazle and Mrs. Palmer in the television series Solo, alongside Felicity Kendal.

Gray had a long stage career, particularly known for her appearances in the Whitehall farces, the company being managed by her husband Brian Rix, which were originally performed at the Whitehall Theatre and later at the Garrick.

Gray married Brian Rix in 1949. The couple had four children - two sons and two daughters. Their eldest child, daughter Shelley (born 1951) had Down syndrome. The experience of caring for her led the couple to become active campaigners for the disabled. Rix later became Mencap chairman and president. He became a life peer in 1992.

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Movies for Elspet Gray...

Blackadder: The Lost Pilot
Title: Blackadder: The Lost Pilot
Character: The Queen
Released: June 15, 2023
Type: Movie
Sir Tony Robinson takes a journey back in time to find out where Blackadder really began, and to uncover the story of the previously-unseen pilot episode.
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Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
Title: Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
Character: Self / Mrs Abbott
Released: May 10, 2009
Type: Movie
30 years after Fawlty Towers (1975) ended, Stephen Fry narrates a documentary about the making of this classic sitcom.
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Blackadder's Most Cunning Moments
Title: Blackadder's Most Cunning Moments
Character: Self
Released: October 16, 2008
Type: Movie
A countdown of the top 40 "Blackadder" moments chosen by cast and crew members, celebrity fans and 15 genuine Blackadders.
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Title: Dinnerladies
Character: Hilary
Released: November 12, 1998
Type: TV
Dinnerladies is a BBC sitcom written by and starring Victoria Wood that chronicles the antics of a group of workers in a canteen in the north of England. Bren tries to maintain a semblance of order in amongst the chaos, while dealing with the canteen supervisor, slightly sex-obsessed cancer sufferer Tony. Dolly and Jean are the bickering menopausal older women, always at odds but best friends beneath it all. Then there's thick-as-two-short-planks Anita, and the terminally uninterested Twinkle, more concerned with having a good time than anything else. Making up the motley crew are military man handyman Stan, all rules and regulations, and ditzy Philippa, who never seems to get anything right.
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Title: The Wingless Bird
Character: Grace Farrier
Released: January 12, 1997
Type: TV
On the eve of World War I, Agnes Conway manages both the business and the problems of her troubled family. She finds the strength to break class barriers and help her sister Jessie marry a good boy from a family of dockside toughs. Is she strong enough to break them again when Charles Farrier, a gentleman, courts her over his parents' opposition? Agnes faces an added dilemma when she finds her heart divided between Charles and his soldier brother Reginald.
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Four Weddings and a Funeral
Title: Four Weddings and a Funeral
Character: Laura's Mother - Wedding One
Released: March 9, 1994
Type: Movie
Over the course of five social occasions, a committed bachelor must consider the notion that he may have discovered love.
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Title: Doctor Finlay
Character: Mrs. Finlay
Released: May 9, 1993
Type: TV
Following his service in World War II, Doctor Finlay returns to the practice at Arden House. This is at a time when the National Health Service is about to be instituted.
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An Audience With Victoria Wood
Title: An Audience With Victoria Wood
Character: Herself
Released: December 10, 1988
Type: Movie
British comedy legend Victoria Wood entertains a star-studded audience including Julie Walters, Judi Dench and Dawn French in this 1988 special. Watch her crack jokes, play the piano and answer light-hearted questions.
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The Girl in a Swing
Title: The Girl in a Swing
Character: Mrs. Dresland
Released: September 29, 1988
Type: Movie
A London art broker goes to Copenhagen where he requires the services of a secretary fluent in Danish, English, and German. He falls deeply in love with the woman, despite the fact that he knows virtually nothing about her. She insists on not being married in a church, and after they are married, some bad things from her past begin surfacing in subtly supernatural ways, and he must find the best way to deal with them without destroying their relationship.
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Title: Pulaski
Character: Celia Parker-Smith
Released: October 2, 1987
Type: TV
Pulaski is a British television drama series produced by the BBC in 1987. Created by Roy Clarke, the series was a parody of detective dramas centred around Larry Summers, an American actor starring in a British detective series in the title role of Pulaski, who finds himself involved in real life cases. He was assisted by his co-star Kate Smith, who played his sidekick Briggsy in the series. The theme music was performed by The Shadows.
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Title: The Ruth Rendell Mysteries
Character: Mrs. Crossland
Released: August 2, 1987
Type: TV
The Ruth Rendell mysteries is a British television series made by TVS and Meridian Television for ITV between 2 August 1987 and 11 October 2000.
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Title: Inspector Morse
Character: Mrs Bartlett
Released: January 6, 1987
Type: TV
Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis, as well as a large cast of notable actors and actresses.
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Title: Casualty
Character: Mary Porter
Released: September 6, 1986
Type: TV
Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives.
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Title: Blackadder
Character: The Queen
Released: June 15, 1983
Type: TV
Black Adder traces the deeply cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders throughout British history, from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of the First World War.
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Doctor Who: Arc of Infinity
Title: Doctor Who: Arc of Infinity
Character: Chancellor Thalia
Released: January 12, 1983
Type: Movie
Omega, an ancient Time Lord made of pure anti-matter, once defeated by the Doctor, is plotting to cross over into this dimension by bonding with the Doctor. Meanwhile, the disappearance of a man in Amsterdam piques the curiosity of his cousin, Tegan, who previously left the Doctor at Heathrow Airport and now finds herself at Omega's mercy. Fearing total destruction from the collision of matter and antimatter, the Time Lords recall the Doctor to Gallifrey to undertake the only viable solution: executing him!
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Title: The Agatha Christie Hour
Released: September 7, 1982
Type: TV
This ten episode program was based on ten short stories written by Agatha Christie but with wide-ranging themes. Some were romances, some had supernatural themes and a couple were adventures. The common link was that all came from the talented pen of Agatha Christie, all were entertaining and each drama was carefully crafted and well cast with many of Britain's best known actors of the time represented.
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Title: Tenko
Character: Phyllis Bristow
Released: October 22, 1981
Type: TV
Based on real-life experiences, Tenko remains one of the most fondly remembered and acclaimed BBC dramas of the early 1980s. It follows a group of women, formerly comfortably well-off ex-pats living in Singapore, as they are captured by the Japanese during World War II.
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Title: Solo
Released: January 11, 1981
Type: TV
Gemma Palmer is 30 years old, and fed up with being betrayed and taken for granted. She's just found out her boyfriend, Danny, has been having sex with her friend, Gloria, and this is the last straw. She throws Danny out, tells Gloria to go jump in a lake, tells off all the people who have been treating her like a doormat, and quits her boring job at an estate agent's. From now on, she's going solo. At least, that is her firm intention.
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Title: The Many Wives Of Patrick
Released: September 3, 1976
Type: TV
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Title: Fawlty Towers
Character: Mrs. Abbott
Released: September 19, 1975
Type: TV
Owner Basil Fawlty, his wife Sybil, a chambermaid Polly, and Spanish waiter Manuel attempt to run their hotel amidst farcical situations and an array of demanding guests.
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Title: Catweazle
Character: Lady Collingford
Released: February 15, 1970
Type: TV
A medieval wizard (though not a very good one) Catweazle is transported to the modern age... A British television series, created and written by Richard Carpenter which was produced and directed by Quentin Lawrence for London Weekend Television under the LWI banner, and screened in the UK on ITV in 1970. A second season in 1971 was directed by David Reid and David Lane. Both series had thirteen episodes each, with Geoffrey Bayldon playing the leading role. The series was broadcast in Ireland, Britain, Gibraltar, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Czechoslovakia, Nicaragua and Quebec. The first episode is available to view in full at the BFI Screenonline site.
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Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Title: Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Character: Lady Sutterwick (uncredited)
Released: November 5, 1969
Type: Movie
Academy Award-honoree Peter O'Toole stars in this musical classic about a prim English schoolmaster who learns to show his compassion through the help of an outgoing showgirl. O'Toole, who received his fourth Oscar-nomination for this performance, is joined by '60s pop star Petula Clark and fellow Oscar-nominee Michael Redgrave.
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The Tycoon
Title: The Tycoon
Character: Helen Taylor
Released: December 30, 1968
Type: Movie
When millionaire businessman Guy Taylor takes up with the beautiful Rachel Bell, two years married to a struggling sculptor, he starts to question what he really wants. TV play. Third part of writer Kenneth Jupp's "Chelsea Trilogy"; see also The PHOTOGRAPHER (tx 29/1/1968) and The EXPLORER/ PLAYHOUSE (tx 14/10/1968).
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Title: Doctor Who
Character: Chancellor Thalia
Released: November 23, 1963
Type: TV
The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.
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Title: Dial RIX
Released: September 12, 1962
Type: TV
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The Night We Got the Bird
Title: The Night We Got the Bird
Character: Woman with Dog
Released: November 3, 1960
Type: Movie
Good natured comic caper charting the misadventures of a hapless bunch of Brighton based petty crooks dogged with disaster at every turn.
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Title: Colonel March of Scotland Yard
Character: Johanna
Released: February 22, 1956
Type: TV
Colonel March of The Department of Queer Complaints investigates unusual cases, locked-room murders, and mysteries concerning the supernatural.
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Devil's Point
Title: Devil's Point
Character: June Mallard
Released: December 7, 1954
Type: Movie
A Thames River barge operator finds a mysterious package dropped by smugglers.
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Johnny-on-the-Spot
Title: Johnny-on-the-Spot
Character: Joan Ingram
Released: January 21, 1954
Type: Movie
An ex-convict, who was framed, struggles to clear his name.
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Trottie True
Title: Trottie True
Character: Honor Bellaire (uncredited)
Released: September 29, 1949
Type: Movie
Tottie True is a gay-90s British music-hall performer who has her sights set on moving from rags to riches, who loses her heart to the pure-and-true blue balloonist, Sid Skinner, but continues her upward search on improving her social status. She finally settles for Lord Landon Digby who has lots of assets and a very-stiff upper lip. She gets a lot of the latter and very little of the former, and decides Sid might have been a better choice.
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Love in Waiting
Title: Love in Waiting
Character: Brenda Lawrence
Released: October 11, 1948
Type: Movie
The story of three women working as waitresses in post-World War II Britain.
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Fly Away Peter
Title: Fly Away Peter
Character: Phyllis Hapgood
Released: October 7, 1948
Type: Movie
Director Charles Saunders' low-key domestic comedy, adapted from A.P. Dearsley's play, centers on a middle-aged London couple who react in different ways as their four children grow up, fall in love and make career choices.
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The Blind Goddess
Title: The Blind Goddess
Character: Daphne Dearing
Released: September 14, 1948
Type: Movie
Justice, the poets have it, is a blind goddess. Eric Portman stars as the lawyer defending a lord, Hugh Williams, accused by his secretary Michael Dennison of having diverted public funds for his own use.