Sylvia Syms facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sylvia Syms OBE
Syms as Sister Diana Murdoch in Ice Cold in Alex, c. 1958
Born	Sylvia May Laura Syms (1934-01-06)6 January 1934 Woolwich, London, England
Died	27 January 2023(2023-01-27) (aged 89) Northwood, London, England
Education	Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1955–2019
Spouse(s)	Alan Edney ​ ​ (m. 1956; div. 1989)​
Children	2, including Beatie
Relatives	Nick Webb (nephew) Alex Webb (nephew)

Sylvia May Laura Syms OBE (6 January 1934 – 27 January 2023) was an English actress, active on stage and screen, her best known for films roles include My Teenage Daughter, (1956) Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957) in which she was s nominated a BAFTA Award, Ice Cold in Alex (1958), No Trees in the Street (1959), Victim (1961), and The Tamarind Seed (1974).

Syms, called the Grand Dame of British Cinema, was a major player in movies from the mid-1950's until mid-1960's, usually in stiff-upper lip English pictures, as opposed to kitchen sink realism dramas, before becoming more of a supporting actress in both film and television roles. On television, she was known for her recurring role in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders, as Olive Woodhouse. She was also a notable theatre player.

She portrayed Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in the 2006 biopic The Queen.

Early life and education

Syms was born in Woolwich, southeast London, England, in 1934, the daughter of Daisy (née Hale) and Edwin Syms, a trade unionist and civil servant. With the outbreak of World War II, Syms was evacuated to Kent and subsequently Monmouthshire. She grew up in Well Hall, Eltham.

When Syms was twelve, her mother died of a brain tumour. At sixteen she suffered a nervous breakdown and contemplated taking her own life until an intervention from her stepmother. Syms was educated at convent schools, before deciding to become an actress and attending The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, graduating in 1954. She later went on to serve on RADA's council.

Syms got her career started by featuring in repertory theatre in Eastbourne and Bath.

Career

Films

In her second film, My Teenage Daughter (1956), she played Anna Neagle's troubled daughter. In 1958, she starred in the film Ice Cold in Alex (alongside John Mills, Anthony Quayle and Harry Andrews); that same year she appeared in the English Civil War film, The Moonraker.

In 1959 she appeared in the film Expresso Bongo as Maisie King, opposite Cliff Richard. She played opposite Dirk Bogarde in 1961 in the film Victim, as the wife of a barrister who is a closet homosexual. The film was thought to have broadened the debate which led to the decriminalisation of homosexual acts in private.

In 1962, she played opposite Patrick McGoohan as the wife of a condemned man in The Quare Fellow and in 1963 she played Tony Hancock's wife in The Punch and Judy Man. The film also featured her nephew, Nick Webb.

Other comedies followed, such as The Big Job (1965) with Sid James and Bat Out of Hell (1967), but it was for drama that she won acclaim, including The Tamarind Seed (1974) with Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif, for which she was nominated for a British Film Academy award.

In 1975, she was the head of the jury at the 25th Berlin International Film Festival.

Shortly after the end of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's period of office in 1990, Syms portrayed her in Thatcher: The Final Days (1991), a Granada television film for ITV, which dramatises the events surrounding Thatcher's removal from power, a role she recreated for stage

For Stephen Frears' biopic The Queen (2006), Syms was cast in the role of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. She also appeared in The Poseidon Adventure (2005), an American TV film that was a loose remake of the 1972 feature film. Syms also took up producing and directing.

In 2009, she appeared in the film Is Anybody There? alongside Michael Caine and Anne-Marie Duff.

Television and theatre

Syms featured in the husband and wife TV comedy My Good Woman from 1972 to 1974 and featured on the weekly BBC programme Movie Quiz as one of two team captains.

In 1989 Syms starred in the Doctor Who story Ghost Light.

From 2000 to 2003, she played Marion Riley in the ITV comedy-drama At Home with the Braithwaites. She also featured in the serial The Jury and contributed Sonnet 142 to the compilation albumWhen Love Speaks.

In 2009, she featured in the ITV drama series Collision and 2010, she guest-starred as a patient in BBC One's drama series Casualty, having played a different character in an episode in 2007. Syms also appeared as another character in Casualty's sister series Holby City in 2003. From 2007 to 2010, Syms had a recurring role in BBC One's EastEnders, playing dressmaker Olive Woodhouse. In 2010, Syms took part in the BBC's The Young Ones, a series in which six celebrities in their seventies and eighties attempted to overcome some of the problems of ageing by harking back to the 1970s. From 2013 to 2019, Syms was the narrator of Talking Pictures, which aired on BBC Two.

Syms had numerous roles in theatre, including productions of Much Ado About Nothing, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Antony and Cleopatra.

Personal life and death

From 1956 to 1989, Syms was married to Alan Edney. Her daughter Beatie Edney is also an actress, and she was the aunt of musicians Nick and Alex Webb.

Syms was a long term supporter of the Stars Foundation for Cerebral Palsy, serving on their board as an officer for sixteen years until 2020, with singer Vera Lynn.

In the last year of her life, Syms lived at Denville Hall, a retirement home for actors in London. She died there on 27 January 2023, aged 89.

Filmography

Source:

Film

Television

See also

In Spanish: Sylvia Syms para niños