Penelope keith net worth

British actress (born )

Dame Penelope Keith DBE, DL
Keith in
Born	Penelope Anne Constance Hatfield () 2 April (age&#;84) Sutton, Surrey, England
Occupation(s)	Actress and presenter
Years&#;active	–present
Spouse	Rodney Timson &#; (m.&#;)&#;
Children	2

Dame Penelope Anne Constance Keith, (néeHatfield; born 2 April ) is an English actress and presenter, active in film, radio, stage and television and primarily known for her roles in the British sitcomsThe Good Life and To the Manor Born.

She succeeded Lord Olivier as president of the Actors' Benevolent Fund after his death in , and was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the New Year Honours for services to the arts and to charity.^[1]

Keith joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in , and went on to win the Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance for the play Donkeys' Years.

She became a household name in the UK playing Margo Leadbetter in the sitcom The Good Life (–78), winning the BAFTA TV Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance.

In Keith won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for The Norman Conquests. She then starred as Audrey fforbes-Hamilton in the sitcom To the Manor Born (–81), a show that received audiences of more than 20 million.

She went on to star in another six sitcoms, including Executive Stress (–88), No Job for a Lady (–92) and Next of Kin (–97). Since , she has worked mainly in the theatre, with her roles including Madam Arcati in Blithe Spirit () and Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest ().

Early life

Penelope Anne Constance Hatfield was born in Sutton, Surrey in ^[2] Her father, an army officer who was a Major by the end of the Second World War, left her mother, Connie, when Keith was a baby, and she spent her early years in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex and Clapham, south London.

Her great uncle, John Gurney Nutting, was a partner in the coachbuilding firm of J Gurney Nutting & Co Limited, and Keith recalls sitting in the Prince of Wales's car.^[3]

Although not a Roman Catholic, at the age of six she was sent to a Catholic conventboarding school run by French nuns in Seaford, East Sussex, with Judy Cornwell.^[4][5] Here she became interested in acting,^[2] and she frequently went to matinées in the West End with her mother.

When she was eight years old, her mother remarried and she adopted her stepfather's surname, Keith. Whilst she did not get on with her stepfather, her mother was a "rock of love" to her. She was rejected by the Central School of Speech and Drama on the grounds that at 5'10" ( m) she was too tall. However she was then accepted at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and spent two years there while working at the Hyde Park Hotel in the evenings.^[6]

Keith began her career working in repertory theatre around Britain, including Lincoln, Manchester, and Salisbury.

Keith's earliest appearances were in The Tunnel of Love, Gigi, and Flowering Cherry. In , she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and acted with them in Stratford and at the Aldwych Theatre in London.^[7]

Career

Early career

Keith began her television career in programmes such as The Army Game, Dixon of Dock Green, Wild, Wild Women and The Avengers.^[8] In the early s, she appeared in The Morecambe & Wise Show, Ghost Story and The Pallisers.

Her film appearances during this time included Every Home Should Have One, Take A Girl Like You, Rentadick and Penny Gold. In , she had a minor role in Carry On Doctor, but the scene was cut from the final edit.^[8][9] She appeared as a nurse in A Touch of Love

Her best known theatre appearance, in , was playing Sarah in The Norman Conquests, alongside Felicity Kendal, her co-star in The Good Life.

Keith and Kendal would often film The Good Life during the day and perform on stage in the West End in the evening.^{[citation needed]}

In Keith starred in Brian Sibley's comedy radio broadcast titled And Yet Another Partridge in a Pear Tree,^[10][11] voicing a woman named Cynthia Bracegirdle whose boyfriend, Algernon Fotherington-Smythe, sends her the gifts mentioned in The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Television fame

Keith achieved popular fame in when the BBCsitcomThe Good Life began. In the first episode, she was only heard and not seen in her role as Margo Leadbetter, but as the episodes and series went on, the scope of her role increased. In , Keith won a BAFTA award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" for her role of Margo Leadbetter.^[12]

From to , she played the lead role of Audrey fforbes-Hamilton in the TV series To the Manor Born.

Following To the Manor Born, Keith has appeared in the lead role in six other sitcoms: Sweet Sixteen, Moving, Executive Stress, No Job for a Lady, Law and Disorder and Next of Kin. She also had the starring role in a TV adaptation of Agatha Christie's play Spider's Web.

She won a second BAFTA award as "Best Actress" in for The Norman Conquests.^[13]

In Keith starred in a TV production of Frederick Lonsdale's On Approval. In , she hosted one series of the ITV panel show What's My Line?, following the death of its former presenter, Eamonn Andrews. She had a featured role in the ITV serial Coming Home.^{[citation needed]}

Work

Keith has regularly appeared on stage, taking the classics and new plays across the UK.

These include Shakespeare, Shaw, Sheridan, Wilde, Rattigan and Congreve.

To the manor born cast She then starred as Audrey fforbes-Hamilton in the sitcom To the Manor Born —81 , a show that received audiences of more than 20 million. When she was eight years old, her mother remarried and she adopted her stepfather's surname, Keith. Whilst she did not get on with her stepfather, her mother was a "rock of love" to her. She was rejected by the Central School of Speech and Drama on the grounds that at 5'10" 1. However she was then accepted at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and spent two years there while working at the Hyde Park Hotel in the evenings.

She played Lorraine in Noël Coward's Star Quality, while in she played Madame Arcati in Coward's Blithe Spirit at the Savoy Theatre. In , Keith starred in the first of ten full-cast BBC radio dramatisations of M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin novels, playing the title role. Two years later, she appeared at the Chichester Festival in the premiere of Richard Everett's comedy Entertaining Angels, which she later took on tour.^[14]

In she played the part of Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest on tour, which transferred to the West End in , at the Vaudeville Theatre.^[15] She has voiced adverts including ones for Pimm's, Lurpak, Tesco and most famously, The Parker Pen Company, which was named one of the Greatest Adverts in a Channel 4 programme.

In , she starred in Keith Waterstone's Good Grief,^[16] having previously appeared in the play's premier production in ^[17]

In she starred in the radio adaptations of To the Manor Born.^[18] In , she appeared opposite June Brown in the television film Margery & Gladys.^{[citation needed]} In , she starred in a one-off To the Manor Born Christmas Special, Keith also voiced The Bear with Brown Fuzzy Hair in Teletubbies.^{[citation needed]}

In she presented Penelope Keith and the Fast Lady, a one-off documentary for BBC Four about Dorothy Levitt, the Edwardian motoring pioneer.

She presented the four-part BBC documentary The Manor Reborn in ^[19]

In she played the part of Lady Catherine de Bourgh in the BBC period dramaDeath Comes to Pemberley, an adaptation of the best-selling P. D. Jamesnovel of the same name.^[20]

Since , she has presented all three series of the More4/Channel 4 programme Penelope Keith's Hidden Villages and in June she presented Penelope Keith at Her Majesty's Service again for Channel 4.^[21][22]

In December , she presented Penelope Keith's Coastal Villages, a continuation of the Hidden Villages series.

In early , she presented the Channel 4 series Village of the Year with Penelope Keith. It was announced in February that Keith would be starring as Mrs St Maugham in the Chichester Festival Theatre production of Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden from 25 May to 16 June ^[23]

Personal life

In the year The Good Life ended, she married Rodney Timson, a policeman.

They had met while he was on duty at Chichester Theatre where Keith was performing.^[4] In , ten years after their wedding, they adopted two boys, who were brothers.^[2] Keith and Timson now live in Milford, Surrey. Keith has a great passion for gardening. In , she had a rose named after her.^[8][24] She is president of the South West Surrey chapter of the National Trust.^[25]

In she presented 4 Extra Goes Gardening in which she celebrated the work of garden designer Gertrude Jekyll at her former home, Munstead Wood in Godalming.

It is occasionally repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra. Keith was President of the Actors' Benevolent Fund from to ,^[26] taking over after the death of Laurence Olivier. She was a Trustee of Brooklands Museum from to

Filmography

Awards and honours

On 2 April , her 62nd birthday, Keith began a one-year term as High Sheriff of Surrey,^[27] the third woman to hold the post.

Peter bowles

It is now a quarter of a century since we last heard from Grantleigh Manor. That was the day that the indomitable Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, the dispossessed Lady of the Manor, finally got round to marrying Richard Devere, her usurper and supermarket tycoon of Czechoslovakian stock. It was a perfect love match, yet their romance was never less than a tempestuous on-off affair due to their one-and-only source of disagreement - which was pretty well everything. Ever since they have been man and wife there has been a total news blackout on the goings—on at Grantleigh Manor, whereas before the intimate details of their stormy courtship had been played out with such discretion and secrecy that only 25 million television viewers knew the first thing about it. The question then was always 'Will they or won't they?

She has also served in the past as a Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey.^[28][29]

Keith was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the New Year Honours.^[30] She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the New Year Honours for "charitable services".^[2][31] In the New Year Honours, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to the Arts and to Charity.^[32]

References

External links