Felicity Ann Kendal (born 25 September 1946) is an English actress, working principally in television and theatre. She has appeared in numerous stage and screen roles over a more than 70-year career, including Barbara Good in the television series The Good Life from 1975 to 1978. Kendal was born in England, but moved to India with her family aged seven. Her father was an English actor-manager who led his own repertory company on tours of India, and Kendal appeared in roles for the company both before and after leaving England. She appeared in the film Shakespeare Wallah (1965), which was inspired by her family.
Kendal made several television appearances, starting with Love Story in 1966, and made her London stage debut in Minor Murder (1967) at the Savoy Theatre. She was approached to appear in The Good Life while appearing in The Norman Conquests, and appeared in all four series. She later went on to star in the sitcoms Solo (1981–82) and The Mistress (1985 and 1987) which were scripted by Carla Lane. Later television work included The Camomile Lawn (1992), which, as of 2022, remained the most-watched drama ever on Channel 4. However, the poor reception to the 1994 sitcom Honey for Tea led Kendal to focus on stage rather than television work for some years. She co-starred with Pam Ferris on television in Rosemary & Thyme (2003–2006) as one of a pair of gardeners and detectives.
Kendal's stage career blossomed during the 1980s and 1990s when she formed a close professional association with Tom Stoppard, starring in the first productions of many of his plays, including On the Razzle (1981), The Real Thing (1982), Hapgood (1988), and Arcadia (1993). She also appeared in ten plays directed by Peter Hall, from portraying Constanze Mozart in Amadeus (1979) to Esme in Amy's View (2006). She took her first role in a musical as Evangeline Harcourt in the 2021 London revival of Anything Goes at the Barbican Theatre. In 2023, she starred as Dotty Otley in Noises Off at the Phoenix Theatre and the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Many of her stage performances have been critically acclaimed. Kendal was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1995 New Year Honours for services to drama.
Early life
Felicity Ann Kendal was born on 25th September 1946 in Olton in Solihull, Warwickshire England. until the age of 13. She contracted typhoid fever in Calcutta at the age of 17.
Kendal made her stage debut for her family's company aged nine months, when she was carried on stage as the changeling boy in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Five years later she was the Changeling in the same play, and aged nine she was Macduff's son in a production of Macbeth. Her first speaking role was as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream when she was 12.
Kendal's family and their touring theatre company were the inspiration for the Merchant Ivory Productions film Shakespeare Wallah (1965), which follows the story of nomadic British actors as they perform Shakespeare plays in towns in post-colonial India. She played Lizzie Buckingham, the daughter of the company's actor-managers, who falls in love with the son of film star Manjula, portrayed by Madhur Jaffrey. Lizzie's parents face a dilemma between their deep-seated theatrical ambitions and their fears for the welfare of their daughter. Patrick Gibbs of The Daily Telegraph named Kendal as his actress of the year, and said that, based on her portrayal of Ophelia in an extract from Hamlet within the film, her performance of that role would "rank with any that [he had] seen".
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph journalist Jasper Rees in 2006, Kendal said that her time in India was "sometimes very hard, sometimes very poor, sometimes ghastly, ghastly, ghastly in all sorts of ways", she did not regret it, and that it was an "amazing way of living".
Early television work
Kendal appeared in two episodes of Love Story in 1966, and as a teenage hippie in "The May Fly and the Frog", an episode of The Wednesday Play which starred John Gielgud, the same year. Kendal appeared in all 30 episodes, which extended over four series and two specials, until 1978. She added that while the other lead characters were like people that the viewers might know personally, Barbara "had all the ingredients – feisty, strong but adoring, up for anything, very funny – that people find attractive". Lane also wrote The Mistress (1985 and 1987) in which Kendal portrayed a florist having an affair with a married man, played by Jack Galloway in 1985 and with a different character played by Peter McEnery in the 1987 version. Eddington played her husband Richard. Her American accent in the show was mocked by TV critic and humourist Victor Lewis-Smith: "In a single phrase, she veered uncontrollably from the Bronx to South Africa via Surrey, like some linguistic Spruce Goose, awkwardly taking off only to crash-land again within moments."
Having focused on her theatre rather than her television career for some years following the poor reception to Honey for Tea, Kendal's character Rosemary Boxer is a university of Malmesbury lecturer in applied horticulture. The show was negatively reviewed, but still popular with viewers, becoming the most viewed new drama series on ITV1 in 2006.
Stage work
Kendal auditioned unsuccessfully for Val May at the Bristol Old Vic in early 1966. Some months later, she auditioned for Tynan and Laurence Olivier National Theatre season at the Old Vic, again without success. She made her London stage debut in Minor Murder (1967) at the Savoy Theatre. Kendal and Tessa Wyatt played two friends who murdered the mother of one of them, in a play inspired by the Parker–Hulme murder case.
In 1972, actors Ian McKellen and Edward Petherbridge, after discussion with director David William, formed the Actors' Company, a collective group with members invited by them. The actors would all receive equal pay and would rotate between leading and supporting roles, with posters listing their names in alphabetical order. The founding members were Caroline Blakiston, Marian Diamond, Robert Eddison, Robin Ellis, Tenniel Evans, Kendal, Matthew Long, Margery Mason, McKellen, Frank Middlemass, Juan Moreno, Petherbridge, Moira Redmond, Sheila Reid, Jack Shepherd, Ronnie Stevens and John Tordoff. As part of the company, Kendal played The Maid in Ruling the Roost, and Annabella in Tis Pity She's a Whore at the 1972 Edinburgh International Festival. Kendal had departed to look after her new baby by the time the group reconvened in mid-1973.
Kendal won the Variety Club's Best Stage Actress Award for her performance as Marain in Michael Frayn's Clouds (1978) at the Duke of York's Theatre, London.
In 1979 she was directed by Peter Hall for the first time, as Constanze Mozart in Amadeus. A recording with the original cast was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1983. Her stage career blossomed during the 1980s and 1990s when she formed a close professional association with Tom Stoppard, The Daily Telegraph critic Charles Spencer found Kendal's performance by turns "funny, mischievous" and "exceptionally touching". Gerard van Werson of The Stage wrote that as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Kendal "delights... with her remarkable charm and her beautiful comic timing". Later that year, Geoff Chapman of the Toronto Star described Kendal as "once a television sitcom star but now a huge West End draw in serious parts".
Her 2003 performance as Winnie in Happy Days by Samuel Beckett was acclaimed by The Guardians Michael Billington, who praised Kendal for bringing a "genuine emotional reality" to the role. In Variety, David Benedict felt that "playing her as a woman who overacts strains Kendal's ability to reveal truthful emotion in the final act". Later that year, she toured the UK with Simon Callow in Chin-Chin, an English translation by Willis Hall of Francois Billetdoux's Tchin-Tchin. She toured the UK and Australia as Judith Bliss in Noël Coward's Hay Fever, which then played in the West End in 2015.
She took her first role in a musical as Evangeline Harcourt in the 2021 London revival of Anything Goes at the Barbican Theatre. In 2023, Kendal starred as Dotty Otley in Noises Off at the Phoenix Theatre and the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
Other work
On radio, Kendal starred as Prudence in an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Jilly Cooper in 1979.
On the album Shape Up and Dance with Felicity Kendal (1982), Kendal narrated a keep-fit routine based around yoga and ballet. It spent 13 weeks in the top 40 of the UK Albums Chart, peaking at number 29 in 1983, and went on to sell over 200,000 copies.
In 1995, Kendal was one of the readers of Edward Lear poems on a spoken-word CD bringing together a collection of Lear's nonsense songs.
Personal life
Kendal's first marriage to Drewe Henley (1968–1979) and her second to Michael Rudman (1983–1991) ended in divorce. Kendal has two sons, including Charley Henley.
Kendal was brought up in the Catholic faith. She converted to Judaism at the time of her second marriage, but has said about the conversion, "I felt I was returning to my roots." Her conversion took more than three years; she has stated that her decision to convert had "nothing to do" with her husband. Kendal's memoirs, titled White Cargo, were published in 1998.
Kendal was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1995 New Year Honours for services to drama. She is an ambassador for the charity Royal Voluntary Service, previously known as WRVS.
Selected filmography
Theatre
Kendal's first two-stage appearances were for her family's company, in England. Having played a changeling boy in A Midsummer Night's Dream when she was nine months old, she was the Changeling in the same play five years later. After the company returned to Asia, her roles included Macduff's son in Macbeth, Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Jessica in The Merchant of Venice, Ophelia in Hamlet, and Viola in Twelfth Night.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! scope="col"|Year
! scope="col"|Title
! scope="col"|Role
! scope="col" class="unsortable"| Venue
! scope="col" class="unsortable"|
|-
| 1967 || Minor Murder || Carla || Savoy Theatre, London ||
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1972 || Ruling the Roost || The Maid || Billingham Forum Theatre/Edinburgh International Festival ||
|-
| Tis Pity She's a Whore || Annabella || Edinburgh International Festival ||
|-
| The Three Arrows || || Cambridge Arts Theatre ||
|-
| 1982–83 || The Real Thing || Annie || Strand Theatre, London || rowspan="3" |
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1989 || Ivanov || Anna Ivanov || rowspan="2" | Strand Theatre, London ||
|-
| Much Ado about Nothing || Beatrice ||
|-
| 1990 || Hidden Laughter || || Vaudeville Theatre, London ||
|-
| 1991 || Tartuffe || Ariade Utterword || Theatre Royal Haymarket, London ||
|-
| 1992 || Heartbreak House || || Theatre Royal Haymarket, London ||
|-
| 1993 || Arcadia || Hannah Jarvis || National Theatre, London ||
|-
| 1995 || Indian Ink || Flora Crewe || Aldwych Theatre, London ||
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1997 || The Seagull || Madame Arkadina || rowspan="2" | The Old Vic, London ||
|-
| 1998 || Alarms and Excursions || || Gielgud Theatre, London ||
|-
| 2000 || Fallen Angels || Julia || Apollo Theatre, London||
|-
| 2002 || Humble Boy || Flora || Gielgud Theatre, London ||
|-
| 2003 || Happy Days || Winnie || Arts Theatre, London ||
|-
| 2006 || Amy's View || Esme || Garrick Theatre, London ||
|-
| 2008 || The Vortex || Florence || Apollo Theatre, London ||
|-
| 2010 || Mrs. Warren's Profession || Mrs. Warren || Comedy Theatre, London ||
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2013 || Relatively Speaking || Sheila || Wyndham's Theatre, London ||
|-
| Chin Chin || Pamela Pusey-Picq || Touring ||
|-
| 2016 || A Room with a View || Charlotte Bartlett || Theatre Royal, Bath ||
|-
| 2017 || Lettice and Lovage || Lettice Douffet || Menier Chocolate Factory, London ||
|-
| 2019 || The Argument || Chloe || Theatre Royal, Bath ||
|-
| 2021 || Anything Goes || Evangeline Harcourt || Barbican Theatre, London ||
|-
| 2025 || Indian Ink || Mrs Swan || Hampstead Theatre, London ||
|-
| 2026 || High Society || Mother Lord || Barbican Theatre, London ||
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! scope="col"| Year
! scope="col"| Title
! scope="col"| Role
! scope="col" class="unsortable"| Notes
! scope="col" class="unsortable" |
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1966 || rowspan="2" | Love Story || The Turkish Cypriot girl || Episode: "Another Name from Nowhere" ||
|-
| Half Hour Story|| Candy || Episode: "Gone and Never Called Me Mother" ||
|-
| The Easter Play|| Eleonora || Episode: Strindberg's Easter||
|-
| ITV Playhouse|| Victoria || Episode: "Home and Beauty" || rowspan="31" |
|-
|Piers Morgan's Life Stories|| guest || ||
|-
| 2017 || Inside No.9|| Patricia || Episode: "Private View" ||
|-
| 2019 || Pennyworth || Baroness Ortsey || Episode: "Cilla Black" ||
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2024
| Ludwig
| Lady Camilla Bryce
| 1 episode
|
|-
| Rivals
| Carole Miroy
| 1 episode
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2026
| Small Town Scandal
| Sue
|
|
|}
Film work
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! scope="col"|Year
! scope="col"|Title
! scope="col"|Role
! scope="col" class="unsortable"| Comments
! scope="col" class="unsortable"|
|-
|1965 || Shakespeare Wallah ||Lizzie Buckingham|| ||
|-
|1979 || Best Actress || Marain, Clouds || |||
|-
|1984 || rowspan="2" | Variety Club || Woman of the Year || || || rowspan="2"|
|}
<!--Better source needed for the following:
Nominations
- 1978 – Gold Medal – Favorite Female Newcomer - Photoplay Awards
- 1985 – Actress in a Comedy Series – CableACE Awards-->
Notes
References
Books and journal articles
External links
- Felicity Kendal at the British Film Institute