Felicity Kendal

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Birthday:

25 September 1946, Olton, Warwickshire, England, UK

Birth Name:

Felicity Ann Bragg

Height:

152 cm

British leading woman best known at one time for "cute" roles but a formidable actress in a wide variety of parts. Born in England, she was raised in India where her parents Geoffrey Kendal and Laura Liddell toured the nation for decades with a traveling classical theatre troupe called Shakespeareana. Young Felicity first appeared on stage as an infant and grew up doing backstage chores and filling in on stage as boys or various supernumeraries. She attended whatever convent school was immediately convenient and by her teen years was appearing in important Shakespearean roles. Family friends James Ivory and Ismail Merchant fashioned their fictional film Shakespeare-Wallah (1965) around the Kendal troupe and gave Felicity the leading role. She returned to England following the film and struggled for a number of years getting work. She appeared on television opposite John Gielgud and soon thereafter was given the role that made her famous, Barbara Good in the TV series The Good Life (1975), about a couple who decides to live off the land in their decidedly suburban home. She followed "The Good Life" with several other TV programs, but made her most important contributions on the stage. She created roles in a number of plays by Tom Stoppard (with whom she had a highly publicized affair), and continued unabated her lifelong work in Shakespeare, playing Desdemona to Paul Scofield's Othello and a memorable Viola in a BBC production of Twelfth Night (1980). She continues to perform with regularity in London's West End. She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1995. In 1999, she published her memoirs, "White Cargo." Show less «

[In 2010]: George Bernard Shaw was a raving socialist. And mad for feminism, passionate that women should have a right to choose how they li...Show more »

[In 2010]: George Bernard Shaw was a raving socialist. And mad for feminism, passionate that women should have a right to choose how they live and how and if they work. Also the play ['Mrs Warren's Profession'] is about hypocrisy, about that bubble of respectability. And we're exactly the same now: we seem to be obsessed with infidelity, and prostitution of one kind or another, and the role of women - whether they are naughty tarts who do things with their bodies they shouldn't, or whether they are married and therefore respectable and therefore honoured. Show less «

The problem men seem to have, and women too, is that they have this very structured idea that we should find a partner and settle down and b...Show more »

The problem men seem to have, and women too, is that they have this very structured idea that we should find a partner and settle down and be, you know, faithful. And yet clearly this is really, really hard for anybody to do! Show less «

Quite often you do know of a very happy partnership, married or not, but equally there seems to be the same percentage of people in any walk...Show more »

Quite often you do know of a very happy partnership, married or not, but equally there seems to be the same percentage of people in any walk of life who find it difficult to ... to be entirely, um, what is the word without getting too - ha! ha! - into detail ... who don't quite find that their life is sufficient without an extra excitement of some kind or another. The difficulty is we don't accept that, we're just not being honest. Show less «

So the question is, do we have the freedom to make a life that we choose? Or do we have to stick by society's rules? And it seems to me we s...Show more »

So the question is, do we have the freedom to make a life that we choose? Or do we have to stick by society's rules? And it seems to me we still have to stick by society's rules or we pay a penalty. Like any good play it's a question, not an answer. Show less «

In a play the director is God, and I'm a great arguer. Rather boringly so, I think, about trying different things. And the only thing that i...Show more »

In a play the director is God, and I'm a great arguer. Rather boringly so, I think, about trying different things. And the only thing that is different working with Michael is I feel that I can only argue so much, otherwise it may appear to people that I am arguing only because I'm in a position where I can argue longer. It's also the balance of the other actors: like a football team, you are a team, and he is the coach. You can't start having tea with the coach and telling him about the team, you have to keep that separate. So we have a very boring time at home, two little silent people going slinking home after rehearsal. Show less «

[Sister Jennifer Kendal] was incredibly good at everything. She was an amazing mathematician, she sang like an angel, she read all the impor...Show more »

[Sister Jennifer Kendal] was incredibly good at everything. She was an amazing mathematician, she sang like an angel, she read all the important books, she knew everything about music. And she was gorgeous. She had a stream of boyfriends, each more glamorous than the one before [she married the Bollywood superstar Shashi Kapoor]. She was the image of what I couldn't be. Show less «

[on moving from India to the UK at age 19]: At a party you'd say, 'I'm an actress', and the eyebrows would go and immediately you would get ...Show more »

[on moving from India to the UK at age 19]: At a party you'd say, 'I'm an actress', and the eyebrows would go and immediately you would get that look. It wasn't a respectable profession; they knew you were up for hire. Like a taxi! But even now, if you are on the stage, basically you are being paid to entertain. It's a deal: there's my ticket, and now you dance. And that isn't prostitution in the wrong way, but it isn't the same as writing a book. Show less «

The Good Life (1975) was such fun, but during that period the people who were thought of as hugely successful were Julie Christie and Monica...Show more »

The Good Life (1975) was such fun, but during that period the people who were thought of as hugely successful were Julie Christie and Monica Vitti, the beautiful ones in the movies. So it quite tickled me that people thought I was ... quite fun. But it was the part as well, it was very funny and well written. When I look at The Good Life (1975) sometimes - I can't watch a whole one through, mostly because it makes me sad about Paul Eddington [who died in 1995] - the thing that I find weird is this slightly 1940s accent I've got. It doesn't belong anywhere. Show less «

I've got a tattoo, and that's probably wrong! Don't worry. It's on my foot. It's a star, but it's just the beginning, there's going to be ot...Show more »

I've got a tattoo, and that's probably wrong! Don't worry. It's on my foot. It's a star, but it's just the beginning, there's going to be other things. I'm looking for a turtle but I can't find one. Show less «

[on getting a tattoo at age 63]: The thing is, I now know which bits won't go too wrinkly because they've already gone. You know where there...Show more »

[on getting a tattoo at age 63]: The thing is, I now know which bits won't go too wrinkly because they've already gone. You know where there's a place left to put tattoos. Show less «

[To whom would you most like to say sorry, and why?]: My first husband - I gave him a hard time. And my second husband - I'm giving him a ha...Show more »

[To whom would you most like to say sorry, and why?]: My first husband - I gave him a hard time. And my second husband - I'm giving him a hard time. Show less «

Unappealing habit? Moi?

I don't treasure things much - just people. And pets.

I don't take money seriously, so I can't keep any.

Happy is my natural state.

Life is fragile and short. Don't waste it by being mean or greedy.

[What does love feel like?] When it's happy, being alive 1,000 times. When unhappy, dying slowly.

[What is the closest you've come to death?] Typhoid in Calcutta when I was 17.

[If you could edit your past, what would you change?] My sister's death.

Wilson the kitten is making me re-evaluate love.