Eileen Atkins
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Not Available
One of England's most renowned stage actresses, Eileen Atkins has been a staple of both the Royal Shakespeare Company and London's West End since the 1960s. She has also popped up occasionally on film and television, and she has made numerous contributions to both mediums as a scriptwriter, most notably for the acclaimed series Upstairs Downstairs and House of Eliott and the well-received screen adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.A product of London's East End, where she was born in the Clapton Salvation Army Home on June 16, 1934, Atkins grew up in a council home as the third child of a homemaker and a gas meter reader. She began performing as a tap dancer in working men's clubs at the age of seven, and she had done professional pantomime by the time she was 13. Under the encouragement of a school instructor -- who gave Atkins voice lessons to remove her Cockney accent and introduced her to Shakespeare -- she went on to attend the Guildhall School of Drama, where she did a teaching course and took drama classes.Atkins struggled to begin her professional career, finding it difficult to get stage roles of any substance, to say nothing of stage roles, period. She got her first break when she moved to Stratford with her then-husband, Julian Glover, who had found work with the RSC. Atkins got her start in Stratford as an usherette, and she gradually moved her way up until she was allowed into the company. She first performed on the Stratford stage as Audrey in As You Like It, chosen to fill in for the understudy of Dame Peggy Ashcroft after both had taken ill. Atkins spent several years with the RSC, performing in both classical and contemporary plays alongside the likes of Lawrence Olivier and Alec Guinness. On the London stage, she portrayed numerous characters, earning a Best Supporting Actress Olivier Award for her performance in Peter Hall's production of The Winter's Tale. Her one-woman show, A Room of One's Own, was an international success, earning Atkins a Drama Desk Award for Best Solo Performance and a special Citation from the New York Drama Critics Circle for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf.Although the international stage has been the centerpoint of Atkins' career, she has made many contributions to film and television. Aside from her work on the aforementioned Upstairs, Downstairs, The House of Elliot, and Mrs. Dalloway (the last of which earned her the Evening Standard British Film Best Screenplay award), she has appeared in such films as Let Him Have It (1991), Jack and Sarah (1995), and John Schlesinger's Cold Comfort Farm (1995). Among the endless honors Atkins holds is a Commander of the British Empire. Atkin would appear in several notable projects over the coming years, including Gosford Park, The Hours, Cold Mountain, and TV series like Doc Martin and Psychoville.
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
42% | Vita & Virginia |
|
— | 2019 |
13% | ChickLit |
|
— | 2016 |
51% | Magic in the Moonlight |
|
— | 2014 |
47% | Beautiful Creatures |
|
$19.5M | 2013 |
No Score Yet | The Scapegoat |
|
— | 2012 |
33% | Wild Target |
|
$0.2M | 2010 |
43% | Robin Hood |
|
$105.3M | 2010 |
71% | Last Chance Harvey |
|
$14.9M | 2009 |
100% | Ballet Shoes |
|
— | 2008 |
27% | Evening |
|
$12.5M | 2007 |
50% | Scenes of a Sexual Nature |
|
— | 2006 |
No Score Yet | The Feast of the Goat (La fiesta del Chivo) |
|
— | 2006 |
35% | Ask the Dust |
|
$0.7M | 2006 |
No Score Yet | The Queen of Sheba's Pearls |
|
— | 2004 |
No Score Yet | Women Talking Dirty |
|
— | 2004 |
49% | Vanity Fair |
|
$16.1M | 2004 |
71% | Cold Mountain |
|
— | 2003 |
35% | What a Girl Wants |
|
$36M | 2003 |
No Score Yet | Egy het Pesten es Budan |
|
— | 2003 |
80% | The Hours |
|
$41.5M | 2002 |
No Score Yet | The Duchess Of Malfi |
|
— | 2002 |
No Score Yet | Bertie and Elizabeth |
|
— | 2002 |
86% | Gosford Park |
|
$41.3M | 2001 |
83% | Wit |
|
— | 2001 |
No Score Yet | Tales from the Madhouse |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | David Copperfield |
|
— | 2000 |
5% | The Avengers |
|
— | 1998 |
71% | Mrs. Dalloway |
|
— | 1998 |
No Score Yet | A Dance to the Music of Time |
|
— | 1997 |
83% | Cold Comfort Farm |
|
— | 1996 |
74% | Jack & Sarah |
|
— | 1996 |
61% | Wolf |
|
— | 1994 |
No Score Yet | The Lost Language of Cranes |
|
— | 1992 |
84% | Let Him Have It |
|
— | 1991 |
No Score Yet | A Hazard of Hearts |
|
— | 1987 |
No Score Yet | Vision |
|
— | 1987 |
No Score Yet | Titus Andronicus |
|
— | 1985 |
100% | The Dresser |
|
— | 1983 |
No Score Yet | Bewitched |
|
— | 1983 |
65% | Equus |
|
— | 1977 |
No Score Yet | I Don't Want to Be Born (The Baby)(It Lives Within Her)(Sharon's Baby) |
|
— | 1975 |
No Score Yet | The Devil Within Her |
|
— | 1975 |
No Score Yet | Shakespeare's An Age of Kings |
|
— | 1960 |
No Score Yet | The Lady from the Sea |
|
— | 1911 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
82% |
Doc Martin
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Cranford
2007-2009
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Masterpiece
1971-2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Miss Marple
2004-2013
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Mystery!
1980-2007
|
|
|
100% |
Smiley's People
1982
|
|
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Quotes from Eileen Atkins' Characters
Ridley: | And here comes our much beloved grandma |
Ridley: | And here comes our much beloved grandma. |
Gramma: | Let me have a look at you child |
Gramma: | Let me have a look at you child. |
Mother: | A Barrette for your seventh birthday. A Barrette the pistol of princes. No boy could have assed for more. |
Mother: | A Beretta for your seventh birthday. A Beretta the pistol of princes. No boy could have asked for more. |