A History Of Liverpool Thespians - Rita Tushingham

Rita Tushingham was born on the 14th of March 1942 in the Garston area of Liverpool with brothers Peter and Colin by parents John and Enid Tushingham who had a grocery business with stores on Hillfoot Road, Garston Old Road and latterly at Hunts Cross. Growing up in Hunts Cross, she he attended the Heatherlea School in Allerton, the La Sagesse School in Grassendale ( later to become part of St Julie's Catholic High School ), before studying shorthand and typing at a secretarial school. She wanted to be an actress from an early age and trained at the Shelagh Elliott-Clarke School, before working as an assistant stage manager at the Liverpool Playhouse. At the age of eighteen she made the journey to London in 1961, upping sticks from her home city of Liverpool, where she was earning a pound a week as an assistant stage manager and working backstage at Liverpool Rep. She had seen in a newspaper that they were looking for an unknown to play the role of Jo in Tony Richardson's screen adaptation of Shelagh Delaney's 'A Taste of Honey'. At the time she was reading a play of John Osbourne's, 'The World of Paul Slickey' and thought she'd write a letter and send a photograph to John Osbourne’s agent. It got to Tony and to John and they asked her to go to London for an audition, which she did on the Kings Road in Chelsea Town Hall. Her Mum went with her and Rita then did another audition and a film test. Luckily, she got the part! She also played a small role in a play called 'The Changeling' with Mary Ure, who was married to John Osbourne at the time and performed several other plays for the English Stage Company at the Royal Court. These included 'The Kitchen' (1961), 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1962), 'Twelfth Night' (1962), a production without décor, and 'The Knack' (1962). In 1962 she married photographer Terry Bicknell and they had two daughters, Dodonna and Aisha, before divorcing in 1976. Rita was an unlikely movie star and an unconventional actress and broke all the stereotypes for a female movie star – not tall, not buxom, not classically pretty. Unkindly labeled an 'ugly duckling' at the start of her career, she could be strikingly beautiful one moment, and then plain-looking the next. Her soulful eyes and extraordinarily expressive face helped to give her an on-screen vulnerability and emotional transparency like no other contemporary actress. She was at the Royal Court where Tony Richardson also was when he asked her to come to London before they started shooting 'A Taste of Honey'. In her film test, Rita's large 'all-speaking' eyes impressed director Tony Richardson and clinched the role for her. In the film she played something cinema had never seen before: a bored teenager from the rough end of Salford. Her brilliant performance in the film gained her international acclaim as Best Actress award at the Cannes Film festival plus a Golden Globe award and BAFTA. Rita said, "We shocked audiences without intending to. I only learned later that Paul and I did the first interracial kiss on screen."

 

She had the good fortune to be in the right place at the right time, with a working-class face that was a perfect fit for these realistic 'New Wave' films and following her successful debut she made several notable films during the 1960s. These included Desmond Davis' (1963), for which Rita won critical acclaim for her emotionally vulnerable performance; she starred in 'Girl with Green Eyes' (1964), an adaptation of an Edna O'Brien novel about a young Irish woman's affair with an older man; starred as a working class woman married to a biker in Sidney J. Furie's cult classic 'The Leather Boys' (1964), a film released at a time when Marlon Brando's biker opus, 'The Wild One' was still banned in Britain. Things got even better the following year when she reprised her stage role in the film version of 'The Knack...and How to Get It' (1965) for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe award, and played the love child of Yuri (Omar Sharif) and Lara (Julie Christie) in 'Doctor Zhivago' (1965). While the first film was a box office hit, the second was an international hit and one of cinema's all-time blockbusters. Her fame crested at the time four of her her fellow Liverpudlians, 'The Beatles', were becoming the biggest thing ever in pop music.

In 'Dr Zhivago' with Alec Guinness

In the 1970s and early 1980s, her career suffered the same downturn as many other British artists, due to the downsizing of the British film industry when American film financiers ceased funding British-made films after concluding that the 'Swinging Britain' films of the 1960s had run their course. However she kept working by performing on TV in the comedy series 'No Strings' (1974) with Keith Baron, and in films made in other countries, most notably Italy and (West) Germany. In 1981, she married Iraqui cinematographer Ousama Rawi, spending eight years in Canada with him before they separated. She returned to England in 1988 and appeared in a number of TV and film productions, such as Carla Lane's 'Bread' (1988) and with an all star cast in Mike Newell's 'An Awfully Big Adventure' (1995) co-written by Beryl Bainbridge. She later divided her time between Germany and London with German writer Hans-Heinrich Ziemann, her partner since 1994 and was legally divorced in 1996. Rita generously supported the efforts of fledgling filmmakers by performing in films by new directors, such as Martin Duffy's (1996), Carine Adler's (1997), and Simon Marshall's (2000). Later roles include the film 'Being Julia' (2004), starring Annette Bening, and on television in 'The Sittaford Mystery' " (2006). an episode of 'Marple'. Playing Mrs Lamb she appeared in Season 2 of the BBC 3 zombie drama 'In The Flesh', broadcast in May 2014. In 2020 she appeared in 2 episodes of the BBC One 'The Pale Horse' by Agatha Christie followed by 4 episodes in the TV series 'Ridley Road' and in 3 episodes the highly acclaimed BBC series 'The Responder' (2022) written fellow Liverpudlian Tony Schumacher. Her other accolades include three Variety Club awards, including Best Actress, as well as BBC Personality of the Year, and, in 2003, Rita received a Scouseology award for Lifetime Achievement from the City of Liverpool. Rita has always supported charities but her daughter Aisha's breast cancer diagnosis in 2005 led to her becoming a strong breast cancer activist. She and Aisha are dedicated supporters of Cancer Research UK's Relay for Life and take every opportunity to raise breast cancer awareness.In 2009 she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University, their highest honour. 

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/12/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-ozzie.html