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Angharad Mary Rees, The Hon. Mrs David McAlpine, CBE (16 July 1944 – 21 July 2012) was a British actress, best known for her British television roles during the 1970s and in particular her leading role as Demelza in the 1970s BBC TV costume drama Poldark.
When she was two, in 1946, her family moved from 13 Engel Park, Mill Hill, to Cardiff. Rees had two brothers and a sister. She attended the independent Commonweal Lodge School, then the Sorbonne in Paris for two terms and the Rose Bruford Drama College in Kent. She also studied at the University of Madrid and taught English in Spain before acting in repertory theatre in England.
Throughout her professional life her birth year was given as 1949, but she was born in 1944.Hammer Complete: The Films, The Personnel, The Company, Howard Maxford, McFarland Inc. Publishers, 2019, p. 120
Her most notable early roles included the daughter of Winston Churchill (played by Richard Burton) in The Gathering Storm, Lucy in Dennis Potter's television play Joe's Ark (both 1974), and as Celia in As You Like It opposite Helen Mirren (1978). Director Alan Bridges said of Rees' performance in Potter's television play that it was one of the finest performances he had ever witnessed.W. Stephen Gilbert The Life and Work of Dennis Potter, Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1998, p.215
She starred as the fictional murderous daughter of Jack the Ripper in the Hammer horror Hands of the Ripper (1971) and the following year’s star-studded film version of Under Milk Wood (1972) starring Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole and Elizabeth Taylor. Her other film roles included Jane Eyre (1970), To Catch a Spy (1971), The Love Ban (1973), Moments (1974), La petite fille en velours bleu (1978), The Curse of King Tut's Tomb (1980), the television miniseries Master of the Game (1984) and The Wolves of Kromer (1998), a British-made fantasy film narrated by Boy George.
Rees appeared in many stage productions in London's West End, including It's a Two-foot-six-inches Above-the-ground World (Wyndhams Theatre, 1970); The Picture of Dorian Gray (Lyric, Hammersmith, 1975); The Millionairess (Haymarket, 1978–79); Perdita in A Winter's Tale (Young Vic, 1981) and A Handful of Dust (Lyric, Hammersmith, 1982). Her other Shakespearean roles included Ophelia for the Welsh Theatre Company (1969) and Hermione at the Sherman Cymru, Cardiff (1985). Angharad Rees: Obituary from thestage.co.uk
From 1975 to 1977 she played the lead role of Demelza in the BBC TV costume drama Poldark, the role with which she is most closely associated, appearing in all but the first episode. Poldark , Museum of Broadcast Communications In 1983 she starred in another Cornish-set period drama The Forgotten Story, also based on a Winston Graham novel.
She toured in the Bill Kenwright production of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband, directed by Peter Hall, with Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray and appeared regularly with John Mortimer in Mortimer’s Miscellany, his self-devised anthology of poetry and prose presented at theatres around Britain.
Later television work included the sitcom Close to Home (1989–90) and the sporting drama Trainer (1992).
Rees had a relationship with British actor Alan Bates; On 29 April 2005, after Bates' death, Rees married at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, London, The Hon. David McAlpine, a member of the McAlpine construction company and third son of Edwin McAlpine, Baron McAlpine of Moffat. She remained married to McAlpine until her death.
A memorial service was held for her at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, London, on 27 September 2012. Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes led the tributes. He said "If there was one thing she was superb at, it was friendship. And not just sympathetic friendship, but hard-working, useful, practical assistance. She was anxious, I think, that she should not be defined, entirely, as the star of a popular series, as one half of a golden couple, as a mother and hostess, although she excelled in all of these. She wanted also to be remembered as a serious actress whose early career might have gone on to greatness had she not made the personal decision to change direction by."
Honours
She was made a Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. She also had a public house named after her in Pontypridd.
Jewellery design
Following the death of her son Linford in 1999 she turned her back on acting and concentrated on her passion for jewellery design. Rees founded a jewellery design company, Angharad, based in Knightsbridge. Pieces that she designed and produced were featured in the film (2007).
Personal life
On 18 September 1973, Rees married the actor Christopher Cazenove, who had made his name at around the same time in The Regiment. They had two sons: Linford James (20 July 1974 – 10 September 1999) and Rhys William (born 1976). Linford was killed in a car accident on the M11 motorway in Essex while returning to collect his books from Cambridge University, where he had been awarded the degree of Master of Philosophy. Cazenove and Rees divorced in 1994 but remained close. Cazenove died from the effects of septicaemia in 2010.
Death
Rees died on 21 July 2012, aged 68, of pancreatic cancer. Welsh actress Angharad Rees dies, The Guardian, 22 July 2012 Angharad Rees (1949-2012), Peerage News, 22 July 2012
Filmography
External links
Categories: 1944 Births, 2012 Deaths, 20th-century British Businesspeople, 20th-century Welsh Actresses, Actors From The London Borough Of Barnet, Actresses From Cardiff, Alumni Of Rose Bruford College, British Jewellery Designers, British Women Jewellers, Angharad, Commanders Of The Order Of The British Empire, Complutense University Of Madrid Alumni, Deaths From Pancreatic Cancer In England, People Educated At Commonweal Lodge, People From Edgware, People From Mill Hill, University Of Paris Alumni, Welsh Film Actresses, Welsh Radio Actresses, Welsh Stage Actresses, Welsh Television Actresses
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