Elizabeth Shepherd | |
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![]() Shepherd in 2019 | |
Born | London, England | 12 August 1936
Other names | Elizabeth Shephard, Elizabeth Sheppard |
Years active | 1959–present |
Spouse | [1] Barry Boys (m. 1965) |
Website | Official website |
Elizabeth Shepherd (born 12 August 1936) is an English character actress whose long career has encompassed the stage and both the big and small screens. Her television work has been especially prolific. Shepherd's surname has been variously rendered as "Shephard" and "Sheppard".
Shepherd began acting in television series in 1959. In 1960, she appeared in an adaptation of A. J. Cronin's novel, The Citadel . She was the original choice to play Emma Peel in the 1960s television series The Avengers . However, after filming nearly two episodes, Shepherd left the production and was replaced by Diana Rigg. [2]
In 1970, she appeared on Broadway in Barry England's Conduct Unbecoming , a story of the British Army in Kipling's India, as Mrs Hasseltine. She was praised for her performance in Time magazine. [3] Shepherd was pictured in Time along with her co-stars, the pop singers Jeremy Clyde and Paul Jones, who began their roles as British subalterns in London during 1969.[ citation needed ]
In film she appeared as both Lady Rowena and Ligeia in Roger Corman's The Tomb of Ligeia (1964), [4] as well as in Damien - Omen II as the ill-fated reporter Joan Hart, The Kidnapping of the President , Deadly Companion and Amelia .
Her TV work includes the cult series The Corridor People (1966), the 1978 miniseries The Bastard , and The Cleopatras , a BBC historical drama.
Elizabeth Shepherd has acted in numerous stage plays in both Shakespearean and contemporary dramas. As well as teaching drama at the Stella Adler school, she starred in "December Fools" in 2006 at the Abingdon Theater in New York. In 2014, she starred in a Canadian production of Driving Miss Daisy.[ citation needed ]
An article in the Toronto Star reported an incident of Shepherd being a victim of identity theft and mortgage fraud in 2006. [5]
In 2019, she released an audiobook of Edgar Allan Poe's Ligeia along with other Poe tales. The CD has been met with critical acclaim.
Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg was an English actress of stage and screen. Her roles include Emma Peel in the TV series The Avengers (1965–1968); Countess Teresa di Vicenzo, wife of James Bond, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969); Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones (2013–2017); and the title role in Medea in the West End in 1993 followed by Broadway a year later.
Emma Peel is a fictional character played by Diana Rigg in the British 1960s adventure television series The Avengers, and by Uma Thurman in the 1998 film version. She was born Emma Knight, the daughter of an industrialist, Sir John Knight. She is the crime-fighting partner of John Steed.
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The Tomb of Ligeia is a 1964 British horror film directed by Roger Corman. Starring Vincent Price and Elizabeth Shepherd, it tells of a man haunted by the spirit of his dead wife and her effect on his second marriage. The screenplay by Robert Towne was based upon the short story "Ligeia" by American author Edgar Allan Poe and was the last in his series of films loosely based on the works of Poe. Tomb of Ligeia was filmed at Castle Acre Priory and other locations with a mostly British cast.
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"Ligeia" is an early short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1838. The story follows an unnamed narrator and his wife Ligeia, a beautiful and intelligent raven-haired woman. She falls ill, composes "The Conqueror Worm", and quotes lines attributed to Joseph Glanvill shortly before dying.
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