Petronella Barker (actress, born 1942)

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Petronella Barker (born 12 October 1942) is a British actress.

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Life

The daughter of the comedy actor Eric Barker and the actress Pearl Hackney, she grew up in the village of Stalisfield, Kent, and was educated at Ashford School. [1]

Barker trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama from 1960 to 1963, [2] in her final year winning the Carleton Hobbs Bursary, which gave her a six-month contract with the BBC's Radio Drama Company. [3] In 1964 she joined the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre for three plays: Inadmissible Evidence (understudy), Julius Caesar (crowd and understudy), and Cuckoo in the Nest, in which she played Rawlins. [2] During four seasons with the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic Theatre between 1964 and 1968 she appeared in: Hobson's Choice (as Ada Figgins), Mother Courage and Her Children (Yvette), A Flea in her Ear (Eugenie), The Storm (Glasha), The Dance of Death (Jenny), Othello (Crowd), Juno and the Paycock (Neighbour), The Crucible (Mercy Lewis), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Courtier and Attendant), and Volpone (Androgyno). She played Miss Prue in William Congreve's play Love for Love at the Old Vic Theatre with Laurence Olivier, directed by Peter Wood. [4]

On 2 September 1966, at St Mary's, Stalisfield, Barker married actor Anthony Hopkins; they have one daughter. [5] The couple were divorced in the High Court, London, in 1972. [6]

Selected filmography

References

  1. "Pearl Hackney". Britmovie.co.uk. Archived from the original on 11 November 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  2. 1 2 Archived 11 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Carleton Hobbs Bursary winners at BBC.co.uk, accessed 23 January 2018
  4. "Home". National Theatre. Retrieved 22 November 2012.
  5. Frank Eugene Beaver, 100 Years of American Film (2000), p. 268
  6. Monica M. O'Donnell, ed., Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television Volume 1 (1984), p. 254