# Freda Dowie

Freda Mary Dowie (22 July 1928 – 10 August 2019) was an English actress.
Her television credits include: Dixon of Dock Green, Doomwatch, Edna, the Inebriate Woman, Upstairs, Downstairs, I, Claudius, The Old Curiosity Shop, The Pickwick Papers, Lillie, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Our Friends in the North, Common As Muck, Lovejoy, Agatha Christie's Poirot, Crown Court and Heartbeat.
Dowie frequently portrayed long-suffering roles, most notably as the Mother in the 1988 film Distant Voices, Still Lives, for which she was nominated for a European Film Award. Her film career also includes roles in Subterfuge (1968), The Omen (1976), The Monk (1990), Butterfly Kiss (1995), Jude (1996), Cider with Rosie (1998), and Fragile (2005).

## Early life

Freda Mary Dowie was born in Carlisle, Cumbria on 22 July 1928 to John Dowie, a fried fish seller, and his wife Emily Davidson. She attended Barrow Girls Grammar School, where she excelled in Latin, English Literature and foreign languages including French and German. She later gained a place to study teaching at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating in 1948.

## Personal life and death

Dowie was married three times. Her first marriage was to Lionel Butterworth in Barrow-in-Furness in 1952. She then married John Goodrich in Hampstead in 1961. Both marriages ended in divorce. Her third marriage in 1970 was to the artist and documentary filmmaker David Thompson; they remained together until his death in April 2019.
Dowie died in Suffolk on 10 August 2019, aged 91.

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1959 | The Eustace Diamonds | Ellen | Episode: "Episode #1.6" |
| 1961 | ITV Television Playhouse | Waitress | Episode: "I Having Dreamt Awake" |
| 1961 | Doctor Faustus | Duchess of Vanholt | Episode: "Episode #1.2" |
| 1961 | The Wakefield Shepherd's Play | Mary | Short film |
| 1962 | Antigone | Antigone | 2 episodes |
| 1962 | The Bacchae | Chorus | 2 episodes |
| 1963 | BBC Sunday-Night Play | Lillian, Gimlet's conductress | Episode: "Just You Wait" |
| 1963 | Armchair Theatre | Elsie | Episode: "The Monkey and the Mowhawk" |
| 1963 | Maupassant | Mlle. Zoe | Episode: "Wives and Lovers" |
| 1963−1967 | ITV Play of the Week | Princess Marie / Bronwen Iorweth / Sarah | 3 episodes |
| 1964 | Diary of a Young Man | Chief Marcher | Episode: "Relationships" |
| 1965 | It's Dark Outside | Martha Singer | Episode: "A Slight Case of a Matrimony" |
| 1966 | Sunday Night | Xanthippe | Episode: "The Death of Socrates" |
| 1966 | North and South | Fanny Thornton | 4 episodes |
| 1966 | Dixon of Dock Green | Mrs. Newman | Episode: "The Golden Year" |
| 1966 | Alice in Wonderland | Nurse | Television film |
| 1967 | Dr. Finlay's Casebook | Beth Geddes | Episode: "Call in Cameron" |
| 1967 | Six Bites of the Cherry | Various roles | 6 episodes |
| 1967 | The Newcomers | Staff Nurse Murdoch | 2 episodes |
| 1968 | Omnibus | Maid | Episode: "Whistle and I'll Come To You" |
| 1968 | ITV Playhouse | Unknown | Episode: "The Retreat" |
| 1968 | Subterfuge | Waitress | |
| 1969 | The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm | Mrs. Flittersnoop | 7 episodes |
| 1970 | Thirty-Minute Theatre | Mrs. Armstrong | 2 episodes |
| 1971 | Doomwatch | Hilda | Episode: "No Room for Error" |
| 1971 | Play for Today | Mother Superior | Episode: "Edna, the Inebriate Woman" |
| 1971 | Cider with Rosie | Crabby | Television film |
| 1972 | Cranford | Miss Brown | Episode: "Part 1" |
| 1972−1975 | Crown Court | Sadie Dickinson / Helen Lord | 5 episodes |
| 1973 | Jack the Ripper | Amelia Palmer | Episode: "The First Two" |
| 1973 | Once Upon a Time | Mother | Episode: "Ishmael" |
| 1973 | The Brontes of Haworth | Miss Branwell | 2 episodes |
| 1974 | The Carnforth Practice | Mrs. Pollock | Episode: "Undue Influence" |
| 1974 | Miss Nightingale | Sister Elizabeth Wheeler | Television film |
| 1974 | Upstairs, Downstairs | Maria Schoenfeld | Episode: "The Beastly Hun" |
| 1974 | Father Brown | Opal Banks | Episode: "The Man with Two Beards" |
| 1975 | The Hanged Man | Jean MacKinnon | Episode: "Chariot of Earth" |
| 1975 | The Poisoning of Charles Bravo | Mrs. Cox | 3 episodes |
| 1975 | Within These Walls | Elsie Storbridge | Episode: "Prison Cat" |
| 1975 | The Puritan Experience: Making of a New World | Goody Adams | Short film |
| 1976 | The Omen | Nun | |
| 1976 | I, Claudius | The Sybil / Caesonia | 3 episodes |
| 1978 | Angels | Mrs. Czechpinski | Episode: "First Impressions" |
| 1978 | Lillie | Mathilde Peat | Episode: "Fifty Cents a Dance" |
| 1979−1980 | The Old Curiosity Shop | Sally Brass | 6 episodes |
| 1983 | Hallelujah! | Mildred Cooper | Episode: "Counselling" |
| 1983 | Zig Zag | Edith | 2 episodes |
| 1985 | The Pickwick Papers | Rachel Wardle | 3 episodes |
| 1985 | Cover Her Face | Alice Liddell | 2 episodes |
| 1986 | Alice in Wonderland | Cook | 2 episodes |
| 1986 | Lovejoy | Mrs. Springer | Episode: "Friends, Romans and Enemies" |
| 1986 | Eastenders | Clerk | Episode: "Episode #1.152" |
| 1986 | Call Me Mister | Mrs. Oaks | Episode: "Tour De Force" |
| 1988 | The Return of Sherlock Holmes | Mrs. Porter | Episode: "The Devil's Foot" |
| 1988 | Distant Voices, Still Lives | Mother | |
| 1988 | Sophia and Constance | Maria Insull | 5 episodes |
| 1989 | Poirot | Eliza Dunn | Episode: "The Adventure of the Clapham Cook" |
| 1989 | Goldeneye | Harley Street doctor | Television film |
| 1990 | Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit | Mrs. Green | 3 episodes |
| 1990 | The Monk | Sister Ursula | |
| 1991 | Kinsey | Maureen Spencer | Episode: "It's Going To Be a Close Call, Kinsey" |
| 1991 | Stay Lucky | Neighbour | Episode: "Shingle Beach" |
| 1992 | Thacker | Edith Folland | TV series |
| 1992 | Boon | Eileen Wooley | Episode: "Love or Money" |
| 1992−2009 | Heartbeat | Edna / Phyllis / Muriel Gerard | 3 episodes |
| 1993 | Crime Story | Lady Peggy Hudson | Episode: "The Ladies Man: Archibald Hall" |
| 1994 | Middlemarch | Jane Waule | 3 episodes |
| 1994 | Moving Story | Mrs. Kimball | Episode: "Last Stand at Laurel Way" |
| 1994−1997 | Common as Muck | Dulcie Green | 6 episodes |
| 1995 | Butterfly Kiss | Elsie | |
| 1996 | Our Friends in the North | Florrie Hutchinson | 7 episodes |
| 1996 | Jude | Elderly landlady | |
| 1996 | Beck | Freda Doyle | Episode: "Episode #1.2" |
| 1996 | Black Eyes | Gran | Short film |
| 1997 | Insiders | Peggy Edwards | Episode: "Good Behaviour" |
| 1998 | Cider with Rosie | Granny Wallon | Television film |
| 1999 | The Bill | Anne Jefferson | 2 episodes |
| 2000 | Jason and the Argonaut | Hera as Old Peasant Woman | 2 episodes |
| 2000 | Trick of the Light | Beatrice | Short film |
| 2000 | Maisie's Catch | Maisie | Short film |
| 2000 | Wildwood | Wise woman | Television film |
| 2002 | Outside the Edge | Freda Marshall | TV series |
| 2002 | How We Used to Live: A Giant in Ancient Egypt | Old Sarah | TV miniseries |
| 2003 | Death in Holy Orders | Agatha Betterton | 2 episodes |
| 2005 | Fragile | Old Lady 1 | |
| 2007 | Midsomer Murders | Amie Pearce | Episode: "The Animal Within" |
| 2007 | The Royal | Dora Rigby | Episode: "Scabs" |