Liz Fraser

Liz Fraser
Elizabeth Joan Winch (14 August 1930 – 6 September 2018), known professionally as Liz Fraser, was a British film actress, best known for being cast in provocative comedy roles.
Early life
Fraser was born in Southwark, London. Her year of birth was usually cited as 1933, which she gave when auditioning for her role in I'm All Right Jack, because the Boulting Brothers wanted someone younger for the part. In fact she was three years older, as she confirmed in her 2012 autobiography Liz Fraser ... and Other Characters,. Her father was a travelling salesman for a brewery and her mother owned a corner shop just off the New Kent Road. Their family life was disrupted by the Second World War, when she was evacuated, initially to Westerham in Kent and then, when that was deemed still too vulnerable to bombing, to Chudleigh, a village in Devon. Her father died in May 1942, aged 40, when she was 11.
She went to St Saviour's and St Olave's Grammar School for Girls between the ages of 13 and 17. She then attended evening courses at Goldsmiths College, where she joined a drama group, and the City of London College for Commerce, Book-Keeping, Shorthand and Typing, and won an evening scholarship to the London School of Dramatic Art.
Career
Her first film appearance was in Touch and Go (1955), using her birth name, and The Smallest Show on Earth (1957) in which she worked with Peter Sellers for the first time. Fraser also appeared in commercial television's first live play The Geranium for Associated-Rediffusion. She made an uncredited appearance as June in Alive and Kicking (1959), Her breakthrough role was as the daughter of Sellers' character in I'm All Right Jack (1959), for which she received a BAFTA nomination as Most Promising Newcomer. She was in several of the early Carry On films: Carry On Regardless (1961), Carry On Cruising (1962), and Carry On Cabby (1963), but was sacked by producer Peter Rogers after casually saying the series could be better marketed. She re-appeared in the series in Carry On Behind (1975), her salary apparently half of what it had been before.
Her other film appearances include Desert Mice (1959), Two-Way Stretch (1960), again with Sellers, The Bulldog Breed (1960), Double Bunk (1961) Raising the Wind (1961), On the Fiddle (1961), The Painted Smile (1962), The Americanization of Emily (1964), The Family Way (1966), Up the Junction (1968), Dad's Army (1971), and a string of sex comedies: Adventures of a Taxi Driver (1976), Confessions of a Driving Instructor (1976), Adventures of a Private Eye (1977), Confessions from a Holiday Camp (1977) and Rosie Dixon – Night Nurse (1978).
Fraser was also known for her many appearances in British television series, including Hancock's Half Hour, and the Avengers episode "The Girl from Auntie" where she guest starred opposite Carry On regular Bernard Cribbins. As Elizabeth Fraser, over a period of nearly six months, she appeared in numerous editions of the Associated-Rediffusion soap opera Sixpenny Corner (1955–56). She appeared on Benny Hill's late-1950s TV shows, and in a single sketch in the 23 December 1970 episode of his Thames TV series. This episode was in black and white (owing to the "Colour Strike" by ITV technicians, who wanted to be paid extra for working with the then-new colour TV technology), and hence the sketch was not included in any of the half-hour syndicated episodes of The Benny Hill Show. However, it is included in the Volume 1 box set of the complete Benny Hill Show, issued by A&E and Fremantle.
Fraser also starred as Gloria Simpkins in the radio sitcom Parsley Sidings alongside Arthur Lowe and Kenneth Connor from 1971 to 1973.
She played Mrs Brent, the mother of a missing girl, in the television production of Agatha Christie's Nemesis, starring Joan Hickson as Miss Marple, in 1987. Another role was in the "Backtrack" episode of the British police series The Professionals, as Margery Harper, a glamorous woman who fenced stolen property in her shop.
Her other television work included Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Crown Court, Citizen James, Robin's Nest, Rumpole of the Bailey, Last of the Summer Wine, The Bill, Foyle's War, Birds of a Feather, Minder and Holby City.
Personal life and death
Fraser married Peter Yonwin, a travelling salesman, in November 1958, but the marriage soon broke down and they were divorced. She married her second husband, Bill Hitchcock, a TV director, in January 1965 at Harrow Register Office. They agreed not to work together, but this changed in 1972 when she appeared in the Rodney Bewes sitcom Albert!, which Hitchcock co-directed, and again later in the same year, when she acted in Turnbull's Finest Half-Hour, a comedy series starring Michael Bates and produced by Hitchcock. Hitchcock died from a pulmonary embolism in February 1974, at the age of 45. Fraser was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1978 and 1979, undergoing a lumpectomy the first time and having reconstructive surgery at the Marsden in 1979.
Fraser had a half-brother, Philip, 11 years older, the son of her mother from a previous marriage. She supported various charities and was a patron of the London Repertory Company. She was also an enthusiastic and talented poker and bridge player.
She died on 6 September 2018 at Royal Brompton Hospital as a result of complications following an operation.
Filmography
Television appearances
Sixpenny Corner (1955) – Julie Perkins
Hancock's Half Hour (1956–1960) – Various characters
The Grove Family (1956)
ITV Television Playhouse: "Two Ducks on a Pond" (1957) – Beryl
Dixon of Dock Green (1957) – Jeannie Richards
Shadow Squad (1957) – Gilda
The Army Game (1957)
Whack-O! (1957) – Matron
Educated Evans (1957) – W.R.A.C. Clerk
Dixon of Dock Green (1958) – Maisie Perkins
Hotel Imperial (1958)
The Sky Larks (1958) – Rose
Educating Archie (1958)
Murder Bag (1958)
Dixon of Dock Green (1958) – Lena
No Hiding Place (1959) – Rose Glorie
Boyd Q.C. (1959)
ITV Play of the Week (1959) – Dora
The Vise (1959) – Betsy Linton
ITV Television Playhouse: "Incident" (1960) – Mavis
Knight Errant Limited (1960) – Gloria MacLean
BBC Sunday-Night Play (1960) – Riggie
Citizen James (1960–1962) – Liz
Probation Officer (1962) – Lorna
No Hiding Place (1963) – Sheba
Harry's Girls (1963) – Sally Witherspoon
Fire Crackers (1964) – Mary Medway
No Hiding Place (1965) – Phyllis Nolan
It's Not Me: It's Them! (1965) – Mrs. Ember
The Avengers: "The Girl from AUNTIE" (1966) – Georgie Price-Jones
Seven Deadly Virtues (1967) – Agnes
Mickey Dunne (1967) – Maisie
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969): "It's Supposed to be Thicker than Water" – Fay Crackan
Here Come the Double Deckers! (1970) – Zizi Bagor
The Goodies: "Caught in the Act" (1970) – Miss Heffer
The Benny Hill Show (1970) – Various Roles
BBC The World About Us - Under London Expedition (1971) – Herself
ITV Sunday Night Theatre (1972) – Countess Antonescu
Jason King (1972) – Claire
Crime of Passion (1972) – Denise
Dear Mother...Love Albert (1972) – Ann
Turnbull's Finest Half-Hour (1972) – Faye Bush
Crown Court (1973) – Lady Esham ('Murder Most Foul', episode)
Seven Faces of Woman (1977) – Delilah Brown
Rumpole of the Bailey (1978): "Rumpole and the Alternative Society" – Bobby Dogherty
Robin's Nest (1978): "The Happy Hen" – Vera
The Professionals: "Backtrack" (1979) – Margery Harper
Shroud for a Nightingale (1984) – Sister Mavis Gearing
Fairly Secret Army (1984–1986) – Doris Entwhistle
Miss Marple: "Nemesis" (1987) – Mrs. Brent
Hardwicke House (1987) – Agnes
Rude Health (1988) – Mrs. Joy
ScreenPlay (1988) – Mrs. Dewey
The Lady and the Highwayman (1988) – Flossie
Capstick's Law (1989) – Florence Smith
Birds of a Feather: "Just Family" (1991) – Olive Stubbs
Minder: "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Retiring" (1993) – Delilah
Demob (1993) – Edith
The Bill (1994) – Grace Walsh
Wales Playhouse (1996) – Nel
Drover's Gold (1997) –- Ma Whistler
Hold to Zero (2000) – Grace
Last of the Summer Wine (2000) – Reggie Unsworth
Pickles: The Dog Who Won the World Cup (2006) – Ada
Doctors (2006) – Beryl Gifford
Foyle's War (2007) – Mollie Summersgill
Holby City (2007) – Tabitha Blackstock
Midsomer Murders: "Till Death Do Us Part" (2018) – Marcia Jackson
References
Sources
Simon Sheridan Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema, Titan Books (2011, 4th edition);
External links
Liz Fraser at the British Film Institute
Official website of the Carry On films
1930 births
2018 deaths
Actors from Southwark
Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London
English film actresses
English stage actresses
English television actresses
Actresses from London
20th-century English actresses
21st-century English actresses