Margaret Lockwood CBE 15 September 1916 15 July 1990 was an English actress notable for her performance in the 1945 Gainsborough movie The Wicked Lady Margaret Mary Lockwood Day was born in Karachi British India now Karachi Pakistan to an English administrator of a railway company and his Scottish wife Lockwoods family returned to the United Kingdom when she was a child along with her brother She attended Sydenham High School for girls and a ladies school in Kensington London She began studying for the stage at an early age at the Italia Conti and made her debut in 1928 at the age of 12 at the Holborn Empire where she played a fairy in A Midsummer Nights Dream In December of the following year she appeared at the Scala Theatre in the pantomime The Babes in the Wood In 1932 she appeared at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in Cavalcade Lockwood then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London where she was seen by a talent scout and signed to a contract In June 1934 she played Myrtle in House on Fire at the Queens Theatre and on 22 August 1934 appeared as Margaret Hamilton in Gertrude Jennings play Family Affairs when it premiered at the Ambassadors Theatre Helene Ferber in Repayment at the Arts Theatre in January 1936 Trixie Drew in Henry Bernards play Miss Smith at the Duke of Yorks Theatre in July 1936 and back at the Queens in July 1937 as Ann Harlow in Anns Lapse Lockwood entered films in 1934 and in 1935 she appeared in the film version of Lorna Doone In 1938 she starred in her most successful film Alfred Hitchcocks The Lady Vanishes in which she first appeared with Michael Redgrave In 1940 she played the role of Jenny Sunley the selfcentered frivolous wife of Michael Redgraves character in The Stars Look Down In the early 1940s Lockwood changed her onscreen image to play villainesses in both contemporary and period films becoming the most successful actress in British films during that period Her greatest success was in the title role in The Wicked Lady 1945 a film which was controversial in its day and brought her considerable publicity In 1946 Lockwood gained the Daily Mail National Film Awards First Prize for most popular British film actress She made a return to the stage in a recordbreaking national tour of Noel Cowards Private Lives in 1949 and also played Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion at the Edinburgh Festival of 1951 and the title role in Peter Pan in 1949 1950 and 1957 the latter with her daughter as Wendy Her subsequent longrunning West End hits include an allstar production of Wildes An Ideal Husband 196566 in which she played the villainous Mrs Cheveley Somerset Maughams Lady Frederick 1970 Relative Values Noel Coward revival 1973 and the thrillers Spiders Web 1955 written for her by Agatha Christie Signpost to Murder 1962 and Double Edge 1975 In 1969 she starred as barrister Julia Stanford in the TV play Justice is a Woman This inspired the Yorkshire Television series Justice which ran for three seasons 39 episodes from 1971 to 1974 and featured her reallife partner John Stone as fictional boyfriend Dr Ian Moody Lockwoods role as the feisty Harriet Peterson won her Best Actress Awards from the TV Times 1971 and The Sun 1973 Her last professional appearance was as Queen Alexandra in Royce Rytons stage play Motherdear Ambassadors Theatre 1980 She was created a CBE in the New Year Honours of 1981 Margaret Lockwood had married and been divorced from Rupert Leon She lived her final years in seclusion and died in the Cromwell Hospital Kensington London from cirrhosis of the liver aged 73 She was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium She was survived by her daughter actress Julia Clark née Margaret Julia Leon born 1941
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