Rita Tushingham
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Rita Tushingham was born in Liverpool on March 14, 1942, and did her
professional apprenticeship with the Liverpool Playhouse. In 1961, she
made her film debut as a teenager in
Tony Richardson's adaption of
Shelagh Delaney's kitchen sink drama,
A Taste of Honey (1961). For her
work in that film, she won a BAFTA and the best actress award at the
Cannes Film Festival. In 1963, she followed those up with a Golden
Globe Award as most promising newcomer.
In the first half of the Sixties, Tushingham became a symbol of the
kitchen sink school of theater, which told stories about working class
folk, people who had been ignored previously in class conscious
England. It was a decade that saw the rise of a generation of actors
born and raised outside Metropolitan London who refused to let go of
their accents or adopt posh manners. She became one of the faces of the
English New Wave. In 1964, Tushingham starred in
Girl with Green Eyes (1964),
an adaptation of an Edna O'Brien novel
about a young Irish woman's affair with an older man, co-starring
Peter Finch and
Lynn Redgrave. She next starred as a
working class woman married to a biker in
Sidney J. Furie's cult classic
The Leather Boys (1964), a film
released at a time where Marlon Brando's
biker opus The Wild One (1953) was
still banned in Britain. She originated the role of Nancy in
Ann Jellicoe's "The Knack...and How to Get
It" at the Royal Court Theatre in 1962. The Royal Court was ground zero
for the revolution in the British theater that started there in 1956
with John Osborne's
Look Back in Anger (1959).
She reached her high-water mark in 1965 when she reprised her stage
role in the film version of
The Knack... and How to Get It (1965)
and played Omar Sharif (Yuri) and
Julie Christie (Lara)'s love
child in Doctor Zhivago (1965).
While
The Knack... and How to Get It (1965)
was a box office hit,
Doctor Zhivago (1965) was an
international hit, one of cinema's all-time blockbusters. Her fame
crested at the time her fellow Liverpudlians,
The Beatles were establishing themselves as
the biggest thing in post-WWII pop music.
But as the second half of the 60s kicked in, Tushingham's stardom began
to wane as that of her "Zhivago" co-star (and on-screen mum) Christie
began to skyrocket, making her the face of Swinging London. Tushingham
has continued to act for five more decades since the Sixties came to a
close, the very definition of a successful career.
professional apprenticeship with the Liverpool Playhouse. In 1961, she
made her film debut as a teenager in
Tony Richardson's adaption of
Shelagh Delaney's kitchen sink drama,
A Taste of Honey (1961). For her
work in that film, she won a BAFTA and the best actress award at the
Cannes Film Festival. In 1963, she followed those up with a Golden
Globe Award as most promising newcomer.
In the first half of the Sixties, Tushingham became a symbol of the
kitchen sink school of theater, which told stories about working class
folk, people who had been ignored previously in class conscious
England. It was a decade that saw the rise of a generation of actors
born and raised outside Metropolitan London who refused to let go of
their accents or adopt posh manners. She became one of the faces of the
English New Wave. In 1964, Tushingham starred in
Girl with Green Eyes (1964),
an adaptation of an Edna O'Brien novel
about a young Irish woman's affair with an older man, co-starring
Peter Finch and
Lynn Redgrave. She next starred as a
working class woman married to a biker in
Sidney J. Furie's cult classic
The Leather Boys (1964), a film
released at a time where Marlon Brando's
biker opus The Wild One (1953) was
still banned in Britain. She originated the role of Nancy in
Ann Jellicoe's "The Knack...and How to Get
It" at the Royal Court Theatre in 1962. The Royal Court was ground zero
for the revolution in the British theater that started there in 1956
with John Osborne's
Look Back in Anger (1959).
She reached her high-water mark in 1965 when she reprised her stage
role in the film version of
The Knack... and How to Get It (1965)
and played Omar Sharif (Yuri) and
Julie Christie (Lara)'s love
child in Doctor Zhivago (1965).
While
The Knack... and How to Get It (1965)
was a box office hit,
Doctor Zhivago (1965) was an
international hit, one of cinema's all-time blockbusters. Her fame
crested at the time her fellow Liverpudlians,
The Beatles were establishing themselves as
the biggest thing in post-WWII pop music.
But as the second half of the 60s kicked in, Tushingham's stardom began
to wane as that of her "Zhivago" co-star (and on-screen mum) Christie
began to skyrocket, making her the face of Swinging London. Tushingham
has continued to act for five more decades since the Sixties came to a
close, the very definition of a successful career.