Dorothy Tutin

Dorothy Tutin

London-born Dorothy Tutin went directly from the classrooms of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to her 1949 stage debut as Princess Margaret in The Thistle and the Rose. Tutin spent the next two seasons at the Old Vic, then scored a personal triumph in the 1953 Graham Greene play The Living Room. During her first flush of stardom, the petite, gaminelike actress was frequently compared to Broadway's Julie Harris; indeed, two of Ms. Tutin's best-known stage roles were Sally Bowles in I Am a Camera and Joan in The Lark, both of which had been introduced in America by Ms. Harris. Tutin's film work has included such parts as Cecily Cardew in The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) and Polly Peachum in The Beggar's Opera (1953); her co-star in the latter endeavor was Laurence Olivier, who in 1984 would play Lear opposite Tutin's Goneril in an internationally syndicated television production of King Lear. Tutin was also seen on TV as Anne Boleyn in 1971's Six Wives of Henry VIII, as Lady Fenton in the 1994 Gone With the Wind sequel Scarlet, and as star of the weekly British series Body and Soul. When not acting, Dorothy Tutin could often be found on the Continent, pursuing her hobby of mountain climbing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide