Margaret Rose "Peggy" Mount, OBE (2 May 1915 – 13 November 2001), was an English actress of stage and screen. She was perhaps best known for playing battleaxe characters, though her real personality was said to have been far removed from such roles. She was also well known for her distinctive voice.
I was lucky enough to spar with Peggy Mount, a huge star of television and stage ever since her appearance as the harridan heroine of Sailor Beware. [Sir Ian McKellan]
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Fact
1
Discovered acting at the drama society of her local Wesleyan chapel. Left school at 14 to work as a secretary and take private acting classes under Phyllis Reader. In 1944, she gave her first professional acting performance in "Hindle Wakes" in Keighley, Yorkshire. She then spent nine years with regional repertory companies.
2
She claimed to have had a very unhappy ,lonely, childhood and felt unloved by her mother.
3
She was adept at playing formidable mother-in-law roles.
4
Was an accomplished sailor and once owned a motor cruiser on the River Thames aptly named 'The Dragon'.
5
She ended her career in 1998 when she lost her sight during a performance of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya."
6
She was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1996 Queen's New Year Honours List for her services to drama.
7
Born Margaret Rose Mount, but best known in Britain by her nickname, "Peggy".
8
She always wanted to be an actress, but her father died when she was 14, and she had to learn shorthand and typing.
9
In the 1980s she had parts in the popular TV series Inspector Morse and Casualty.
10
Between 1983 and 1985 she was with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford and the Barbican appearing in Measure for Measure and The Dillon.