Vivien Merchant (born Ada Brand Thomson; 22 July 1929 – 3 October 1982) was an English actress. She began her career in 1942 and became known for dramatic roles on stage and in films. In 1956, she married the playwright Harold Pinter and performed in many of his plays.Merchant achieved considerable success from the 1950s to the 1970s, winning the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress in 1964. For her role in the film Alfie (1966), she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer. In 1967, she starred in the Broadway production of Pinter's The Homecoming and received a Tony Award nomination. Her other films included Accident (1967), The Offence (1972), Frenzy (1972), The Homecoming (1973) and The Maids (1975). Suffering from depression and alcoholism as her marriage ended, she died in 1982, two years after her divorce.
She has a prominent role in Alfred the Great (1969), but utters not one single word throughout. The critic Pauline Kael, panning the film savagely, suggested sarcastically that she had probably refused to say her lines as the dialogue in the film was so unspeakable. It turned out that this was, in fact, the truth.
2
She changed her first name from Ada to Vivien (after Vivien Leigh), hoping it would provide her with a more glamorous image; and from Thompson to Merchant, because she was proud of her brother's service in the Merchant Navy.
3
Made her stage debut at fourteen in a touring production of "Jane Eyre".
4
Was nominated for Broadway's 1967 Tony Award as Best Actress (Dramatic) for "The Homecoming."
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Pinter began having an affair with writer/historian Antonia Fraser in 1975. Vivien, battling problems with alcohol, cited Antonia in her divorce action despite the fact the marriage had been crumbling since the mid-60s. Vivien and Pinter finally divorced in 1980 and Pinter married Antonia in December of that same year. Vivien was unconsolable and died two years later of liver cirrhosis.
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Married to and divorced from playwright Harold Pinter, in many of whose works she appeared, most unforgettably as Ruth in The Homecoming (1973)
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
Crown Court
1982
TV Series
Judge
A Tale of Two Cities
1980
TV Mini-Series
Miss Pross
Breakaway
1980
TV Series
Isabel Black
Secret Army
1977
TV Series
Mlle. Gunet
The Velvet Glove
1977
TV Series
Elizabeth Fry
The Man in the Iron Mask
1977
TV Movie
Maria Theresa
The Lover
1977
TV Movie
Sarah
The Maids
1975
Madame
Softly Softly: Task Force
1973
TV Series
Maggie Jarman
The Homecoming
1973
Ruth
BBC Play of the Month
1968-1973
TV Series
Jane Noble
Dona Ana
Evelyn Daly
The Offence
1973
Maureen Johnson
A War of Children
1972
TV Movie
Nora Tomelty
Frenzy
1972
Mrs. Oxford
Under Milk Wood
1972
Mrs. Pugh
Aquarius
1971
TV Series
Anna in Old Times
Skyscrapers
1970
TV Movie
Audley
ITV Saturday Night Theatre
1969-1970
TV Series
Audley / Augusta Fullam / Maureen Instance
Wicked Women
1970
TV Series
Augusta Fullen
Alfred the Great
1969/I
Freda
NBC Experiment in Television
1969
TV Series
ITV Playhouse
1968
TV Series
Tessa
Accident
1967
Rosalind
Thirty-Minute Theatre
1966
TV Series
Ella
Seven Deadly Sins
1966
TV Series
Jane
Alfie
1966
Lily Clamacraft
Theatre 625
1966
TV Series
Natalia Petrovna / Gertrude
Tea Party
1965
TV Movie
ITV Play of the Week
1960-1965
TV Series
Kathy Grayson / Joan Brown
ITV Television Playhouse
1960-1963
TV Series
Angela Fairbourne / Stella / Rose Blatchford / ...
$11 Million
