Ada Brand Thomson (22 July 1929 – 3 October 1982), known professionally as Vivien Merchant, 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.
Career Merchant took her stage name as a composite of the actress Vivien Leigh and her brother, who was a merchant seaman (cited by Michael Billington). She began acting professionally in 1942, with supporting juvenile roles in repertory, progressing to West End roles in such works as Noël Coward's Sigh No More and Ace of Clubs, becoming an established lead in repertory in the early 1950s. Merchant subsequently performed in many stage productions and several films, including Alfie (1966), Accident (1967), Frenzy (1972), and The Offence (also 1972). Her performance in Alfie gained her Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress, and won her the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer and the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress.
After Merchant married the playwright Harold Pinter in 1956, she appeared in many of his plays, including the 1960 revival of his first play, The Room at the Hampstead Theatre, A Slight Ache, A Night Out, The Collection, and The Lover; the latter was also a celebrated television production partnering Alan Badel at Associated Rediffusion, for which she was given an Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Newcomer and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress, both in 1963.
Merchant subsequently appeared as Wendy in Tea Party opposite Leo McKern in 1965. Merchant starred as Ruth in The Homecoming (1964) on stage both in London in 1965 and New York in 1967, receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play. She went on to star in the film version in 1973. The last of his plays in a role premiere on stage was Old Times (1971) as Anna. Merchant played Lady Macbeth to Paul Scofield's Macbeth for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967, directed by Sir Peter Hall.
Merchant took the role of Madame in the Greenwich Theatre revival of Jean Genet's The Maids partnering Glenda Jackson and Susannah York: This was filmed in 1974 by Christopher Miles. In 1975, Merchant and Timothy Dalton headed the cast of a revival of Coward's The Vortex at the Greenwich Theatre., Timothy Dalton – Shakespearean James Bond, accessed 28 June 2012
Personal life Merchant was the first wife of Harold Pinter, whom she met while working as a repertory actress; he was then working as an actor under the stage name of David Baron. They married in 1956, and their son, Daniel, was born in 1958.Details about the Pinters' marriage and their family life are provided by Michael Billington The Life and Work of Harold Pinter (London: Faber and Faber, 1996); rev. ed. Harold Pinter (London: Faber and Faber, 2007). (Pinter's official authorized biography.)
Their marriage began disintegrating in the mid-1960s. From 1962 to 1969, Pinter had a clandestine affair with Joan Bakewell, which inspired his play Betrayal.Billington Harold Pinter, pp. 256–267 In 1975, he began a serious affair with the historian Lady Antonia Fraser, the wife of Sir Hugh Fraser, which he confessed to his wife that March.Michael Billington (1996) The Life and Work of Harold Pinter, p. 253, Faber and Faber, At first, Merchant took it very well, saying positive things about Fraser, according to her friend artist Guy Vaesen (as cited by Billington); but, Vaesen recalled, after "a female friend of Vivien's trotted round to her house and poisoned her mind against Antonia ... life in Hanover Terrace [where the Pinters then lived] gradually became impossible". Pinter left, and Merchant filed for divorce and gave interviews to the tabloid press, expressing her distress.E.g., "Actress Tells All", Daily Mail, as cited in Billington, Harold Pinter, pp. 253–254.Cf. "People" , Time, 11 August 1975. Archived in the Time Archive: 1923 to the Present. (Page 1 of 2 pages.) Merchant made some unflattering comments about Fraser at this time: "He didn't need to take a change of shoes. He can always wear hers. She has very big feet, you know."Peter Guttridge "Those choice words that say 'I hate you'", The Independent, 26 January 1996 Merchant believed Fraser to be the basis for the character of Emma in Pinter's play Betrayal, never learning about his prior affair with Joan Bakewell.Stop the Clocks: Thoughts on What I Leave Behind, Joan Bakewell, Virago, 2016
The Frasers' divorce became final in 1977, and the Pinters' in 1980. In 1980, Pinter and Fraser married.
Death Merchant became deeply depressed after the end of her marriage to Pinter and turned to drinking. She died at the age of 53 on 3 October 1982, from alcoholism."Death of Vivien Merchant Is Ascribed to Alcoholism", The New York Times 7 October 1982, accessed 13 September 2007.According to Billington, Pinter "did everything possible to support" Merchant until her death, and regrets that he became estranged from their son, Daniel, after their separation and Pinter's marrying Antonia Fraser. A reclusive writer and musician, Daniel does not use the surname Pinter, having adopted as his surname his maternal grandmother's maiden name Brand after his parents separated (Harold Pinter pp. 276, 255)
Filmography Film YearTitleRoleNotes1966AlfieLily ClamacraftBAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film RolesNational Board of Review Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture1967AccidentRosalindNational Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress (runner-up)1969Alfred the GreatFreda1971Under Milk WoodMrs. Pugh1972FrenzyMrs. OxfordThe OffenceMaureen Johnson1973The HomecomingRuthNominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role1975The MaidsMadame
Television YearTitleRoleNotes1948VirtuosoMiss Coleman1955Sunday-Night TheatreElsa PerkinsEpisode: The Fifty Mark1959The Infamous John Friend"Crown Inn" LandladyEpisode: Episode #1.41960Armchair TheatreGirlEpisode: A Night OutITV Television PlayhouseRose BlatchfordSally GibbsEpisode: The Honeymoonersepisode: Night School1962Studio 4OliviaEpisode: The Weather in the Streets1963The LoverSarahMaupassant HenrietteEpisode: Wives and LoversITV Television PlayhouseAngela FairbourneEpisode: In Confidence1965ITV Play of the WeekKathy GraysonEpisode: The Fall of the Sparrow1966Theatre 625Natalia PetrovnaGertrudeEpisode: A Month in the Countryepisode: FocusSeven Deadly SinsJaneEpisode: My Friend CorbyThirty-Minute TheatreEllaEpisode: Ella1968ITV PlayhouseTessaEpisode: Funeral GamesPlay of the MonthEvelyn DalyEpisode: Waters of the Moon1969ITV Saturday Night TheatreMaureen InstanceEpisode: The Full Cheddar1970ITV Saturday Night TheatreAugusta FullamAudleyEpisode: Wicked Women: Augusta FullamEpisode: Skyscrapers1971AquariusAnna in Old TimesEpisode: 5 June 1971Play of the MonthDona AnaEpisode: Don Juan in Hell1972A War of ChildrenNora TomeltyTV movie1973Play of the MonthJane NobleEpisode: The CommonSoftly, Softly: Task ForceMaggie JarmanEpisode: Cover1977The LoverSarahTV movieThe Man in the Iron MaskMaria TheresaTV movieThe Velvet GloveElizabeth FryEpisode: Beyond This LifeSecret ArmyMile. GunetEpisode: Growing Up1980BreakawayIsabel BlackEpisode: The Local AffairA Tale of Two CitiesMiss Pross(TV miniseries)1982Crown CourtJudgeEpisode: Face Value: Part 1, (final appearance)
See also List of British actors List of Academy Award winners and nominees from Great Britain List of actors with Academy Award nominations
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