Susannah York (1939-2011) was an English actress who starred in NUMEROUS British frock flicks of the 1960s. She studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art along with Peter O’Toole and Albert Finney, then broke out as the ingenue in Tom Jones. She continued her career through 2010, then died of cancer. She’s an iconic actress for 1960s-70s frock flicks, so let’s count ’em down!
As always, there are a few productions for which I can’t find images:
- Abigail Williams in ITV Play of the Week: “The Crucible” (1959)
- Milly Theale in Thursday Theatre: “The Wings of the Dove” (1965)
- Concessa in St. Patrick: The Irish Legend (2000)
Otherwise, here’s York on the frock flicks screen:
Princess Charlotte in The First Gentleman (1961)
A TV movie about the Prince Regent, future George IV, trying to marry off his daughter, Princess Charlotte.
Cecily Koertner in Freud (1962)
A biopic about the famous psychiatrist; York plays his patient.
Sophie Western in Tom Jones (1963)
The feature film adaptation of Henry Fielding’s 18th century “period romp” book. Western is the ingenue, natch.
Cecily Cardew in NET Playhouse: “The Importance of Being Earnest” (1964)
One of those filmed stage plays, this one the Oscar Wilde classic.
Madeleine Usher in Mystery and Imagination: “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1966-70)
A TV horror anthology series, this episode adapting the 1839 Edgar Allen Poe short story.
Margaret More in A Man for All Seasons (1966)
The feature film about Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England, and King Henry VIII. Margaret was More’s daughter and legit brilliant.
Hilaret in Lock Up Your Daughters (1969)
An adaptation of a 1959 stage musical that adapts the 1730 Henry Fielding play, Rape Upon Rape (nice /s). Per Wikipedia, it’s “A bawdy yarn concerning three sex-starved sailors on leave and on the rampage in a British town” and definitely one I have to suffer through for my 18th-Century Quest someday.
Eleanor in Oh! What a Lovely War (1969)
A comedy musical historical war film, which satirizes World War I.
Section Officer Maggie Harvey in Battle of Britain (1969)
A feature film set during World War II. Her character, a Section Officer, was based on a real person.
Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre (1970)
A British feature film adaptation of the Charlotte Brontë classic.
Countess Josephine in Orson Welles Great Mysteries: “La Grande Breteche” (1973)
A British TV mystery anthology series, introduced by Orson Welles. This episode adapts an Honoré de Balzac story: “A Spanish officer, captured by the French during the Peninsular War, is imprisoned near the country house of an elderly aristocrat with a bored young wife – whose lover he becomes, with deadly consequences.”
Julia Sterroll in Fallen Angels (1974)
An adaptation of a 1925 Noel Coward play.
Mrs. Marjorie Scarlett in Conduct Unbecoming (1975)
1880s, British India, a woman accuses a soldier of trying to rape her.
Eliza Fraser in Eliza Fraser (1976)
Based on a true story, about an English woman who is shipwrecked en route to Australia in 1836 and lives for a time with the indigenous Aboriginal people.
Natalia in A Month in the Country (1977)
“In this Anglicized rendering of the Turgenev play, Susannah York toys with the affections of a young admirer while spending a month at a country estate” per IMDB.
Maria Fitzherbert in Prince Regent (1979)
A BBC miniseries about the future king George IV. Fitzherbert was his first, secret wife who “didn’t really count” because she was Catholic.
Dr. Helen Dereham in We’ll Meet Again (1982)
A British TV series set during World War II, about a “clandestine and illicit” love affair (Wikipedia).
Lady Churchill in Yellowbeard (1983)
A comedy set in 1697 about the famed pirate.
Mrs. Cratchit in A Christmas Carol (1984)
A TV film adaptation of the Dickens classic.
Lorraine Barry in Star Quality (1985)
York plays a temperamental actress starring in a play in the 1940s.
Mrs. Narracombe in A Summer Story (1988)
A British film set between 1902-20, in which a man visits a rural town and has an intense affair.
Amy Wallace in Screen Two: “The Man from the Pru” (1990)
“The story of a famous real-life murder case in which an employee of the Prudential Insurance Company was suspected of killing his wife,” per IMDB.
What’s your favorite of Susannah York’s many frock flicks roles?
‘The Killing of Sister George’, and ‘They Shoot Horses Don’t They?’ [Surprised you missed that one]
Wow, I think I missed that Horses was period!
Depression-era dance marathons.
Thanks so much for this WCW! I’d have to say that A Christmas Carol is my favorite (it’s also my favorite version). Non Frock Flick is The Awakening, with Charlton Heston. It’s very cheesy, but I like that sometimes. :)
Just a side note: the brown outfit she wore in A Man For All Seasons was reworn a couple of years later by Genevieve Bujold in Anne of the Thousand Days. :)
It is also my favorite version. It’s also got good scary parts.
Wow, so she played the daughter of George IV, then years later, the illegal first wife of the same. Love it!
Demented Fairy is right. York was Alice in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, which was set in the 1930s. Other than that, I think that the only things I’ve seen her in are A Man for All Seasons and Yellowbeard. I have to give the nod to A Man For All Seasons, since that is just a great film all round.
I always felt that Susannah York (and Susan Hampshire)seems incapable of being convincing as anything other than 20th century people. Maybe it’s the bangs?
Both her and Rochester in that 1970 Jane Eyre just look gruesome.
York was very fine as Sophie Western. In fact, I think she was good actress, done in by her looks/look, and the passion for slapping contemporary make-up and hair on exceptionally pretty females.
I loved Prince Regent and am so sad it’s gone from YouTube. I watched it every few months for a couple of years.
That one Lock up your Daughters is there though so I might try it lol.
Prince Regent is listed on Plex right now which is a free app…probably have to deal with commercials but it’s still a good watch.
I personally am shocked we found an English actress from who never appeared in an Agatha Christie!
It ought to be illegal, by Jove!