ADRIENNE CORRI

(13 November 1930 - 13 March 2016)

The British actress, born of an Italian father and a Lancastrian mother, may well be most remembered for nothing more than stripping off for Stanley Kubrick in A Clockwork Orange, after two other actresses had refused the role. However, she had a long and versatile career on stage and in films and television. Theatre work in London and the provinces included plays by John Osborne and Samuel Beckett. Her first film was The Romantic Age (1949) directed by the iconic cult figure of Edmond T. Gréville, after which she worked with Jean Renoir on The River (1951), an adaptation of the Rumer Godden novel set in India. Following some TV work she was Kirsty in Philip Leacock’s film The Kidnappers, about two boys finding and caring for a baby. Steady film work followed through the 1950s including not only classic British films such as Lease of Life, Meet Mr Callaghan, Make Me an Offer, Three Men in a Boat, The Rough and the Smooth and The Tell-Tale Heart, but also a number of B-pictures such as Devil Girl From Mars. Later films included Preminger’s Bunny Lake Is Missing and The Human Factor, Lean’s Doctor Zhivago, De Sica’s Woman Times Seven, Blake Edwards’ Revenge of the Pink Panther and, of course, A Clockwork Orange. On TV she appeared in Sword of Freedom, Paris 1900, Danger Man, Armchair Theatre, You’re Only Young Twice, Eyeless in Gaza, A Family at War and Doctor Who, among countless other series. Her last performance was in an episode of Lovejoy (1992). Corri was married for a time (1961-67) to actor Daniel Massey.

MICHAEL DARVELL