ANN LYNN

(7 November 1933 - 30 August 2020)

The British actress Ann Lynn, who has died aged 86, was a stalwart of British B-films as well as a stage and television actor. She was born Elizabeth Ann Lynn in London to a theatrical family – her great-uncle was the actor Ralph Lynn, her cousin the director Robert Lynn and her father, Basil, managed the Astoria cinema in Streatham, south London. Her first appearance on film was as a baby in Song at Eventide in 1934 with Fay Compton and later on she joined the Tiller Girl dancers. She studied acting at the Guildhall and appeared in several repertory companies as well as the West End. From her hundred films and TV credits from 1956 she was in both main and second features including Piccadilly Third Stop, The Wind of Change, Strip Tease Murder and Flame in the Streets, a Ted Willis screenplay about racism, with John Mills and Earl Cameron. She suffered well with Colin Gordon, both being imprisoned in a bank vault for Strongroom. She appeared in the comedies Doctor in Distress and A Shot in the Dark, and Michael Winner cast her and Oliver Reed in The System and I’ll Never Forget What’s’sname. She appeared again with Reed in the controversial tale of the beat generation, The Party’s Over – so bad was it, director Guy Hamilton took his name off the credits. She provided one of the stories in Anthony Simmons’ Four in the Morning and appeared in Desmond Davis’ The Uncle, a fine film about childhood that somehow never got a proper release. After that it was mostly television – Armchair Theatre, King Lear (as Regan), Minder, Just Good Friends,  EastEnders, etc. Ann Lynn was married to Anthony Newley from 1956 to 1963. They had a son, Simon, who died from spina bifida at just six weeks.

MICHAEL DARVELL