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Eileen Atkins is a Actor and Ecrivain British born on 16 june 1934 at London (United-kingdom)

Eileen Atkins

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Birth name Eileen June Atkins
Nationality United-kingdom
Birth 16 june 1934 (90 years) at London (United-kingdom)
Awards Laurence Olivier Award

Dame Eileen June Atkins, DBE (born 16 June 1934) is an English actress and occasional screenwriter. She has worked in the theatre, film, and television consistently since 1953. She has won several major acting awards, including a BAFTA, an Emmy and three Olivier's. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1990 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2001.

Atkins joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1957 and made her Broadway debut in the 1966 production of The Killing of Sister George, for which she received the first of four Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in a Play in 1967. She received subsequent nominations for, Vivat! Vivat Regina! in 1972, Indiscretions in 1995 and The Retreat from Moscow in 2004. In the UK, she has won three Olivier Awards, for Best Supporting Performance (for multiple roles) in 1988 and two for Best Actress, for The Unexpected Man in 1999 and Honour in 2004.

Other stage credits include, Twelfth Night (Old Vic London, 1961 & 1978), The Tempest (Old Vic 1962), Exit the King with Alec Guinness (Edinburgh Festival and Royal Court 1963), The Promise (New York 1967), The Night of the Tribades (New York 1977), Medea (Young Vic 1985), A Delicate Balance with Maggie Smith (Haymarket, West End 1997) and Doubt (New York 2006).

For television, she co-created Upstairs, Downstairs (1971–1975) and The House of Elliot (1991–1993) with Jean Marsh. In 2008, she won a BAFTA TV Award and an Emmy Award for her role opposite Judi Dench in the BBC drama Cranford

Her film roles include, Equus (1977), The Dresser, (1983), Let Him Have It (1991), Wolf (1994), Jack and Sarah (1995), Gosford Park (2001), Evening (2005), Last Chance Harvey (2008) and Robin Hood (2010). She also wrote the screenplay for the 1997 film version of Mrs Dalloway, starring Vanessa Redgrave.

Biography

Atkins was married to actor Julian Glover in 1957; they divorced in 1966. (A day after his divorce, Glover married actress Isla Blair.) She married her current husband, Bill Shepherd, on 2 February 1978. Atkins claims to have been propositioned by Colin Farrell on location in 2004, shortly before she turned 70; she said the incident helped her pass that milestone far more easily than she otherwise would have expected. The Oldie magazine awarded her the 'Refusenik of the Year' award for this incident.

In 1997, she wrote the screenplay for Mrs Dalloway, starring Vanessa Redgrave. It received rave reviews but was a box-office failure. It was a financial disaster for Atkins and her husband who had invested in the film. She said about this incident: "I have to work. I was nearly bankrupted over Mrs Dalloway, and if you are nearly bankrupted, you are in trouble for the rest of your life. I don't have a pension. In any case, it doesn't hurt me to work. I think it's quite good, actually."

"All through my career I have tried to do new work, but there is a problem in the West End as far as new work is concerned. As a theatregoer, I get bored with seeing the same old plays again and again. I felt terrible the other night because I bumped into Greta Scacchi and she asked me if I was coming to see her in The Deep Blue Sea. I said, 'Greta, I'm so old, I've seen it so many times. I've seen it with Peggy Ashcroft, with Vivien Leigh, with Googie Withers, with Penelope Wilton and I played it myself when I was 19. I can't bring myself to see it again. She was very sweet about it.