Miriam Karlin, OBE (23 June 1925 – 3 June 2011) was an English actress whose career lasted for more than 60 years. She was best known for her role as Paddy in The Rag Trade, a 1960s BBC and 1970s LWT sitcom, and in particular for the character's catchphrase "Everybody out!" Her trademark throughout her career was her deep, husky voice and London accent.

Biography

Karlin, who never married, lived in South London. A self-proclaimed atheist, she was a lifelong campaigner for Jewish and left-wing political causes, as well as an anti-fascist activist.

A member of the Anti-Nazi League, she was prominent in protests against Holocaust denier David Irving, and campaigned to expose what she claimed were the Nazi sympathies of the Austrian politician Jörg Haider. She was an active member of the actors' union, Equity, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1975 for her union and welfare work. Karlin was a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association, a patron of both the Burma Campaign UK (which campaigns for democracy and human rights in Burma) and Dignity in Dying (which campaigns for changes to laws on assisted dying) and a trustee of the Eddie Surman Trust (an HIV charity).


Death
In 2006, while filming an Agatha Christie TV mystery, By the Pricking of My Thumbs, Karlin was told that she had cancer and that part of her tongue would have to be removed. She died on 3 June 2011.

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