Trained Royal Academy of Music

Acting debut Liverpool Repertory, 1938

Broadway debut 1950

Played the role of Madame Defarge in both the 1958 film of "A Tale Of Two Cities" and a later BBC-TV version.

Also played in two different BBC-TV versions of "The Franchise Affair", in the first playing the daughter and in the second playing the mother.

Mother of Jonathan Ashmore.

Had two children by her second husband, actor Peter Ashmore: Jonathan Felix (born April 16, 1948) and Catherine (born June 12, 1952).

She played Catherine Parr both in "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" and in the sequel "Elizabeth R".

Her darkly Mediterranean complexion and gaunt, severe facial features caused her to be frequently cast as Spanish (eg. Catherine of Aragon, in "The Sword and the Rose"), French or Italian women. Her screen personae tended to be either sinister or villainous, or downtrodden and tragic.