Topsy Jane
Topsy Jane(2 December 1938 – 4 January 2014) was a British actress of the 1960s. She was inThe Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner(1962) and was cast as Liz (the role eventually played byJulie Christie) in the 1963 filmBilly Liarbut was forced to pull out owing to mental health issues.[1][2][3][4]
Early life
[edit]
She was born asTopsy Jane LeggeinErdingtoninBirminghamin 1938, the daughter of Anna MaudnéeGumbrell (1907-2006) and Albert Harry Legge (1894-1961), a dairy-man and by 1939 a telephone engineer for theGPO.[1]Her father was a committed Communist and later was to be a major influence in the political awakening of her husband, the British film and television producer and actorTony Garnett.[5]Topsy Jane was educated at Paget Road School before going on to study at Garrett's Green College.[6]Initially, she intended to train as a children's nurse, but while appearing in amateur theatre at the Varley Players at Pype Hayes Church, the Birmingham Drama Group, and theHighbury Little Theatre[7]she realised she had a talent for acting. Her husband, Tony Garnett, later wrote of her:
"Leaving school at fifteen, Topsy was not academic, although she read voraciously, loving Tolstoy and almost any nineteenth-century English or French novel she could lose herself in. We shared a love of poetry. She loved Keats and I liked Shelley. She would listen as I held forth, no doubt pretentiously, on some matter, using ill-digested political jargon. Then she would ask a penetrating, naive question, using simple Anglo-Saxon words, leaving me spluttering. It was done with no edge. Her love was so guileless, so complete, I never doubted it. No one had loved me so totally since I was five. She became everything to me, emotionally, although I still kept a tough exterior. Our emotional intimacy was without barriers. We trusted each other."[1]
Acting career
[edit]Garnett and Topsy Jane moved to London together where she began to carve a career in television and film. Her roles included: Rosie inThe Fanatics(1960); the rich young widow Dame Pliant in the television production ofThe Alchemist(1961) byBen Jonson;Peggy inThe Wind of Change(1961); Con in the TV movieSummer, Autumn, Winter, Spring(1961); Céline inMaigret(1961); Stella Fairly inA Chance of Thunder(1961); inShadow Play(1961); Amanda oppositeEdith Evansin the BBC production ofTime Remembered(1961) byJean Anouilh;Mavis Wayne inEmergency Ward 10(1962); Jane inCrying Down the Lane(1962), and Mona inMix Me a Person(1962).[8]
She got her big break whenTony Richardsoncast her as Audrey inThe Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner(1962) oppositeTom Courtenay.On completion of the film Richardson invited her to join theRoyal Shakespeare CompanyatStratford-upon-Avonfor a season to play Hermia inA Midsummer Night's Dreamand other roles, but after much lobbying by Courtenay andJohn Schlesinger,she turned down Richardson's offer and agreed to makeBilly Liar(1963).[1]She was wanted so badly for the film as it was felt that audiences wanted to see her playing opposite Courtenay again, and she began filming as Liz inBilly Liar,but she was forced to withdraw when she developed mental health issues later diagnosed asschizophrenia.[1][2][3][4]Julie Christiewas instead cast in the role.[6][9]
In 1963 she marriedTony Garnett,whom she met aged 15[10]and he was 17[11]while performing in amateur theatre atHighbury Little TheatreinSutton Coldfieldwhere they took the leading roles inWilliam Saroyan's 1941 playThe Beautiful People.[5]They had a son, William (1964–), and later divorced.[1]
She went on to play Shirley inTrevor(1964);[12]Jean Watts inJohn Paddington(1965), and Daphne Dawson inUnited!(1965).[8]
Illness
[edit]Tony Garnett, in his autobiographyThe Day the Music Died(2016), relates how Topsy Jane returned home several weeks after filming forBilly Liarcommenced: "... unrecognisable. Fat, dishevelled, her hair lank, she walked and talked in slow motion. She only vaguely reminded me of my Topsy. I called Robin Fox, our agent, who said thatJohn Schlesingerhad sacked her and recast withJulie Christiebecause the camera could read nothing in Topsy. Her eyes were dead. "[1]Her illness, from which she never fully recovered, seems to have been some form ofschizophrenically-induced torpor[2]diagnosed assimple-type schizophrenia,dismissed by Garnett as a "dustbin diagnosis". The treatment for her illness was a "brutal regime" ofelectroconvulsive therapyand drugs[13]which produced a "functional lobotomy". They later divorced.[10]Her illness later inspired Garnett to makeIn Two Minds(1967),The Wednesday Playaboutschizophrenia.[3]In 2005 she was working behind the counter of a café inLiskeardinCornwall.[14]
Topsy Jane Garnett née Legge died aged 75 on 4 January 2014 at theQueen Elizabeth HospitalinBirminghamof lung cancer. She had a private family funeral inSutton Coldfieldand was buried in Sutton New Hall Cemetery.[15]She was survived by her son, William, and a grandson.[7]
References
[edit]- ^abcdefgGarnett, Tony.The Day the Music Died,Little Brown Book Group (2016), Google Books
- ^abcBenn, Melissa.Twice bottled grief: the defiant life of Tony Garnett,The New Statesman,15 August 2016(subscription required)
- ^abcHayward, Anthony.Tony Garnett obituary,The Guardian,13 January 2020
- ^abSellers, Robert.Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down: How One Generation of British Actors Changed the World,Preface Publishing (2011),Google Booksp 353
- ^abTony Garnett, producer whose groundbreaking films and television programmes included ‘Cathy Come Home’, ‘Kes’, ‘This Life’ and ‘Between the Lines’ – obituary,The Daily Telegraph,13 January 2020
- ^abDraycott, Helen (25 January 2014)."Erdington star of the stage and screen, Topsy Jane Garnet, dies aged 75".Royal Sutton Coldfield Observer.Sutton Coldfield. Archived fromthe originalon 31 August 2014.
- ^abMemorial notice for Topsy Jane Garnett née Legge,The Sutton Coldfield Observer,24 January 2014
- ^abFilmography of Topsy Jane,British Film Institute(BFI) database
- ^Barton, Laura (1 September 2010)."Billy Liar – still in town".The Guardian.London.
- ^abMoorhead, Joanna.Tony Garnett: The backstreet abortion that destroyed my family,The Guardian,2 July 2016
- ^Tony Garnett obituary: Left-wing TV and film producer of groundbreaking dramas such as Cathy Come Home and Kes,The Times,14 January 2020(subscription required)
- ^Cast ofTrevor(1964),British Film Institute(BFI) database
- ^Brown, Maggie.Tony Garnett: The life long radical,Royal Television Societydatabase, 3 August 2016
- ^Electoral Record for Topsy J. Garnett, Liskeard, Cornwall (2005),Ancestry.com(subscription required)
- ^Burial Record for Topsy Garnett (2014),Birmingham City Councilwebsite
External links
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