Margaret Rose Mount OBE (2 May 1915 – 13 November 2001) was an English actress. As a child, she found acting an escape from an unhappy home life. After playing in amateur productions, she was taken on by a repertory company and spent nine years in various British towns, learning her craft. In 1955, she got her big break in the comic play Sailor Beware!: she created the leading role in a repertory production and, though unknown to London audiences, was given the part when the play was presented in the West End. She became known for playing domineering middle-aged women in plays, films and television shows.
Mount occasionally performed in comedies from the classical repertoire, including works by Shakespeare, Jonson, Goldsmith and Sheridan, and she was a member of The Old Vic, National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare companies in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, respectively.
Later in her career, Mount was cast more frequently in serious parts, including the title role of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage on stage, and in several television dramas. She retired after going blind and spent her last years in the actors' retirement home, Denville Hall, in northwest London. Her biography Everything I Ever Wanted, by Andrew Ross, was published in 2019 by Fantom Films Limited.
Life and career
Early years
Mount was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, the younger child of Alfred John Mount, a grocer's assistant, and his wife, Rose, née Penney. Her childhood was unhappy; her father was an invalid who struggled to support his family, and her mother displayed no sign of affection for their younger daughter. Mount was educated at Leigh North Street School, Leigh-on-Sea, where she first discovered her talent for acting, playing Rose in Snow White and Rose Red. Her father died when she was fourteen; her schooling came to an end and she began working as a secretary.
There were theatrical antecedents in the family: Mount's grandfather had started the first minstrel show on the end of Great Yarmouth pier. As a schoolgirl, she enjoyed acting in the drama society of her local Wesleyan chapel and after she left school she performed with local amateur companies. She took lessons from a drama tutor, Phyllis Reader, at weekends.
Her first professional appearance was at Keighley, Yorkshire, in Hindle Wakes in 1944. With Harry Hanson and his Hanson Court touring company, her parts included the eccentric Dowager Queen in The Sleeping Prince. She stayed with the company for three years and then for six years she worked with a succession of provincial repertory companies, playing what The Times later called "a formidable gallery of mainly working-class roles". There were seasons in Colchester, Preston, Dundee, Wolverhampton, Liverpool, Birmingham and Worthing. In 1954, Mount made her film debut, in the small role of Mrs Larkin in The Embezzler.
1950s
During the Worthing repertory season, Mount played the central role, the domestic tyrant Emma Hornett, in a new comedy, Sailor Beware! She was a success in the part, but when a London management wanted to present the play in the West End, they looked for a better-known name than hers. Failing to find anyone more suitable, they gave the part to Mount, who achieved overnight celebrity after the first night, at the Strand Theatre in February 1955. The Daily Mirror described her as "The toast of the town ... the actress London is raving about". In The Observer, Kenneth Tynan commented, "She scorches the earth about her... The savage impatience of Miss Mount's acting must be seen to be believed ... The house rightly rose to her at the curtain."