| farah ashraf |
A British actress, born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, and is the eldest of the four children of Reverend Arthur John Webster Thorndyke (1853-1917) and Agnes MacDonald, daughter of ship engineer John Bowers. At the age of two, her father was appointed priest of the Rochester Cathedral. She was educated at Rochester Girls' High School, initially training as a piano player, visiting London weekly for music lessons at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her childhood home in Rochester was renamed after her. She gave her first public performance as a pianist at the age of eleven, but in 1899 she was forced to give up playing because her hands cramped while doing so. Encouraged by her brother, author Russell Thorndike, she then trained as an actor at the Royal Drama School, then based at the Royal Albert Hall in London. She was made an OBE and a Companion of Honours, and performed Shakespeare's plays internationally, often appearing with her husband, Lewis Casson. Bernard Shaw wrote the play Saint Joan, especially for her, and she starred in it with great success. Her works include Uncle Vanya (1963), The Big Gamble (1961), and The Forbidden Street (1949). She died on June 9, 1976, in Chelsea, London, United Kingdom.
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