Barbara Jefford

Barbara Mary Jefford (26 July 1930 – 12 September 2020) was a British actress, best known for her theatrical performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Old Vic and the National Theatre and her role as Molly Bloom in the 1967 film of James Joyce's Ulysses. For Ulysses, Jefford was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress. She was also Olivier nominated in 1991 for playing Volumnia in Coriolanus at the Barbican.

Early life Mary Barbara Jefford was born in Plymstock, Devon, the daughter of Elizabeth Mary Ellen (née Laity) and Percival Francis Jefford. She was brought up primarily in Somerset, and attended Weirfield School in Taunton. where she was awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal. In 1946, whilst still a student, she obtained small parts in the radio production of Westward Ho! and other radio plays, but her stage debut came in 1949, when she played the part of Viola in Twelfth Night at the Dolphin Theatre, Brighton. Thomas Otway's Venice Preserved, BBC Third Programme 10 August 1960; with Donald Wolfit. Goneril in Shakespeare's King Lear, BBC Third Programme 29 September 1967; with John Gielgud and Howard Marion-Crawford. Maja Rubek in When We Dead Awaken by Henrik Ibsen, BBC Third Programme 3 August 1969; with Ralph Richardson, Irene Worth and Gordon Jackson . Tamora in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, BBC Radio 3 28 October 1973. Sibylla in The Holy Sinner, by Peter Redgrove, based on the novel by Thomas Mann, BBC Radio 3, 18 November 1975. Duchess of Gloucester in episodes 5 and 6 of Vivat Rex, BBC Radio 3 1977. Cleopatra in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, BBC Radio 4 2 May 1981. Millie Crocker-Harris in The Browning Version by Terence Rattigan, BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play 26 June 1981; with Nigel Stock. Miss Lavish in A Room with a View by E M Forster, BBC Radio 4, 1995 Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter by James Goldman, BBC Radio 4 27 December 1981. Paulina in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, BBC Radio 3 21 January 1982. Elspeth Graham in The Killing of Mr Toad, by David Gooderson, BBC Radio 4, 30 December 1984. Lucia in Queen Lucia and Lucia in London, adapted by Aubrey Woods from E F Benson's Lucia books, BBC Radio 4 1984 and 1985. On This Shaven Green by Don Taylor, BBC Radio 4 16 September 2003. With John Wood, Edward Petherbridge.

Personal life and death In 1953, Jefford married actor Terence Longdon; the marriage was dissolved in 1961.

Honours and awards

In 1965, Jefford was awarded the Officer of Order of the British Empire for her service to the theatre, becoming the youngest civilian recipient of the award to that date.

In 1977 she was also awarded the Jubilee Festival Medal.