Julia McKenzie

Julia Kathleen Nancy McKenzie (born 17 February 1941) is an English actress, singer, presenter, and theatre director. She has premièred leading roles written by both Alan Ayckbourn and Stephen Sondheim. On television, she is known for her BAFTA Award nominated role as Hester Fields in the sitcom Fresh Fields (1984–1986) and its sequel French Fields (1989–1991), as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple (2009–2013) and for her appearance in the BBC One costume drama series Cranford.

McKenzie has also starred in numerous musicals, receiving a 1977 Tony Award nomination for her work in the Broadway revue, Side by Side by Sondheim. A six-time Olivier Award nominee, she has twice won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical; for the 1982 revival of Guys and Dolls and the 1993 revival of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. She also starred in the original London productions of the Sondheim musicals Follies (1987) and Into the Woods (1990). Her film appearances include Bright Young Things (2003) and Notes on a Scandal (2006).

Early life McKenzie was born on 17 February 1941, in Enfield, Middlesex, England, the daughter of Kathleen Rowe and Albion McKenzie. She attended Tottenham County Grammar School. She trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Career Theatre McKenzie's early West End musical credits include Maggie May (1966), Mame (1969), and Company (1971). She appeared in the West End revue Side by Side by Sondheim in 1976, and made her Broadway debut when the show transferred to New York in 1977, receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She also received a Drama Desk Award nomination. For her role as Miss Adelaide in the 1982 West End revival of Guys and Dolls, she won the first of two Olivier Awards for Best Actress in a Musical.

For her role in the 1986 West End production of the Alan Ayckbourn play Woman in Mind, McKenzie won the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress. She went on to appear in the original West End productions of two Stephen Sondheim musicals, playing Sally in Follies at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1987, and the Witch in Into the Woods at the Phoenix Theatre in 1990. She continued her association with Sondheim when she starred as Mrs Lovett in the 1993 London revival of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The role won her a second Olivier Award in 1994.

McKenzie appeared in a National Theatre 80th birthday tribute to Laurence Olivier, Happy Birthday, Sir Larry, on 31 May 1987 in the presence of Olivier himself.

Film and television McKenzie's early television credits include the sitcom Maggie and Her (1978–1979), alongside Irene Handl and That Beryl Marston...! (1981), with Gareth Hunt. She went on to greater popularity with British viewers as Hester in the 1980s sitcom Fresh Fields opposite Anton Rodgers, and its 1990s sequel French Fields, for which she was voted TV Times Favourite Female Comedy Performance for five consecutive years. The role also earned her a 1985 BAFTA nomination for Best Entertainment Performance. She appeared as Mrs Forthby in Blott on the Landscape and as a villager involved in a series of murders in an episode of Midsomer Murders. Film credits include Hotel du Lac (1986), Shirley Valentine (1989), Bright Young Things (2003), These Foolish Things (2006) and Notes on a Scandal (2006).

She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1981 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews outside the Royalty Theatre in London.

In 2007, she was reunited with Anton Rodgers (again as a husband and wife team) in the ITV comedy You Can Choose Your Friends. Also in 2007, she co-starred with Michael Gambon and Judi Dench in the BBC One costume drama series Cranford, playing Mrs Forrester, a military widow of slender means, very attached to her cow Bessie.

In 2008, she was announced as the replacement for Geraldine McEwan as ITV's Miss Marple. She noted: "It's difficult because Agatha Christie wrote her in two ways ... First, very much what Geraldine McEwan played: a slight, rather Victorian creature. Then, a little sturdier and tweedier. I chose the latter. A lot of people say they don't like the tweedier version. But they're both genuine."

On 26 December 2013, McKenzie appeared as the title character in the TV film adaptation of David Walliams's book Gangsta Granny. In February 2015, McKenzie appeared as Shirley Mollison in the BBC mini series The Casual Vacancy. She played the mother of one of the main protagonists in the 2019 TV series, Gold Digger. She joined an ensemble cast in the film Allelujah, released in March 2023.

Other work She is a radio performer with a long list of credits, including Blithe Spirit, The Country Wife and A Room with a View. As a director she has staged Stepping Out, Peter Pan, Hey, Mr. Producer!, Steel Magnolias, Putting It Together and A Little Night Music. Throughout the early mid 2000s she played Ariadne Oliver in radio adaptations of Agatha Christie novels starring John Moffatt as Hercule Poirot; one such novel was Elephants Can Remember.

She also recorded an audio book of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass.

McKenzie also lent her voice to several animated works for Martin Gates Productions including three films The Snow Queen, Jack and the Beanstalk and The Snow Queen's Revenge and the TV series Bimble's Buckett. In 2018, Julia McKenzie was cast as The Twelve in a Big Finish production The Eighth Doctor – Time War 2 And 4.

In 2012 she appeared in the short film Happy and Glorious, produced by Lisa Osborne for the BBC and directed by Danny Boyle as part of the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Summer Olympics, doubling for Queen Elizabeth II in the scene where Her Majesty boards a helicopter alongside Daniel Craig as James Bond as her escort to the Olympic Stadium.

Personal life In 1971 McKenzie married American actor-director Jerry Harte. McKenzie was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to drama. She is a critic of fox hunting and was among more than 20 high-profile people who signed a letter to members of parliament in 2015 to oppose Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron's plan to amend the Hunting Act 2004.

Theatre Acting (London debut) Maggie May, Adelphi Theatre, London, 1966 Gloria, Mame, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London, 1969 Girl in owl coat, Promises, Promises, Prince of Wales Theatre, London, 1970 April, Company, Her Majesty's Theatre, London, 1971 Cowardy Custard, Mermaid Theatre, London, 1973 Cole, Mermaid Theatre, 1974 (New York debut) Side by Side by Sondheim, Music Box Theatre, New York City, 1977 The Norman Conquests, 1978 Ten Times Table, 1979 Miriam Dervish, Outside Edge, Queen's Theatre, London, 1979 Lily, On the Twentieth Century, Her Majesty's Theatre, 1980 Maggie Hobson, Hobson's Choice, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, London, 1981 Anna Kopecka, Schweik in the Second World War, National Theatre, London, 1982 Miss Adelaide, Guys and Dolls, National Theatre, 1982 Susan, Woman in Mind, Vaudeville Theatre, London, 1986 Sally Plummer, Follies, Shaftesbury Theatre, London, 1987 Witch, Into the Woods, Phoenix Theatre, London, 1990 Mrs Lovett, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, National Theatre, 1993 Ruella, Communicating Doors, Gielgud Theatre, London, 1995 Kafka's Dick, Piccadilly Theatre, London, 1998 The Royal Family, Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, 2001 Fuddy Meers, Arts Theatre, London, 2004 The Philadelphia Story, The Old Vic, London, 2005

Directing Stepping Out, Duke of York's Theatre, London, 1984 Just So, Watermill Theatre, Newbury, Berkshire, 1989 Steel Magnolias, Lyric Theatre, London, 1989 Putting It Together, Manhattan Theatre Club Stage I, New York City, 1993 Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh (stage direction, with Bob Avian), Lyceum Theatre, London, 1998 A Little Night Music, Tokyo, 1999 Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, Sondheim Theatre, London, 2023

Filmography

Awards and nominations