Katharine Blake

Career In the early 1940s, as Katherine Inglestone, Blake was a member of the Amersham Playhouse repertory company. In September 1941, she was a waitress in The Devil's Advocate and in October played a ghost in A Murder Has Been Arranged. In March and April 1942, she was Frau Rothmann in Maurice Edelman's Inheritance of Earth, billed as "a drama of the Struggle for Freedom".

In February 1944, Blake returned to the Amersham Playhouse, still using her maiden name, in a production of Spring Meeting. In 1948, when reporting her first television appearance, the local newspaper noted her as "Katherine Blake whom Amersham audiences will remember as Katherine Inglestone".

In November 1946, under the new name of Blake, she played the part of Iras, a maid of honour, in a production of Antony and Cleopatra at Stratford-upon-Avon which by late December was in the West End at the Piccadilly Theatre, with Edith Evans playing Cleopatra and Godfrey Tearle Mark Antony, and the play had a good run there. In March 1947, Blake was profiled with Evans and Tearle in The Queen.

In March 1948, she appeared as Catherine Earnshaw opposite Kieron Moore as Heathcliff in an early BBC television adaptation of Wuthering Heights, with Patrick Macnee as Edgar Linton.

In 1949, Blake had another early screen appearance in Trottie True. Between 1952 and 1959, she worked in Canada and the United States and was naturalized as a Canadian citizen. In 1959, she returned to England.

Blake won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress for her work in television in 1964. In 1969/1970 she played the character Chris Nourse in first an episode of Public Eye and then in Armchair Theatre'''s Wednesday's Child; one of the first lesbian love affairs to be seen on British television. Blake replaced Googie Withers as the Prison Governor in the ITV series Within These Walls in 1977, but only appeared in one season, leaving the role due to ill health.

Blake was also an occasional scriptwriter. In 1943, they had one daughter, Jenny, later Jenny Kastner. In June 1948, again as Illone C. Inglestone, she married secondly the actor and director David Greene, and in 1949 had a second daughter, Lindy Greene. Anthony Jacobs also married again in 1949 and had three further children, including Matthew Jacobs. In June 1959, Blake married thirdly the director Charles Jarrott. They were divorced in 1982. Her father died there in April 1973 and had the same burial in the same grave. Her sister Ruth Mandell died in December 1998 and joined them in the grave.

Blake died in 1991 of a heart attack. Her last address was a flat in St John's Wood, Westminster NW8, and she left an estate valued for probate at £157,195.

Selected filmography Trottie True (1949) – Ruby Rubarto (uncredited) Assassin for Hire (1951) – Maria Riccardi The Dark Light (1951) – Linda Hunted (1952) – Waitress Saturday Island (1952) – Nurse Hammer the Toff (1952) – Janet Lord Now That April's Here (1958) – Hilda Adams (segment "The Rejected One") Edgar Wallace Mysteries (episode: To Have and to Hold - Claudia) (1963) – (Working Title: BFI: 'Sleep Long, My Love') Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) – Elizabeth Boleyn

Selected television 1948: Wuthering Heights - Catherine Earnshaw 1961: The Avengers – Dr. Ampara Alvarez Sandoval 1962: Sir Francis Drake – The Dark Lady 1962: Maigret – Mado 1963: The Saint – Rosemary Chase 1967: The Baron – Madame Nicharos 1969: Public Eye – ('My Life's my Own', episode) - Mrs. Chris Nourse (broadcast 20th. Aug., UK) 1971: Paul Temple – Drucilla Ardrey 1972: The Shadow of the Tower – Signora Cabot 1972: No Exit – Claire Dufort 1959–1973: Armchair Theatre – Sylvia Forsyth / Chris Nourse / Hilary / Marie / Carla Melini / Doris Binstead 1974: Crown Court – Irene Rutland - (' The Woman Least Likely ', episode) 1976: Within These Walls – Prison Governess — Helen Forrester 1980: Heartland – Aunt Lucy 1981: Sunday Night Thriller'' – Dorothy ("Blunt Instrument", Parts 1 and 2)