Miriam Karlin

Miriam Karlin (23 June 19253 June 2011) was an English actress whose career lasted for more than 60 years. She was known for her role as Paddy in The Rag Trade, a 1960s BBC and 1970s LWT sitcom, and in particular for the character's catchphrase "Everybody out!" Her trademark throughout her career was her deep, rough, and husky voice.

Early life Born Miriam Samuels

When performing in one of her first radio shows, Terry-Thomas's Top of the Town, Karlin based some of the zany characters that she invented and played on people who had appeared before the rent tribunal chaired by her father.

Career After training at RADA, Karlin made her stage debut for the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) in wartime shows, and subsequently appeared in repertory theatre and cabaret. She appeared in the West End in Women of Twilight (1951–52), The Bad Seed (1955), The Diary of Anne Frank (1956–57), The Egg (1957–58), Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be (1960–61), Fiddler on the Roof (1967–69), Bus Stop (1976), Torch Song Trilogy (1985-86) and Separate Tables (1993), among others.

She made her film debut in Down Among the Z Men (1952), as well as featuring in A Touch of the Sun, Room at the Top, The Millionairess, Heavens Above!, Ladies Who Do, The Small World of Sammy Lee, The Bargee, Just like a Woman, A Clockwork Orange and Mahler (by Ken Russell). In 1954, she had the part of a Martian alien in the BBC radio series Journey into Space.

In 1960, she appeared opposite Sir Laurence Olivier in the film adaptation of John Osborne's play The Entertainer. She performed in the stage version of Fiddler on the Roof at Her Majesty's Theatre, starring the Israeli actor Topol. In 1972, she appeared in the title role in Mother Courage and her Children at the Palace Theatre, Watford, in a production notable for the force of her performance, and its faithfulness to the Brechtian Verfremdungseffekt. Her character would take advantage of the slightest opportunity to call a strike; her trademark was blowing a whistle and shouting "Everybody out!" The show was revived by rival channel ITV in 1977.

In 2008, at the age of 83, she appeared in Stewart Permutt's Many Roads to Paradise at the Finborough Theatre in London.

Personal life Karlin, who never married, lived in South London. A self-proclaimed atheist, she was a lifelong campaigner for Jewish and left-wing political causes, as well as an anti-fascist activist.

A member of the Anti-Nazi League, she was prominent in protests against Holocaust denier David Irving, and campaigned to expose the Nazi sympathies of the Austrian politician Jörg Haider. in 1975 for her union and welfare work. Karlin was a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association, a patron of both the Burma Campaign UK (which campaigns for democracy and human rights in Burma) and Dignity in Dying (which campaigns for changes to laws on assisted dying) and a trustee of the Eddie Surman Trust (an HIV charity).

She admitted to a lifelong battle with anorexia and bulimia that began in 1956 and lasted more than 48 years. She often claimed that her peripheral neuropathy was a side effect of a chronic eating disorder and years of laxative and appetite suppressant abuse.

Cancer diagnosis and death In late 2005, while filming an Agatha Christie TV mystery, By the Pricking of My Thumbs, Karlin was told that she had cancer and that part of her tongue would have to be removed. She died on 3 June 2011, aged 85.

Filmography Year Title Role Notes1952 Down Among the Z Men Woman in Shop 1955 The Deep Blue Sea Barmaid The Woman for Joe Gladys 1956 Fun at St. Fanny's 'The Private Eye' A Touch of the Sun Alice Cann The Big Money Lady in Nightclub Uncredited1957 The Flesh Is Weak Betty Uncredited1958 Carve Her Name with Pride Jennie Wilson, Bus Conductress Uncredited1959 Room at the Top Gertrude Uncredited1960 The Entertainer Soubrette The Millionairess Mrs. Maria Joe Crossroads to Crime Connie Williams 1961 Hand in Hand Mrs. Mathias Watch It, Sailor! Mrs. Lack On the Fiddle Waaf Sergeant The Fourth Square Josette Edgar Wallace Mysteries1962 The Phantom of the Opera Charwoman I Thank a Fool Woman in the Black Maria 1963 The Small World of Sammy Lee Milly Heavens Above! Winnie Smith Ladies Who Do Mrs. Higgins 1964 The Bargee Nellie Marsh 1965 The Mavis Bramston Show Various characters Australian satirical sketch show1967 Just like a Woman Ellen Newman 1971 A Clockwork Orange Catlady 1974 Mahler Aunt Rosa 1975 Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done Little Buttercup / Utopian Maiden Voice1992 Utz Grandmother 1992-1994 So Haunt Me Yetta Feldman 1997 Incognito Marina 2000 The Man Who Cried Madame Goldstein 2004 Suzie Gold Sadie 2005 Dalziel and Pascoe Judith Bateman Episode: "Heads You Lose"2006 Children of Men Caged German Grandmother 2008 Flashbacks of a Fool Mrs. Rogers (final film role)

Works (Autobiography)