My mother, Patricia Barrie, who has died aged 94, was a successful actor in her early 20s, before she gave up her career to raise a family.
Paddy – as she was always known – fell in love with acting as a child. Born in Pembury, Kent, to Sydney Tucker, a doctor, and Winifred (nee Chatwin), a nurse, she attended Hamilton House school in Tunbridge Wells and then became a prizewinning student at Rada in London. She graduated in the summer of 1939 and landed a job at the Open Air theatre in Regent’s Park, playing Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
She appeared in that production with her flatmate, the future Hollywood star Deborah Kerr, who had a walk-on part. The principal of Rada then recommended Paddy to John Gielgud, who offered her a job on the spot. But my mother felt she should honour her commitment to the Open Air theatre, so turned Gielgud down. It was, she said, the biggest mistake of her career.
During the second world war she appeared at the Vaudeville theatre in London at the height of the blitz – and had a narrow escape when a bomb landed right outside her flat without exploding. She also worked in repertory companies during the war, travelling all over the country. She particularly liked performing in Dundee, appearing alongside Patrick Cargill in various productions and remembering in vivid detail one especially wild all-night party in the city that took place on board a submarine. Wartime theatre also meant entertaining the troops around the country, occasionally with an all-female cast.
Around this time the film director Michael Powell asked to see Paddy and said he could give her work – “ but,” he insisted, “you’ll have to go back to your natural hair colour”. My mother, a blonde, was outraged: “I beg your pardon! This is my natural colour!” Powell gave her a part in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), though she ended up on the cutting room floor.
My mother’s career was starting to take off when Alec Barrie, the man she loved, returned from the war. She had met Alec, who was the great-nephew of the author JM Barrie, in 1940, shortly before he was posted abroad for four years with the Royal Artillery. He was a civil engineer by trade, and after his job eventually took the couple down to the New Forest, Paddy concentrated on raising a family and her acting career ended in her early 30s.
After my father died in 1969 she worked briefly as a presenter for BBC Radio Solent and later in a bookshop in Lymington, Hampshire. Although she always regretted the sacrifice of her acting career, she continued to enjoy all things theatrical and retained her terrific zest for life almost to the end. She volunteered for local charities, was a keen sailor, and loved reading, walking and, of course, going to the theatre.
She is survived by her three children, Fiona, Lindsay and me, by five grandchildren, and by nine great-grandchildren.
