Beth Porter(1942-2023)
- Actress
- Script and Continuity Department
- Producer
First professional appearance at age 12 in touring company; studied at
Stratford Connecticut Shakespeare Festival; member of original
Obie-Award winning NY LaMaMa Troupe under director Tom O'Horgan [Hair]
where she starred in play and film of "Futz" and featured in Tom Paine,
and Melodrama Play Sam Shepard. Founded London LaMaMa, and became its
administrative and artistic director, touring all over Europe. Featured
in plays Little Mother, Groupjuice, Hump. US television includes guest
spots in Baretta and Kojak. UK television roles include costarring in
Rock Follies and Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy; tv films included
Blue Money with Tim Curry, and Pleasure, part of the Alan Bleasdale
Presents series. Feature films include The Great Gatsby, Reds, Love and
Death, and Yentl [in which she worked as Barbra Streisand's understudy
and played Sophie, Amy Irving's maid, uncredited]. Beth then trained as
a television script editor and producer at the BBC. She produced The
Husband, The Wife and The Stranger, starring Adam Faith and Derrick
O'Connor, and Unusual Ground Floor Conversion, a short film directed by
Mark Herman [Little Voice], before joining BBC Television Drama as a
development executive for new drama series. She's written several plays
and film scripts, and became a film critic in 1988, serving for 10
years as London Editor for Film Journal International. A new career as
a Web Producer led to the publication of Beth's book The Net Effect, to
which David Puttnam contributed the foreword. 2006 was her ninth year
as a nominating judge for the International Webby Awards and she has
served as a contributor to policy advisers on eDemocracy issues.
