- Born
- Died
- Birth nameUrsula Elizabeth Howells
- Height1.69 m
- Ursula Howells was educated at St Paul's Girls' School in London, where her father Herbert Howells, a doyen of English church music taught music for 26 years. Following the death of her brother Michael from polio in 1935, her father composed his great choral masterpiece "Hymnus Paradisi".
She was evacuated to Scotland during the Second World War and made her stage debut in 1940 with Dundee rep. She made her London debut at the Embassy Theatre in Swiss Cottage in 1945. Her broadcasting debut came in 1946 with Sweet Lavender and she made her screen debut in 1950, with Flesh and Blood (1951).
Although she continued to make West End appearances during the following thirty years, she remained in demand as a television and film actress. Her successes included Un mari [presque] fidèle ! (1955), S.O.S. Scotland Yard (1956), Le train des épouvantes (1965) and Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly (1970).
She made an impression as Frances Forsyte (Young Jo's first wife) in the BBC's 1967 television adaptation of John Galsworthy's La dynastie des Forsyte (1967). She became a regular feature in television comedy and drama, ranging from Father, Dear Father (1968) and Un couple peu ordinaire (1998) to The Cazalets (2001).
Her television credits also included playing a psychopath Lettie Blacklock in Un meurtre sera commis (1985). She also appeared in Sins of the Fathers (1985) and Warriors (1991), Somewhere - Over the Rainbow? (1994), Vigilante (1995) and The Electric Vendetta (2001).
She instigated the "Herbert Howells Society" following her father's death in 1983 and became a standard bearer for the promotion of his work. She financially supported the recording of his compositions and did much to encourage the publishing and promotion of church music.
She was married twice. Following a brief first marriage to Davy Dodd in 1949, she remarried in 1968 to the theatre director Anthony Pelissier . She was widowed in 1988 and moved to Petworth in Sussex. Although she had no children of her own, she was a loving stepmother to her husband's son and three daughters who survived her.- IMDb mini biography by: Huw Nathan
- SpousesAnthony Pelissier(1968 - April 2, 1988) (his death)Davy Dodd(1949 - 1949) (divorced)
- Played upper-class English ladies
- Her plummy, gravelly voice.
- The daughter of the composer Herbert Howells (1892-1983), her father contracted Graves Disease before she was born in 1915, a potentially fatal illness. He was the first in his country to receive radium treatment and survived almost 70 years.
- During the Ashes series, she revealed that at the age of 16 she had been selected to play cricket for the England Women's team, but had never played because she was thought to be too young.
- Her favorite stage roles were Judy in "Frieda", Gabby in "The Petrified Forest" and Nina in "The Seagull".
- Educated at St Paul's Girls School and studied for the stage with Anthony Hawtrey at the Dundee Repertory Theatre.
- Was an active supporter of the annual Petworth Festival.
- I wanted to go on stage, and had a scholarship to a school which closed down, then to another one which was bombed.
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