Barbara Jefford

Biography

Barbara Jefford (born in Plymstock, Devon, in 1930; died in Mousehole, Cornwall, in 2020) was a British actress trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She is best remembered for her stage work with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Old Vic and the National Theatre. Her film career was shorter and more intermittent, spanning British and international cinema of the 1960s and 1970s.

Her professional break came in 1950, when she played Isabella in Peter Brook's production of Measure for Measure at Stratford-upon-Avon. Over the next few years she took on a long run of major Shakespearean parts, and later worked at the Old Vic, where she played Portia, Beatrice and Regan. She returned to Volumnia in Coriolanus, a role she revisited in 1991, when she received an Olivier nomination. On screen, her Molly Bloom in Ulysses (1967) earned her a BAFTA nomination. She also provided uncredited voice work on several James Bond films, and she remained busy in British radio and television.

In 1965 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her services to the theatre, becoming the youngest civilian to receive the honour up to that point. Later in her career she appeared in Philomena (2013), directed by Stephen Frears, in a small but important role. She died in 2020, aged 90.

Key films

• Ulysses (1967): her Molly Bloom, a performance that earned a BAFTA nomination.
• The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968): one of her early appearances in a large international production.
• Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973): she played Magda Goebbels.
• And the Ship Sails On (1983): her role in Federico Fellini's film.
• Philomena (2013): a supporting part that is brief but central to the story.