The 66-year-old English actress Haydn Gwynne was best known for her roles in television series such as Peak Practice, Merseybeat, Drop the Dead Donkey, and The Windsors.
Haydn Gwynne also had a successful theatrical career, having received nominations for Billy Elliot the Musical on Broadway and in the West End for both the Olivier and Tony awards.
She performed as former prime minister Margaret Thatcher on stage in The Audience and as Queen Camilla in the TV royal parody The Windsors.
Dame Helen Mirren, her co-star from the 2013 production, directed the tributes.
She posted on Instagram, saying,
“Haydn was a delight as a person and a consummate dedicated actress.”
Dame Helen went on,
“Her entire career exemplified a brilliant balancing act that was both funny and serious at the same time,” referring to Gwynne’s performance in The Audience.
“We will miss her very much.”
Her agent released the following statement on Friday:
“We are sharing with you with great sadness that Haydn Gwynne, the actress and stage star, passed away in hospital in the early hours of October 20, 2018, accompanied by her close family, friends, and loving boys, following her recent cancer diagnosis.
“We would like to thank the staff and teams at the Royal Marsden and Brompton Hospitals for their wonderful care over the last few weeks.”
Before gaining more notoriety and earning a Bafta nomination for her role as stoic and cynical journalist Alex in the timely satire Drop the Dead Donkey, Gwynne had her breakthrough in the TV drama Nice Work in the late 1980s.
Twenty years subsequently, she returned to Channel 4 in the comedy The Windsors, where she portrayed Camilla, who was “clearly the soap opera villainess”.
Her outfits, which were created “as if Joan Collins played her in a 1980s version,” mirrored that.
“In a way that was very freeing, because it meant I didn’t have to go off and do serious research,” said Gwynne. “I could just have full fun with it.”
In the fifth season of Netflix’s The Crown, the actress played Lady Susan Hussey, who left the royal household over a racial controversy. This led to the creation of another royal TV series.
Her other TV roles were Calpurnia, the wife of Julius Caesar on the BBC’s Rome, Dr. Joanna Graham in Peak Practice, and Supt Susan Blake in Merseybeat.
Playwright Jonathan Harvey paid tribute to her, calling her “a gifted and versatile all-rounder”.
She was described as “the kindest, loveliest soul and a wonderful performer” by fellow writer Jack Thorne, who also remarked, “She gave everything to everything.”
Elaine Paige, a radio host and musical icon, described Gwynne as “so young, so talented” and mentioned that she had known the actress for thirty years. “This evening, a brilliant star will shine in heaven. RIP, sweet Haydn.
David Suchet, who portrayed Hercule Poirot in an ITV detective program, praised Gwynne as “an extraordinary person and brilliant actor” throughout their collaboration.
Samuel West, an actor, also expressed condolences, stating, “This is a terrible loss.” Among the best and most pleasant.”
Rufus Norris, the creative director of National Theatre, described her as “an amazing woman and artist” who was “universally beloved and respected” after he directed her in The Threepenny Opera in 2016.
He stated: “Her unique combination of wit, wickedness, grace, and fearless craft was a complete joy to be in a room with.”
More About Career
Her father, Guy Thomas Hayden-Gwynne, was an Irish printer who lived in a remote Sussex village when Gwynne was growing up.
Before relocating to Italy, she attended university in France and gave English lectures at the University of Rome.
Haydn Gwynne once said that she “came out of the closet” and decided to pursue acting professionally, even if it seemed too insecure at first. “I gave up my job, got rid of my apartment, gave away all my furniture, and came home.”
After returning to England, she sent letters to every theater group she could find, and in 1984, director and playwright Alan Ayckbourn offered her a role in His Monkey Wife.
This resulted in other productions, such as the 1988 costly failure of the West End musical Ziegfeld.
Haydn Gwynne previously remarked,
“My biggest regret is that I didn’t keep a daily diary.” “The most amazing things occurred.
“After press night, the director and star were sacked, and it was reworked. My costume was worth £10,000, so it had moments, but mostly pain. Most nights, I sobbed myself to sleep.”
However, things improved: in 1994, she was nominated for her first Olivier Award for the musical City of Angels, and in 1995, she performed for two seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
In 2005, she made her Broadway debut as dancing instructor Mrs. Wilkinson for Billy Elliot the Musical, which she continued to portray when it moved to the West End.
Julie Walters originated the role; nonetheless, Gwynne described the character as “quite direct and abrasive, a little more so than I recall from the movie” when she did it on stage.
Regarding her diverse career, Gwynne stated in an April interview with the Telegraph that while she could dance and sing, combining the two was the most difficult.
Who says tragedy is easy? Billy Elliot’s two shows a day are the epitome of exhausting—forget Medea!”
For the 2015 stage adaptation of Pedro Almodóvar’s film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and The Threepenny Opera, Gwynne was nominated for two additional Olivier awards.
When Haydn Gwynne performed as Dame Prue Leith in The Great British Bake Off Musical and as Stanley Baldwin, the prime minister of the 1920s and 1930s, in the play When Winston Went to War with the Wireless, she again showed off her flexibility.
Due to what was at the time described as “sudden personal circumstances,” the actress withdrew nine days before the first preview of a new London production of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, which was scheduled to open in September.
Sir Cameron Mackintosh, the show’s producer, announced that Gwynne would be honored with a special performance on Friday. He called Gwynne a “truly wonderful person, as well as a phenomenally talented actress and singer”.
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