Maria Charles

Diminutive, red-haired London-born stage and screen character actress Maria Charles was born of Jewish ancestry as Maria Zena Schneider, the daughter of hairdresser David Schneider and his wife Celia (née Ashken - originally Ashkenaza). A RADA graduate of 1946, her career spanned more than six and a half decades, beginning in 1945. The following year, she made her debut on the West End stage in Pick-up Girl, a play penned by Russian-American dramatist Elsa Shelley. Her first lengthy theatrical run (April 1953 to February 1959) was in the role of Dulcie, one of the 'perfect young ladies', in Sandy Wilson's hit musical The Boy Friend. Charles made her first screen appearance in 1947. She went on to amass numerous credits in miniseries and episodic television, in the course of which she acquired a solid reputation for roles as fussy or over-protective Jewish matriarchs (Bea Fisher in ITV's sitcom Agony (1979), Rita Green in Bar Mitzvah Boy (1976)), Dickensian characters ("The Infant Phenomenon" Miss Ninetta Crummles in Nicholas Nickleby (1957), Miss Havisham's fawning relative Sarah Pocket in Great Expectations (1974), workhouse matron Mrs. Corney in the Oliver Twist episode of The Wonderful World of Disney (1997)]) and (latterly) kindly old ladies and grandmothers. She had recurring roles on TV in Crown Court (1972), Secret Army (1977), Never the Twain (1981) (as the clumsy Mrs. Sadler) and Coronation Street (1960), as well as occasional supporting parts on the big screen, notably in Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978), Cuba (1979), Savage Hearts (1995) and Hot Fuzz (2007) (as farmer Reaper's wife). Between 1952 and 1966, Charles was married to English actor Robin Hunter. The union produced two daughters, one of whom is the award-winning actress Kelly Hunter.