Angharad Mary Rees, The Hon. Mrs David McAlpine, CBE (16 July 1944 – 21 July 2012) was a British actress, best known for her British television roles during the 1970s and in particular her leading role as Demelza in the 1970s BBC TVcostume dramaPoldark.[1]
When she was two, in 1946, her family moved from 13 Engel Park, Mill Hill, to Cardiff.[1] Rees had two brothers and a sister.[2] She attended the independent Commonweal Lodge School, then the Sorbonne in Paris for two terms and the Rose Bruford Drama College in Kent. She also studied at the University of Madrid and taught English in Spain before acting in repertory theatre in England.[3]
Throughout her professional life, her birth year was given as 1949, but she was born in 1944.[4][5]
From 1975 to 1977 she played the lead role of Demelza in the BBC TVcostume dramaPoldark, the role with which she is most closely associated, appearing in all but the first episode.[9] In 1983 she starred in another Cornish-set period drama The Forgotten Story, also based on a Winston Graham novel.
Following the death of her son Linford in 1999 she turned her back on acting and concentrated on her passion for jewellery design.[11] Rees founded a jewellery design company, Angharad, based in Knightsbridge. Pieces that she designed and produced were featured in the film Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007).[12]
Personal life
On 18 September 1973, Rees married the actor Christopher Cazenove, who had made his name at around the same time in The Regiment. They had two sons: Linford James (20 July 1974 – 10 September 1999) and Rhys William (born 1976).[13] Linford was killed in a car accident on the M11 motorway in Essex while returning to collect his books from Cambridge University, where he had been awarded the degree of Master of Philosophy.[14] Cazenove and Rees divorced in 1994 but remained close. Cazenove died from the effects of septicaemia in 2010.[15]
A memorial service was held for her at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, London, on 27 September 2012. Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes led the tributes. He said "If there was one thing she was superb at, it was friendship. And not just sympathetic friendship, but hard-working, useful, practical assistance. She was anxious, I think, that she should not be defined, entirely, as the star of a popular series, as one half of a golden couple, as a mother and hostess, although she excelled in all of these. She wanted also to be remembered as a serious actress whose early career might have gone on to greatness had she not made the personal decision to change direction [by having a family]."[16]
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