Dame Thora HirdDBE (28 May 1911 – 15 March 2003) was an English actress. In a career spanning over 70 years,[2] she appeared in more than 100 films, as well as many television roles, becoming a household name and a British institution.[3]
Hird was born on 28 May 1911 in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe to James Henry Hird and Jane Mary (née Mayor).[6][7] Her family background was largely theatrical: her mother had been an actress, while her father managed a number of entertainment venues in Morecambe, including the Royalty Theatre, where Hird made her first appearance, and the West End Pier. Thora first appeared on stage in 1911 at the age of two months in a play her father was managing, carried on stage in her mother's arms.[3] She worked at the local Co-operative store before joining the Morecambe Repertory Theatre.[3]
Hird often described her father, who initially did not want her to be an actress, as her sternest critic and attributed much of her talent as an actress and comedian to his guidance.[3] In 1944 she made her West End debut in the Esther McCracken play No Medals.[2]
Although Hird left Morecambe in the late 1940s, she retained her affection for the town, referring to herself as a "sand grown 'un", the colloquial term for anyone born in Morecambe.[8]
Hird starred as Captain Emily Ridley in the sitcom Hallelujah! (1983–84) about the Salvation Army, a movement which she supported throughout her life.[10] Hird also portrayed Mrs Speck, the housekeeper of the Mayor of Gloucester, in The Tailor of Gloucester (1989).
In 1993 she played Annie Longden, mother of Deric Longden in Wide-Eyed and Legless (known as The Wedding Gift outside the UK) and reprised her role in the 1999 TV film Lost for Words, which won her a BAFTA for Best Actress.[4]
Religious broadcasts
Hird was a committed Christian, hosting the religious programmes Your Songs of Praise Choice (1979–1983) and Praise Be! (1984–1993), a spin-off from Songs of Praise on the BBC.[2] Her work for charity and on television in spite of old age and ill health made her an institution. Her advertisements for Churchill stairlifts also kept her in the public eye.[11]
In December 1998, using a wheelchair, Hird played a brief but energetic cameo role as the mother of Dolly on Dinnerladies, a sarcastic character who was particularly bitter towards her daughter.[13]
Her final acting work was for BBC Radio 7, which was recorded in 2002 and broadcast some months after her death: a monologue written for her by Alan Bennett entitled The Last of the Sun, in which she played a forthright, broad-minded woman, immobile in an old people's home but still able to take a stand against the censorious and politically correct attitudes of her own daughter.[14]
Hird married musician James Scott in 1937. They had a daughter, actress Janette Scott, in 1938. Hird was mother-in-law to jazz singer Mel Tormé for eleven years. Hird was widowed in 1994, having been married for 57 years.[7]
Hird underwent a heart bypass operation in 1992. She suffered from severe osteoarthritis, had repeated hip replacements and used a wheelchair in her later life.
In July 2019, a commemorative blue plaque to Thora Hird was installed by The Theatre and Film Guild of Great Britain and America, at the Bayswater home where she lived for over 50 years.[17]
