BADA’s Founding Patron, Dame Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft DBE, known professionally as Peggy Ashcroft, was the guest of honour at the Open Day of the first Midsummer in Oxford Program in 1984 (pictured) at Balliol College. An actress whose career spanned more than six decades, she was mostly known for her work on the British stage, where she where she played all of Shakespeare’s young leading women, including playing Juliet in 1935 opposite both John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, who alternated playing Romeo and Mercutio, and regularly appeared in the West End, at the National Theatre, the Royal Court, and at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
A constant presence on the British stage, she appeared in only a few films and tv series, notably Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, the series The Jewel in the Crown (for which she won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress), and the film A Passage to India (for which she worn the BAFTA for Best Actress and the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role).
