Dame Eileen June Atkins DBE (born 16 June 1934) is an English writer and award-winning film, television and theatre actress.
Atkins was born in a Salvation Army women's hostel in North London (The Mothers' Hospital in Clapton), the cockney daughter of Annie Ellen (née Elkins), a barmaid who was 46 when Eileen was born, and Arthur Thomas Atkins, a gas-meter reader who was previously under-chauffeur to the Portuguese Ambassador. She attended the Latymer Grammar School, Edmonton and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Her mother was told by a gypsy that Eileen would be a great dancer, so she was sent to dancing classes from young, and appeared dancing in working man's clubs as "Baby Eileen" throughout the war years.
Her first stage appearance was at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park in 1953.
Among her accomplishments are the creation of two television series - along with Jean Marsh she created the concept for an original television series, titled Behind the Green Baize Door, which became the award-winning ITV series Upstairs, Downstairs. The same team was also responsible for the BBC series The House of Eliott.
As an actress her television work has included The Three Sisters (1970), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1971), The Lady from the Sea (1974), Electra (1974), the villainess "Vanity Fair" in Dornford Yates' She Fell Among Thieves (1977), Sons and Lovers (1981), Oliver Twist (1982), Titus Andronicus (1985), The Burston Rebellion (1985), A Better Class of Person (1985), The Lost Language of Cranes (1991), Cold Comfort Farm (1995), Talking Heads (1998), Madame Bovary (2000), David Copperfield (2000), Wit (2001) and Bertie and Elizabeth (2002).
In recent years, Dame Eileen has held a virtual monopoly on Virginia Woolf. She has played the writer on stage (A Room of One's Own and Vita and Virginia) and screen (the 1990 television version of Room); she also provided the screenplay for the 1997 film adaptation of Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway -- starring Vanessa Redgrave (her stage costar in Vita and Virginia) -- and made a cameo appearance in the 2002 film version of Michael Cunningham's Woolf-themed novel The Hours.
Her other big-screen films include Equus (1977), The Dresser (1983), Wolf (1994), Jack and Sarah (1995), Gosford Park (2001), Cold Mountain (2003), Vanity Fair (2004) and Ask the Dust (2006).
She has appeared in countless stage productions in and around London, including A Delicate Balance (1997), Cymbeline (1988), Honour (2003), John Gabriel Borkman (1996), Mountain Language (1988), The Night of the Iguana (1992), The Unexpected Man (1998) and The Birthday Party (2005).
Dame Eileen has appeared on Broadway many times as well, scoring four Tony nominations as Best Actress in a Play. Her debut was in 1966, in Frank Marcus' The Killing of Sister George. Next was the Russian play The Promise (which closed after less than a month in 1967). In 1972's premiere of Robert Bolt's Vivat! Vivat Regina!, she played Elizabeth I to Claire Bloom's Mary, Queen of Scots. The Scandinavian novelty The Night of the Tribades barely ran for two weeks in 1977. A bit more successful were 1995's new version of Jean Cocteau's Indiscretions , directed by Sean Mathias (which co-starred Kathleen Turner and Broadway debutant Jude Law) and 2004's The Retreat from Moscow, William Nicholson's play about a marriage in ruins, with costars John Lithgow and Ben Chaplin.
In January 2006, she took over the lead role in the Broadway production of John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer-prize winning play Doubt opposite Ron Eldard and Jena Malone. Her off-Broadway work has included A Room of One's Own (1991) and The Unexpected Man (2001).
In the autumn of 2007 she co-starred with Judi Dench and Michael Gambon in the BBC1 drama series Cranford playing the central role of Miss Deborah Jenkyns. This performance earned her the 2008 BAFTA Award for best actress
She returned to London's West End in January 2008 to play Mrs Rafi in Edward Bond's The Sea at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. The play closed in April 2008. She is currently appearing at the Vaudeville Theatre from July to October 2008 in The Female of the Species, a play which outraged the feminist Germaine Greer because of its obvious associations with her. The play was, however, generally very well received, with the Sunday Telegraph reviewer Tim Walker giving it five stars and describing it as "great theatre."
Atkins was created a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1990, and raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 2001.
She has one brother, Ronald Albert Charles Atkins, married to Dorothy Atkins. She has a niece, Caroline Harding who has two children (Jamie and Lewis Goodwin) and a nephew, Nigel Atkins.
Atkins was married to Julian Glover in 1957 but they were later divorced in 1966. She has been married to her current husband, Bill Shepherd, since 2 February 1978. She has no children. Atkins was propositioned by Colin Farrell on location in 2004, shortly before she turned 70; she said the incident helped her pass that milestone far more easily than she otherwise would have expected.
