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Dame Thora Hird (May 28, 1911 - March 15, 2003)
was a veteran United Kingdom|British actor|actress
born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe.
She was the mother of the actress Janette Scott,
and thus formerly the mother-in-law of the singer
Mel Tormé.

Thora Hird was mainly associated with television
comedy, notably the situation comedy|sitcoms Meet
the Wife (a 1960s classic) and later series of
Last of the Summer Wine. However, she  played a
variety of roles, including the nurse in Romeo and
Juliet, and won a BAFTA Best Actress award for her
role in one of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads
(Plays)|Talking Heads monologues.

Dame Thora's talent for comedy was shown to good
effect in her performance as the potential
battleaxe mother-in-law to Victoria Wood's
character in the TV film Pat and Margaret.  Her
most memorable line was, on hearing that her son
had been having sex with his girlfriend in her
house, "Not on the eiderdown!"

Her tireless work for charity and work on
television in spite of old age and ill health had
made her an institution. Although in recent years
she had been thought of as a stereotypical old
woman (with many jokes about her sideline
advertising stairlifts), some of her youthful film
work still survives, including her 1942 appearance
in the classic wartime propaganda film Went the
Day Well?.

Thora Hird's energy and resilience were such that,
even following the news that she had suffered a
stroke, BBC bosses were still hoping that she
would recover in order to appear in the next
series of Last of the Summer Wine.

She received an Order of the British Empire|OBE in
1983, an honorary DLitt from Lancaster University
in 1989, and a DBE (thus becoming a "Dame") in
1993.

== Further reading ==

* Dame Thora Hird'a autobiography, Scene And Hird
(1976)

== External links ==

*
"http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_r
adio/2853893.stm Actress Dame Thora Hird dies" -
BBC News article, last updated March 15, 2003
* "http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/946854.stm
Obituary: Dame Thora Hird" - BBC News obituary,
last updated March 15, 2003
*
http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493
,915521,00.html Dame Thora Hird - obituary from
The Guardian, by  Veronica Horwell, dated March
17, 2003
* http://www.imdb.com/Name?Hird,+Thora Main entry
and http://www.imdb.com/Bio?Hird,%20Thora
biography on Dame Thora Hird in the Internet Movie
Database