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Vivien Merchant (1929-1983) was a British actress,
born Ada Thompson.  Despite her great talent and
many film appearances - including Alfie (1966) and
Frenzy (1972), she is probably best known as the
first wife of the playwright, Harold Pinter, whom
she married in 1956.  She appeared in many of his
works, notably The Homecoming (1973).  Their
marriage began disintegrating in the mid-1960s and
Pinter left Merchant suddenly in 1977 to live with
historian Lady Antonia Fraser.  Merchant went
public about her distress, and famously told the
press that Pinter had not taken many clothes with
him; but, she quipped, if he didn't have any shoes
to wear, he could always borrow Fraser's: "she has
very big feet, you know".  However, Merchant never
got over the dissolution of her marriage, and her
premature death was brought about by alcoholism.