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Dame Eileen June Atkins, DBE (born 16 June 1934) is an English actress and occasional screenwriter. She has worked in the theatre, film, and television consistently since 1953. She has won several major acting awards, including a BAFTA, an Emmy and three Olivier's. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1990 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2001. Atkins joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1957 and made her Broadway debut in the 1966 production of ''The Killing of Sister George'', for which she received the first of four Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in a Play in 1967. She received subsequent nominations for, ''Vivat! Vivat Regina!'' in 1972, ''Indiscretions'' in 1995 and ''The Retreat from Moscow'' in 2004. In the UK, she has won three Olivier Awards, for Best Supporting Performance (for multiple roles) in 1988 and two for Best Actress, for ''The Unexpected Man'' in 1999 and ''Honour'' in 2004.〔(【引用サイトリンク】work=Olivier Awards )〕 Other stage credits include, ''Twelfth Night'' (Old Vic London, 1961 & 1978), ''The Tempest'' (Old Vic 1962), ''Exit the King'' with Alec Guinness (Edinburgh Festival and Royal Court 1963), ''The Promise'' (New York 1967), ''The Night of the Tribades'' (New York 1977), ''Medea'' (Young Vic 1985), ''A Delicate Balance'' with Maggie Smith (Haymarket, West End 1997) and ''Doubt'' (New York 2006). For television, she co-created ''Upstairs, Downstairs'' (1971–1975) and ''The House of Elliot'' (1991–1993) with Jean Marsh. In 2008, she won a BAFTA TV Award and an Emmy Award for her role opposite Judi Dench in the BBC drama ''Cranford'' Her film roles include, ''Equus'' (1977), ''The Dresser'', (1983), ''Let Him Have It'' (1991), ''Wolf'' (1994), ''Jack and Sarah'' (1995), ''Gosford Park'' (2001), ''Evening'' (2005), ''Last Chance Harvey'' (2008) and ''Robin Hood'' (2010). She also wrote the screenplay for the 1997 film version of ''Mrs Dalloway'', starring Vanessa Redgrave. ==Early life== Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army maternity hospital in East London. Her mother, Annie Ellen (née Elkins), was a barmaid who was 46 when Eileen was born, and her father, Arthur Thomas Atkins, was a gas meter reader who was previously under-chauffeur to the Portuguese Ambassador. She was the third child in the family and when she was born the family moved to a council home in Tottenham. Her father did not, in fact, know how to drive and was responsible, as under-chauffeur, mainly for cleaning the car. At the time Eileen was born, her mother worked in a factory the whole day and then as a barmaid in the Elephant & Castle at night. When Eileen was three, a Gypsy woman came to their door selling lucky heather and clothes pegs. She saw little Eileen and told her mother that her daughter would be a famous dancer. Her mother promptly enrolled her in a dance class. Although she hated it, she studied dancing from age 3 to 15 or 16. From age 7 to 15, which covered the last four years of the Second World War (1941–45), she danced in working men's club circuits for 15 shillings a time as "Baby Eileen". During the war, she performed as well at London's Stage Door canteen for American troops and sang songs like "Yankee Doodle." At one time she was attending dance class four or five times a week. By 12, she was a professional in panto in Clapham and Kilburn. Once, when she was given a line to recite, someone told her mother that she had a Cockney accent. Her mother was appalled but speech lessons were too expensive for the family. Fortunately, a woman took interest in her and paid for her to be educated at Parkside Preparatory School in Tottenham. Eileen Atkins has since publicly credited the Principal, Miss D. M. Hall, for the wise and firm guidance under which her character developed. From Parkside she went on to Latymer's grammar school in Edmonton, London. One of her grammar school teachers who used to give them religious instruction, a Rev. Michael Burton, spotted her potential and rigorously drilled away her Cockney accent without charge. He also introduced her to the works of William Shakespeare. She studied under him for two years. When she was 14 or 15 and still at Latymer's, she also attended "drama demonstration" sessions twice a year with this same teacher. At around this time (though some sources say she was 12), her first encounter with Robert Atkins took place. She was taken to see Atkins' production of ''King John'' at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. She wrote to him saying that the boy who played Prince Arthur was not good enough and that she could do better. Robert Atkins wrote back and asked that she come to see him. On the day they met, Atkins thought she was a shop girl, and not a school girl. She gave a little prince speech and he told her to go to drama school and come back when she was grown up. Rev. Burton came to an agreement with Eileen's parents that he would try to get her a scholarship for one drama school and that if she did not get the scholarship he would arrange for her to do a teaching course in some other drama school. Her parents were not all keen on the fact that she would stay in school until 16 as her sister had left at 14 and her brother at 15 but somehow they were convinced. Eileen was in Latymer's until 16. Out of 300 applicants for a RADA scholarship, she got down to the last three but was not selected, so she did a three-year course on teaching at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. But, although she was taking the teaching course, she also attended drama classes and in fact performed in three plays in her last year. This was in the early 1950s. In her third and last year she had to teach once a week, an experience she later said she hated. She graduated from Guildhall in 1953.〔Principal's General Report to the Board of Governors, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, 13 May 2013, p. 4.〕 As soon as she left Guildhall she got her first job with Robert Atkins in 1953: as Jaquenetta in ''Love's Labour's Lost'' at the same Regent's Park Open Air Theatre where she was brought to see Robert Atkins' King John production years before. She was also, very briefly, an assistant stage manager at the Oxford Playhouse until Peter Hall fired her for impudence. She was also part of repertory companies performing in Billy Butlin's holiday camp in Skegness, Lincolnshire. It was there when she met Julian Glover. It took nine years (1953–62) before she was working steadily.〔"Regent's Park Open Air Theatre: Our History" in openairtheatre.org/history. Retrieved 1 December 2011〕〔Carole Zucker, ''In The Company of Actors: Reflections on the Craft of Acting'' (London: A & C Black Publishers, 1999), p. 2. Retrieved from Google Books, 3 December 2011〕〔Sally Vincent, "A class act," ''The Guardian'' (Saturday, 9 December 2000). Retrieved from www.guardian.co.uk on 2 December 2011〕〔William Glover, "Eileen Atkins Stars in Another Ringing Triumph," ''The Evening News'' (26 February 1972). Retrieved from news.google.com on 2 December 2011〕〔Jasper Rees, "Theartdesk Q&A: Actress Eileen Atkins," (24 December 2010) in www.theartdesk.com. Retrieved, 3 December 2011〕〔interview with Jonathan Ross on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, BBC1, 13 June 2008〕〔Richard Digby Day, "Delightful Insight Into Life of Actress," ''Newark Advertiser'' (23 October 2011, Palace Theatre, Newark) in www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2011〕〔"Eileen Atkins" in ''The Telegraph'' (16 June 2001) at www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2011〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eileen Atkins」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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