SUZAN FARMER

Written by Michael Darvell
 

(16 June 1942 - 17 September 2017)

British actress Suzan Farmer, who has died aged 75, left school at 15 to become an actress and made her first film, The Supreme Secret – a B-picture shot at Southall Studios – a year later. Her next film, The Dawn Killer, was made for the Children’s Film Foundation. She was uncredited in The Wild and the Willing, which starred her future husband, Ian McShane, in his film debut. A mixture of film and TV work followed, including the films 80,000 Suspects, 633 Squadron and Monster of Terror, with Boris Karloff. Farmer then made memorable appearances in several Hammer films - The Scarlet Blade, The Devil-Ship Pirates, Dracula, Prince of Darkness and Rasputin: The Mad Monk. She was also in Doctor in Clover, Where the Bullets Fly and Persecution (with Lana Turner and Trevor Howard), Farmer’s last film in 1974. Her career continued on TV in The Saint, Coronation Street, Dixon of Dock Green, Blake’s 7 etc and Leap in the Dark, her last appearance in 1980.

MICHAEL DARVELL

 
Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

Previous

ANTHONY BOOTH
Next

MADGE MEREDITH