A resident of a Chelsea houseboat named ‘Undine’ from 1953, Dame Dorothy Tutin was “one of UK’s most versatile actresses” and someone whom “bridged the gap between the classical grandes dames of the 1940s and the more modern performers of the 1960s.”
Lauded by Sir John Mills “as one of the best we ever had” and capable of “play[ing] almost anything,” this mother of two and wife of Z-Cars actor Derek Waring won two Olivier Awards and was known for her “husky voice” – which was dubbed “Tutinese.” She could be, supposedly, “very aloof.”
Tutin worked with everyone from Dirk Bogarde in A Tale of Two Cities (1958) to Sir John Gielgud in The Shooting Party (1985) and of her, Caryl Brahms wrote: “Miss Tutin is a small-scale hurricane. And once she is unleashed upon a part, there is bound to be, one feels, a short, sharp tussle. But Miss Tutin comes out on top, and having subdued it to her temperamental and technical measure, parades in it, all smiles and sequinned tears. She can be gay, pathetic, lively, stunned – part minx, part poet, part sex-kitten. A comedienne of skill and a pint-sized tragedienne.”
