Maria Penelope Katharine Aitken

Maria Penelope Katharine Aitken (born 12 September 1945 in Dublin, Ireland as Maria Penelope Katharine Aitken) is an Irish-born English theatre director,[1] teacher, actress and writer. known for A Fish Called Wanda (1988), Spider (2002) and Asylum (2005). She has been married to Patrick McGrath since December 28, 1991. She was previously married to Nigel Davenport and Richard Durden.

Early life and career

Aitken was born in Dublin, the daughter of Sir William Aitken, a Conservative MP, and Penelope Aitken, whose father was John Maffey, 1st Baron Rugby. Her grandfather was the UK Representative to Ireland (1939-49). She is a great-niece of newspaper magnate and war-time minister Lord Beaverbrook. She attended Sherborne School for Girls in Dorset and St Anne's College, Oxford, where she graduated with a degree in English Language and Literature.

Graduated from Oxford University, where she performed with OUDS.

Younger sister of former British Conservative Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken, daughter of Conservative MP Sir William Aitken, and great-niece of Lord Beaverbrook.

She was educated at Riddlesdown Hall in Norfolk; Sherborne School for Girls in Sherborne, Dorset and St. Anne's College, Oxford University.

She has directed several plays in the West End and on Broadway. Her production of The 39 Steps, which is still running in London after 5 years, played 3 years on Broadway and won Olivier and Tony Awards. In 2011, she directed Frank Langella in Man and Boy on Broadway. She is a Visiting Lecturer at Yale, NYU and Juilliard drama schools. Her extensive acting career includes leading roles at the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and in the West End. She has played more Noël Coward leads than any other actress. Her film career includes appearances in Doctor Faustus (1967), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), Half Moon Street (1986), A Fish Called Wanda (1988) (for which she was nominated for a BAFTA award), The Fool (1990), The Grotesque (1995), Fierce Creatures (1997), Jinnah (1998) and Asylum (2005).

Directing "The 39 Steps" at the Tricycle Theatre, London. Book by John Buchan, adapted by Patrick Barlow and compromising a cast of just 4 playing nearly a 100 roles between them! [August 2006]

She is the author of A Girdle Round the Earth, a story of some of the more remarkable women travellers of the last 200 years, and Style: Acting in High Comedy, published in 1996, which contends that "High comedies are not bloodless, refined, wordy plays — their themes are sex, money and social advancement. They contain a splendid contradiction: wit and elegance at the service of man's basest drives."

Personal life

In 1968, she married Richard Durden. They divorced in 1971. In 1972, she married Nigel Davenport, and together they have a son, Jack. They divorced in 1981. Since 1991, she has been married to the novelist Patrick McGrath and they live together in New York and London. She has been a patron of the British Thyroid Foundation since 1992, and was appointed a Trustee of the Noël Coward Foundation in 2012.

References

Jump up ^ Barlow, Patrick (2009-11-30). The 39 Steps. Samuel French, Inc. pp. 4–. ISBN 9780573697142. Retrieved 14 June 2012.

• Residence: Dublin
  • Reference: Biographical Summaries of Notable People - SmartCopy: Jun 14 2020, 15:56:36 UTC