Hazel Douglas, born Hazel Smith (2 November 1923 – 8 September 2016) was
an English actress. She portrayed Bathilda Bagshot in Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.
Hazel’s family came from Stoke-on-Trent, where her grandfather was a
senior representative for Minton porcelain. Her father was an accountant
who had lost a leg at Gallipoli, her mother a music teacher. She was
born Hazel Smith in London, and educated at Godolphin and Latymer
school, Hammersmith. At the beginning of the second world war, Hazel was
evacuated to Newbury, in Berkshire. Having always wanted to be either an
actor or a dancer, while away she applied to Rada and, after
auditioning, was accepted.
When she was 16 the family were able to move back to their home in
Fulham. The day before she was to start at Rada, the house received a
direct hit from a bomb, though no one was hurt. The next day she went
off to enrol, in the same class as Richard Attenborough.
After 12 months at Rada she worked for a year as an assistant stage
manager, but then joined the Wrens. At first she was stationed in Crosby
Hall by Chelsea Bridge, and told of the rats that came up from the river
during the night. This was no problem for Hazel, who had always been mad
about animals; she recalled a production in which she was the only
person who could handle a ferocious parrot.
From Crosby Hall she was posted to HMS Ariel in Lancashire as an officer
qualified in wireless technology, teaching other Wrens how to assemble
wireless sets. There she met her future husband, Peter Sawford, who was
also in the navy. One evening they went to the cinema to see Love On the
Dole and this, she always maintained, was what made her the committed
socialist she remained to the end. The couple married in 1949, and Peter
went to work for the Inner London Education Authority.
Her credits stretch back to the early days of television, and include
Sunday Night Theatre, The Worst Week of My Life, Eyes Down, The IT
Crowd, Gavin & Stacey, Run Fatboy Run, Casualty, The Royal, Asylum, The
Bill, Where the Heart Is, Gimme Gimme Gimme, The Hunger Games, At Home
with the Braithwaites, The Liver Birds and Vicious.
In 2009, she played the role of Mrs Harries, the mother of Josephine
Tewson in the radio drama, Leaves in Autumn by Susan Casanove, a
Wireless Theatre Company production. In 2010, she appeared as Peggy Lowe
in the Jo Brand BBC2 comedy Getting On.[citation needed] She also has
the minor role of Maureen Bright in the BBC soap opera, Doctors in 2011.
In 2013 she appeared in the British sitcom Vicious starring Ian McKellen
and Derek Jacobi as Mildred, Stuart's (Jacobi) mother. Most recently,
Douglas portrayed Edna Locke in an episode of the 2014 detective drama
Suspects.
She died on 8 September 2016 at the age of 92. |
