Latest news with #Downstairs'
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
E. Jay Krause, Emmy-Winning Art Director, Dies at 98
E. Jay Krause, an Emmy Award-winning art director and set designer who worked on many of the biggest variety shows of the 1950s, '60s and '70s, has died. He was 98. Krause died Saturday in Los Angeles. More from The Hollywood Reporter Ed Arnold, Former Broadcaster at Los Angeles TV Stations KTLA and KABC, Dies at 86 Jean Marsh, 'Upstairs, Downstairs' Actress and Co-Creator, Dies at 90 Nicky Katt, 'Dazed and Confused' and 'Boston Public' Actor, Dies at 54 Over this three-decade career, Krause designed sets for more than 180 productions, work on TV specials featuring such iconic performers as Bob Hope, Diana Ross, Mitzi Gaynor, Shirley Temple, Bing Crosby, Jerry Lewis, Esther Williams, Milton Berle, Danny Thomas, the Jacksons, Don Knotts, Wayne Newton, Carol Channing, Pat Boone and Rudolf Nureyev. He also designed the original sets for for The Hollywood Squares and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In andreceived two Primetime Emmy Awards for best art direction — one for The Diana Ross Special and another for The Mitzi Gaynor Special. In 1983, Krause founded Omega Cinema Props, which went on to become one of the industry's largest independent prop houses. Alongside his wife, Doris, Krause spent more than three decades sourcing rare and distinctive set dressing from around the world, curating a collection that remains integral to film and television productions today. A Los Angeles native, Krause served with distinction in the U.S. Navy during World War II, taking part in the harrowing 82-day Battle of Okinawa. After his military service, he attended Pepperdine University, where he studied design, and he began his professional career at NBC in 1951. He is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Carson and Barry Pritchard; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'Yellowstone' and the Sprawling Dutton Family Tree, Explained The Cast of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' Then and Now A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
Los Angeles Times
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Jean Marsh, British actress and co-creator of ‘Upstairs, Downstairs,' dies at 90
Jean Marsh, the British actress who co-created the enduring serialized hit TV series 'Upstairs, Downstairs,' died Sunday at the age of 90. The Sunday Times of London said Marsh died at her London home due to complications from dementia. Marsh gave television one of the best loved programs in history when she teamed with actress Eileen Atkins to create 'Upstairs, Downstairs,' set in a London estate during the Edwardian era. The series depicted the lives of the staff toiling downstairs at 165 Eaton Place and the wealthy Bellamy family living above. Marsh played Rose Buck, the head parlormaid in the Bellamy home. The drama made its debut on London Weekend Television in 1971 and became a major prime time series hit for PBS in 1974 when it was imported for U.S. audiences. The series depicting class distinctions in British society ran for five seasons and was revived for the BBC in 2011 with Marsh recreating her role. Marsh told NPR in 2011 that she and Atkins came up with the idea while watching a period drama on TV. 'We'd been watching something full of rich people, rich food, beautiful clothes and we had chips on our shoulders, I suppose. And we thought, 'Who did all this work? Who cooked? Who washed up?' ' she said. 'All those things we put together and thought, 'Let's write something about the downstairs people, the servants, the people who serve.' ' During its run, 'Upstairs, Downstairs' earned seven prime-time Emmy Awards, including a 1975 lead actress in a drama series win for Marsh. Jean Lyndsey Torren Marsh was born July 1, 1934 in Stoke Newington, a northwest section of London. Her father was a printer's assistant and her mother worked as a housemaid, giving her the insights she needed to write 'Upstairs, Downstairs.' (Atkins' parents also worked as household servants.) Marsh began her performing career as a teenager, appearing as a dancer in the Michael Powell-Emeric Pressburger film, 'The Tales of Hoffmann.' She made her Broadway stage debut in 1959, starring opposite John Gielgud in 'Much Ado About Nothing.' That same year she played opposite Laurence Olivier in David Susskind's TV production of 'The Moon and Sixpence' for NBC. Marsh split her time between the U.S. and London during the 1960s, with roles in the film 'Cleopatra,' and TV shows such as 'I Spy,' 'The Twilight Zone,' 'Doctor Who' and 'The Informer.' After 'Upstairs, Downstairs' became a hit, Marsh worked steadily in the U.S. and Great Britain for the next five decades. Her film roles include Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 film 'Frenzy,' and the spy drama 'The Eagle Has Landed.' She played Queen Bavmorda in Ron Howard's 1988 hit 'Willow.' Marsh also had numerous guest roles on U.S. TV series including 'Murder, She Wrote' and 'The Love Boat' and as a regular on the ABC sitcom 'Nine to Five.' In 1996, she wrote a successful romance novel, 'Fiennders Keepers,' which dealt with social change in a rural community. She played Mrs. Ferrars in a well-received 2008 TV mini-series version of 'Sense and Sensibility.' Marsh was married the late actor Jon Pertwee, who was 15 years her senior, in 1955 when she was just 20. They divorced five years later. She later lived with actors Kenneth Haigh and Albert Finney before beginning a 10-year relationship with the director Michael Lindsay-Hogg.
