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Beth Porter

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Beth Porter
Self-portrait in 1974
Born
Beth Jane Porter

(1942-05-23)May 23, 1942
New York City, U.S.
DiedAugust 1, 2023(2023-08-01) (aged 81)
England
Spouse
Peter Reid
​
​
(m. 1969; sep. 1974)​
Partner

Beth Jane Porter (May 23, 1942 – August 1, 2023) was an American stage, film and television actress and writer, who worked in Britain for most of her career. She became a British citizen in 2014.

Early life

Beth Porter made her first professional appearance at age 12 in a Westchester County touring company. She studied acting on scholarship at the Stratford Connecticut Shakespeare Festival and with Helen Menken at the American Theatre Wing before completing dramatic studies at Bard College, New York University, and Hunter College at The City University of New York (CUNY).

Career

After appearing in the American premiere of Jules Romains's Donogoo in 1961 at the Greenwich Mews Theatre,[1] Isaac Babel's Sunset at the Chelsea Theater Center in 1966, and later that year as the star of David Starkweather's Ascent at The Playwrights Workshop, Porter was chosen as a member of original Obie Award-winning New York LaMaMa Troupe under director Tom O'Horgan (Hair), where she starred in the play and later film of Futz!, and featured in Paul Foster's Tom Paine and Melodrama Play by Sam Shepard.[2] A critic declared of her co-starring role in Futz!: "Beth Porter makes the Whore of Babylon look like the Singing Nun."[3][4]

Ellen Stewart and Tom O'Horgan invited Porter and her Scots husband Peter Reid to co-found the first foreign branch of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, based in the UK. Known as The Wherehouse La MaMa with Porter as its administrative director, it operated as a touring company throughout Europe and guest appearing at La MaMa New York. Porter featured in their plays, including Groupjuice, Little Mother by Ross Alexander,[5] The Hilton Keen Show,[6] Hump, a dramatization of the novel by David Benedictus.[7]

U.S. television guest spots included Baretta and Kojak.

U.K. television roles include Thames Television's Armchair Theatre play, Verité (1973) with Richard Morant and Tim Curry, co-starring in Rock Follies of '77 (1977) and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which she reprised her role as The Marketing Girl from the original radio series. Her television films include Blue Money, again with Tim Curry, and Pleasure (1994), part of the Alan Bleasdale Presents series. She guest starred with Bill Nighy in The Men's Room (1991).

Feature film roles include Reds (1981), Mrs. McKee in The Great Gatsby (1974), sister-in-law Anna to Woody Allen’s Boris in Love and Death (1975),[8] and Yentl (1983), in which she worked as Barbra Streisand's understudy and played Sophie, Amy Irving's maid in an uncredited role. She appeared in several saucy UK comedies in the 1970s including Eskimo Nell (1975), an early feature film by Martin Campbell.[9]

Voice acting

Porter featured on Roger Waters' album The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking as The Wife.[10] Her voice has been heard on re-voices and dubbings of many films. She was the White Witch in the animated version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She and John Ratzenberger did all the post-synch voices in John Schlesinger's Honky Tonk Freeway (1981).

Later career

Porter later trained as a television script editor and producer. For BBC Television, she produced The Husband, The Wife and The Stranger, starring Adam Faith and Derrick O'Connor, and for Channel 4 Television, Unusual Ground Floor Conversion, a short film directed by Mark Herman, Little Voice. She later joined BBC Television Drama as a development executive for new drama series.

A number of her radio plays and short stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Porter first became a journalist at age 12 when she was hired as a weekly columnist for The Patent Trader, a Westchester County newspaper chain. Years later, she served as a relief theatre critic for The Times, and contributed media-related articles to The Listener, The Guardian,[11] and The Independent. In 1988 she became a film critic, joining The Critics' Circle and served for 10 years as London Editor for Film Journal International, with supplementary pieces for The Morning Star. Until May 2020,[12] she continued to provide online columns for The London Progressive Journal under the byline outRageous!

Porter subsequently became a senior Web Producer for leading web-house Online Magic, part of the Omnicom Group, and she was asked to contribute to various web-related magazines including .net for Future Publishing. This led to the publication of her book, The Net Effect, for which David Puttnam contributed the foreword.[13] 2018 was her 21st year as a nominating judge for the International Webby Awards[14] and she has served as a contributor to policy advisers on eDemocracy issues. She was an elected Lifetime voting member of BAFTA.[15]

In 2013 she published Resident Aliens, a collection of her short fiction for Kindle.[16][17] This was followed in 2014 by a collection of her original scripts and screenplays under the umbrella title Drama Queen[18] and in April 2016 of her autobiography entitled Walking on my Hands: how I learned to take responsibility for my life with the help of Woody Allen, Barbra Streisand, Greta Garbo, Harvey Milk, Idi Amin, Guy The Gorilla, and Frank Sinatra, among others.[19] Its foreword is by noted author and screenplay writer Shane Connaughton (My Left Foot).

Also in 2016 Porter published both Kindle and paperback versions of Settling Beyond the Pale, a novella and six short stories about freedom and flight.[20]

In 2018 Porter released both Kindle and paperback versions of a horror/fantasy novella titled Feeding the Twins[21] as well as her first novel ScreenSaver![22]

Porter's second novel, Becca’s Providing, was published in both Kindle and paperback during the spring of 2019; it explores themes of identity and family. Porter's 3rd collection of short fiction was published in December 2019, under the title Painted Ladies.[23]

In March 2021, Porter published Locks: a quartet of short fiction in paperback[24] and Kindle.[25] Her Amazon profile further stated that she was working on a collection of short and flash fiction featuring female protagonists for publication in early 2022, and was also preparing a new book promo website.[26]

Death

Porter became a British citizen in 2014. She died on August 1, 2023, at the age of 81.[27]

Filmography

Films

Year Title Role Notes
1967 The Naked Witch Beth
1969 Me and My Brother
Futz! Majorie Satz
1971 Long Drawn-Out Trip: Sketches from Los Angeles Various Short, Voice
1974 The Great Gatsby Mrs. McKee
1975 Eskimo Nell Billie Harris
Love and Death Anna
Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done Yum-Yum Voice
1976 Feelings Mrs. Lustig
1978 The Ballad of the Daltons Miss Worthlesspenny Voice
What's Up Superdoc! Melanie
On a Paving Stone Mounted American Woman
1980 Superman II Football Fan Uncredited
1981 Reds
1983 Yentl Sophie

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1973 Thirty Minute Theatre Joanna Episode "The Baby's Name Being Kitchener"
Armchair Theatre Barbara Episode "Verite"
1974 Mousey Sandra aka Cat and Mouse
1975 Baretta Doreen Episode "Nobody in a Nothing Place"
1976 Kojak Clara Episode "By Silence Betrayed"
1977 Seven Faces of Woman Anne Liebowitz Episode "She: Anxious Anne"
Rock Follies of '77 Kitty Schreiber 6 episodes, 1977
1978 Crown Court Betty Lou Episode "Scalped"
1979 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Jadis, The White Witch (voice)
The Deep Concern Carrie Stone (6 episodes)
1980 Tales of the Unexpected Joanna Bligh Episode "Taste"
1981 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Marketing Girl Episode #1.6
1982 Blue Money Barmaid
1988 Floodtide American Woman Season 2 Episodes 4 and 5
1988 Square Deal Hannah Episodes #1.1 and #1.7
1990 Ruth Rendell Mysteries Davina Ilbert Episode "Put on by Cunning"
1994 Pleasure Amber aka Alan Bleasdale Presents Pleasure

References

  1. ^ "Donogoo". Mint Theatre.org. 3 June 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  2. ^ "Playlist 1967". LaMaMa.org. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
  3. ^ "Futz! Review". Hollywood Reporter. 1969.
  4. ^ "Entertainment World Volume 2, Part 1". 2, Part 1. 1970: v. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ^ Ross Alexander at the Internet Broadway Database
  6. ^ "Amazon.com: Beth Porter: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle". Amazon.com. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  7. ^ "David Benedictus - The Works". Davidbenedictus.co.uk. Archived from the original on 13 October 2009. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
  8. ^ Fox, Julian (1996). Woody: Movies From Manhattan. BT Batsford Books. ISBN 0-87951-692-5.
  9. ^ Sheridan, Simon (2007). Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema (3 ed.). Reynolds & Hearn Books. ISBN 978-1-905287-54-3.
  10. ^ "The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. (1984)". Roger Waters Online. Archived from the original on 3 February 2010. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
  11. ^ "Beth Porter". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  12. ^ "outRageous! : London Progressive Journal". Londonprogressivejournal.com. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  13. ^ Porter, Beth (2001). The Net effect. Intellect Books. ISBN 1-84150-039-9.
  14. ^ "IADAS Membership". Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  15. ^ BAFTA number LBT084
  16. ^ Porter, Beth (2013). Resident Aliens: stories of NYC in the 1960s. Womenstuff Publishing. ISBN 9780957627208.
  17. ^ RESIDENT ALIENS: stories of nyc in the 1960s eBook: BETH PORTER: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store. Amazon.co.uk. 16 April 2013. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
  18. ^ Porter, Beth (29 September 2014). "Drama Queen: Beth Porter's Collection of Scripts & Screenplays". Womenstuff Publishing. Retrieved 26 January 2018 – via Amazon.
  19. ^ Porter, Beth (4 April 2016). "Walking On My Hands: how I learned to take responsibility for my life with the help of Woody Allen, Barbra Streisand, Greta Garbo, Harvey Milk, Idi Amin, Guy the Gorilla, & Frank Sinatra among others". Womenstuff Publishing. Retrieved 26 January 2018 – via Amazon.
  20. ^ Porter, Beth (1988–2016). Settling Beyond the Pale. Womenstuff Publishing. ISBN 095762722X.
  21. ^ Porter, Beth (2017). Feeding the Twins. Kindle. ISBN 978-0957627253.
  22. ^ Porter, Beth (2017). ScreenSaver!. Kindle. ISBN 978-0957627260.
  23. ^ Porter, Beth (2019). Painted Ladies. Womenstuff Publishing. ISBN 978-0957627284.
  24. ^ "Locks by Beth Porter". Waterstones.com. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  25. ^ Porter, Beth. LOCKS: a quartet of short fiction. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  26. ^ "Beth Porter". Amazon.com. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  27. ^ "Beth Porter, actress who helped to establish the fringe theatre scene in London – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 15 September 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
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