Patricia Dainton

Fair-haired, slender Scottish-born actress Patricia Dainton (born Margaret Bryden Pate) started dancing at the age of eight and learned ballet just two years later. She was trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts and progressed to study drama and stage technique at the Cone School of Dancing where she was awarded scholarships. Patricia debuted on the stage in Stratford-upon-Avon. When she was 15, she made ends meet by selling and distributing newspapers, selling cinema tickets to night time audiences and working on a switchboard. In 1944, she got her first break when hand-picked by John Gielgud to play the part of the fairy Peaseblossom at London's Theatre Royal in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. In due course, further appearances followed in London-based theatrical productions The Glass Slipper, Watch on the Rhine and Quiet Wedding.

Patricia made her screen bow in 1947 and was thence cast in several uncredited bits and walk-ons before being groomed by the J. Arthur Rank Charm School. Though unaccountably dropped from the Rank roster of starlets, she quickly found herself under a new contract with Associated British and her career now began to prosper. She was given her first leading role in the operatic musical The Dancing Years (1950), filmed in Technicolor and co-written by Ivor Novello. After that, she acted in a string of crime dramas, the first being Bombay Waterfront (1952), co-starring as the sleuth's wife opposite John Bentley in a Francis Durbridge-scripted Paul Temple murder mystery. That was followed by leads in B-grade noirish crime features Tread Softly (1952), Operation Diplomat (1953), No Road Back (1957), Witness in the Dark (1959) and The Third Alibi (1961). Patricia also had the distinction of starring in Britain's first daytime soap opera, Sixpenny Corner (1955), as one of a couple of newlyweds. Alas, all 186 episodes of the series appear to have been lost.

Patricia Dainton retired from acting in 1961 and devoted herself to family life. Her husband of 58 years was the Welsh-born producer and actor Norman Williams. Their union produced four children. She also had a twin brother, George Bryden, who acted primarily on the stage and predeceased her in 2011.