Virginia Maskell

[isotheos]

I suppose falling in love with actresses is quite a common thing, and I suppose that most men in a given age group will fall in love with the same actresses. Thus, when I was a young man, I was smitten by the likes of Angela Browne and Diana Rigg. 'Twasn't until I entered my forties that the subtle-but-irresistible Virginia Maskell replaced all of the others as the woman I sigh over.

Alas! The poor gel committed suicide in 1968 (in Stoke Mandeville) and here, finally, is the subject of this post: how and why did she destroy herself? I have not been able to unearth any facts about her end and I am devoured by a need to know, which transcends any vulgar curiosity.

Every time I watch the 'Arrival' episode of The Prisoner, I fancy that in the tired lineaments of that haunting face, I can read the determination to embrace restful death....

[Jim]

I suppose falling in love with actresses is quite a common thing, and I suppose that most men in a given age group will fall in love with the same actresses. Thus, when I was a young man, I was smitten by the likes of Angela Browne and Diana Rigg. 'Twasn't until I entered my forties that the subtle-but-irresistible Virginia Maskell replaced all of the others as the woman I sigh over.

Alas! The poor gel committed suicide in 1968 (in Stoke Mandeville) and here, finally, is the subject of this post: how and why did she destroy herself? I have not been able to unearth any facts about her end and I am devoured by a need to know, which transcends any vulgar curiosity.

Every time I watch the 'Arrival' episode of The Prisoner, I fancy that in the tired lineaments of that haunting face, I can read the determination to embrace restful death....

There isn't a great deal more that anyone can say on that subject isotheos - you've said it all! A truly lovely lass!



Wasn't she Peter Sellers long suffering 'wife' in 'Only 2 Can Play'? :)

[MrDrakesDuck]

I watched 'Only Two Can Play' last night and was about to start a thread about her myself.

I found this regarding her death:-

She suffered from depression and sadly took an overdose of pills and went out into her local woods, where she was found some time later. Truly tragic - she left behind a young family.

The only thing I have ever seen on the incident was a brief entry in The Kenneth Williams Diaries.

Very sad. frown

[smudge]

She must have commanded a great deal of respect, because I think that the Kenneth Williams diary mention is the only thing that's ever emerged about the story of late.



I too am a fan of THE PRISONER and having seen her in other things, I wondered why such an outwardly vivacious young woman would do such a thing - but even after more than 20 years in 'Prisoner' fan circles, nothing emerged.



The intimation I have picked up since the publication of the Williams diaries is that the family was very young and she was struggling to cope with it all. I don't know if that family included a newborn and maybe she was suffering Post-natal depression ; I can only guess. times were different then and people still tried to 'soldier on', sadly.



Truly a tragic story and one that still gets you whenever you think of it.



SMUDGE

[mgenevieve]

I have always wondered why such a lovely and exquisite actress would take her life at the age of 30.

I found the following on Google from a magazine - 1959, I believe.

"Fundamentals: born in Shepherd's Bush twenty-three years ago, she was evacuated to South Africa during the war. She returned to a London convent school, where the nuns advised an acting career because she was "good at elocution." Height: five feet, three inches. Eyes are grey and hair dark brown.

Career facts: After a spell at dramatic school, she laboured away at all sorts of roles and then came parts in TV's "Robin Hood" and "Buccaneer" series. She made her film debut in "Happy Is The Bride." Then came the big break. Director Pat Jackson chose her for the lead n "Virgin Island" and she made a great hit as the demure Kensington miss who left mummy to lead a Crusoe life. She won a British Lion contract and went on to appear in that brilliant little film, "The Man Upstairs," with Richard Attenborough, and as the air-hostess in the star-studded "Jet Stream." She has also made an impact on the stage - in "The Catalyst" - and in live TV drama.

Private Facts: She's another independent-minded character, given to going shoping without shoes. She paints a little and composes the odd ode. She dresses with scant regard for fashion. She states that she is nervous of stardom and all it entails..."that her being will be invaded and distorted by false values. I love acting, but I also want to be alive." She announces: "Publicity is like a prison. If you're not careful, you begin to live according to everyone's idea of how you ought to live."

Ambition?: To be a big, big star - on the stage.



I have forgotten to whom she was married but I believe he is a famous photographer.



Best wishes,



Genevieve

[The_Late_Peter_Cook]

Last night I watched her in "Doctor In Love". she had a certain quality which lit up the screen. She was even better in "Only Two Can Play", a memorable performance in a memorable movie.



A sad loss indeed.

[smudge]

I'd say that quality was that she was simply beautiful... :)



SMUDGE

[mgenevieve]

... Now I remember Virginia Maskell's husband's name:



Sir Geoffrey Adam Shakerley. I believe he is a photographer and a former director.



and I found additional information on a geneology site:

Virginia Elizabeth Maskell was the daughter of William Eric Maskell. She married Sir Geoffrey Adam Shakerley, 6th Bt. on 3 July 1962. [She had 2 sons with Shakerley].

Sir Geoffrey Adam Shakerley, 6th Bt. was born on 9 December 1932. He married Virginia Elizabeth Maskell, daughter of William Eric Maskell, on 3 July 1962. He married Elizabeth Georgiana Anson, daughter of Major Thomas William Arnold Anson, Viscount Anson and Anne Ferelith Fenella Bowes-Lyon, in 1972. He gained the title of 6th Baronet Shakerley.

[isotheos]

Many thanks to mgenevieve et al for their kind replies and comments. I suppose, in a way, her early passing conferred a sort of immortality upon her, since she never appreciably aged, and she is (on film) forever the lovely woman of 'Only Two Can Play'...

[mgenevieve]

Thank you for your original post, isotheos. As smudge wrote she garnered respect from several notable persons, one of them, William Cookson. I found this on the following link:

http://www.agendapoetry.co.uk/history.php



William Cookson, who died January 2003, described how he founded Agenda in his Introduction to: Agenda, An Anthology: The First Four Decades 1959-1993 (Carcanet Press 1994), copies of which are still available from Agenda's present address.



"Poems were with me from the beginning: my father, George Cookson (1870-1949), was the author of two books, both published in Swinburne's lifetime. They contain well-wrought poems, having qualities he had learnt from Wordsworth (an ancestor), Keats and the Classics. In 1936, three years before I was born, he founded English, the magazine of the English Association. Before the war, he edited it from the same mansion block, Cranbourne Court, that has always been Agenda's H.Q..."

Cookson writes a great deal about Ezra Pound then notes lamentably: "...Towards the end of 1960, Pound suffered increasing ill health, and it was rare to hear from him, so he ceased to be actively involved in the editing. Agenda remained only a folded sheet until April 1960, when the actress Virginia Maskell gave me �10 for the first card cover. She was a poet, and a friend of Ronald Duncan; I printed a few of her poems in early issues (and in the Ronald Duncan issue, Vol 38 Nos 1-2 ) . When she committed suicide a few years later, great matter went out of the universe, to use a line Peter Dale wrote about the death of his father."



It's a terribly beautiful sentence to describe the loss [to those who really knew and loved her]. Maskell seemed to be a very sensitive person with a poetic and lovely mien, *and* a mind. It is still terribly sad.



Best wishes to all,



Genevieve

[isotheos]

Now I fully understand why I find her so heart-stoppingly attractive; a great part of a person's appeal to one is fuelled by qualities that are not visible to the eye, but only to the mind within one's breast. I was never consciously aware that she wrote poesy, or that she was the sort of person who (like me) would embrace an unfashionable (that is to say, not trendy) ephemeral, but I see now that I knew all along, and that is why I am so strongly attracted to her.

It is indeed a beautiful sentence, and one which I am sure Maskell's poetic spirit would rejoice in.

[mgenevieve]

Very nicely, if not poetically put, isotheos.

I think that my University library may have older holdings of the "Agenda" issues that William Cookson mentioned. If so, I will post my findings here.



Best regards, Gen

[mgenevieve]

For isotheos et al.: I found an Agenda issue in which two poems by Virginia Maskell were published. The issue is February-March 1962, vol. 2, no. 6.



TWO POEMS

By Virginia Maskell



SUNDAY

The day beats in limbo

Too slow my hand lies across the page

And your burnt form hides its grave talent in the sand



The afternoon breaks promise

Too slow my limbs stretch blind

And your dark words teach other lips to love



IN YOUR HANDS. . .

Beloved in your hands

and in your hands my own;

And in your fingers longing

and in my fingers stone;

And in your sleep and dreaming

and in my own your tears;

And in my nights your waking

and in my dreams your fears;

And in your days your smiling

and in your love my shame

Your hands beloved taking

My life in all but name

_________________________



I'll look for the ones in vol. 38 soon.

Best, Genevieve

[mgenevieve]

Dear All:



I will make two sucessive posts on the forum today. One is an article and obituary from The Times; the second one, a poem by Virginia Maskell. I would like to include an attachment of a heartbreakingly beautiful black-and-white photograph of her published in the poetry journal Agenda (see below). Maskell seems so very young and innocent; one cannot help but think of Ophelia. But how do I post a jpeg here. Anyone?



Please forgive me for my seemingly obsessive research concerning this thread but I finally checked out Vol. 38, nos. 1-2 (2000) of the journal Agenda, which was mainly devoted to the late British poet Ronald Duncan. As it relates to Virginia Maskell this issue is profoundly interesting, revealing, and disturbing: it contains 16 poems by Maskell.

But first the obituary which is not entirely accurate but nonetheless gives us some background into Maskell's death. Brackets are mine.



30 January 1968 The Times (London).



Police inquiry on actress



Police are investigating the death five days ago of Miss Virginia Maskell, the film actress, it was announced yesterday. Miss Maskell, aged 31, died in Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Buckinghamshire, after she had been found suffering from exposure in some woods near her home at Princes Risborough. Her husband, Mr. Geoffrey Shakerley, a company director, has told Dr. Hubert Pim, the Mid-Buckinghamshire Coroner that Miss Maskell had been at the hospital for about six weeks suffering from a nervous breakdown until she was allowed home three weeks before Christmas. He said his wife, whom he married in 1962, had been treated for depression after the birth of their second son in February, 1966. [First son Nicholas was born in December, 1963]. Police said yesterday that there was no suggestion of foul play. Miss Maskell appeared in such films as Only Two Can Play, Virgin Island, and Happy is the Bride.



Obituary: Miss Virginia Maskell [same issue, p. 8]



Miss Virginia Maskell, film, television, and stage actress, who died on Thursday at the age of 31, was a player still young and on the threshold of her career, who never quite found the right part or perhaps was never quite cast in the right way. She had talent and beauty, without that resolute urge to succeed which is a necessary part of star quality, or the willingness, to accept -- for the time being at least, the necessity of being labelled with the standard sex plus allure branding which is so often an inevitable step in the creation of a successful career in the cinema. Yet her film debut in 1959 was successful and even triumphantly achieved. Cast as the young heroine in a film adaptation of Robb White's book, Virgin Island, and directed with sympathy and understanding by Pat Jackson, she emerged as a young actress of refreshing simplicity and sincerity. In many ways it was a tough initiation, for the film was only completed on location after numerous production difficulties and with a cast--which includes John Cassavetes and Sidney Poitier--which was not always in complete accord, but the tropical island setting was delightful. Thereafter her search was for a suitable framework for her delicate talent. Her studio, British Lion, found difficulty in continuing her career after this auspicious start. She was seen in The Man Upstairs and Jet Storm in 1960, Suspect and Doctor in Love in 1961 and in 1962 she appeared opposite Peter Sellers in Only Two Can Play, a film directed by Sidney Gilliat that was part comedy, in which Sellers naturally excelled and part domestic tragedy, in which she gave a moving and convincing performance as a young wife trapped by domestic drudgery. During the past few years she had been seen frequently on television and also in the theatre, and in her last film Interlude, which she completed last summer but which has yet to be released, she appeared in the part of the wife of a famous conductor played by Oskar Werner. Had she lived, she might well have found her true niche in the cinema in middle age rather than as a young and attractive girl in ordinary romantic parts.

(Please see page 2 for the second post & photograph).



[ 29. November 2004, 01:22: Message edited by: mgenevieve ]

[mgenevieve]

In this next post I move on to Agenda and quote the last paragraph of the Editorial by William Cookson and Patricia McCarthy.

"…In the April 1959 issue…Agenda also published a poem, 'Heat touching heat' (under the pseudonym Simon Orme), by Ronald Duncan's great love, Virginia Maskell, who committed suicide on the 25th January 1968. It was to her that 'The Solitudes' were addressed. [These are described in this issue as 'one of the 20th century's finest love poems of an affair..' ] Duncan published a pamphlet of her poems, "Leaves of Silence," under the same pseudonym, in 1967. It seems fitting to print that pamphlet in its entirety here. The poems are pure and innocent, with a crafted simplicity, each word measured, speaking with its full weight which is a lightness. 'Rockhall' with its 'deep still woods' is profoundly moving as it was into woodland that she went to take her life."



Rockhall by Virginia Maskell



April,



I came in silence to your woods

Your deep still woods,

And walked the bare red earth

Pricked here and there

With spines of green.



And all was silent in your woods.

So I climbed high into your boughs

Warm, damp wood, green smelling, dark

And soft beneath my hands.

I felt your strong deep body

Stern and thick, in-reaching,

Rooted in the earth.



No ferns, flowers, and grasses

Touch our hustle in your woods:

All sleeps dark, and gravely still.

You told me no secrets

As I waited there,

But your branches held me,

And I told you mine.





Note: The additional poems are: To Silence… (1), February '63, Hospital, The Tears, Emmie, Impasse, Prayer, Class, Post Script, Heat touching heat, The Sunday Hours, To Silence (2), The Burden, and The Stranger. Some are difficult to read as they allude to death and sorrow but many are about love and passion...



It is sad for me to think that although we know more about postpartum depression and depression in general 30+ years later, the stigma is still very pronounced in all countries.



Anyway, if I could just attach the jpeg of Virginia Maskell here, I think many of you would be very moved and pleased. It would be something positive in which to close this thread.



Warmest wishes,



Genevieve Virginia Maskell photograph



[ 28. November 2004, 21:16: Message edited by: mgenevieve ]

[isotheos]

How often have I walked in a wood and reflected that only here is meet for one to end one's thraldom. mgenevieve, if in these wretched days the immortal Gods attend to prayers, then may all happiness be yours in time to come, for having selflessly unearthed all of this and shared it with your obedient, humble servant, Isotheos.

PS: One cannot read April and gaze upon the photograph at the same time; I just tried to do so, and the tightness in the breast is unbearable.

[mgenevieve]

Isotheos, thank you for your most kind and heartfelt wishes. Indeed, it is difficult to look at the photograph and read the poem, "Rockhall." I think you would feel better as I did when I read Ronald Duncan's 'The Solitudes." It is earthy, spiritual, and timeless. At least she loved and was loved during her lifetime, and her children live on. I would like to imagine that her spirit is as radiant and peaceful as she appears in this photograph.

Kind wishes, Genevieve

[David Titlow]

[I was also intrigued by Virginia Maskell's untimely death, I have been reading many Peter Sellers biogs recently and there is a strange piece in The Mask Behind The Mask by Peter Evans. Sellers was desperate to have her removed from the movie Only Two Can Play, to quote the book, "Sellers genuinely, deeply felt that she was 'totally bloody wrong' for the role; he implored John Boulting to persuade Sidney Gilliat who was to direct the picture to replace her. Boulting refused. Unaware of the moves to fire her, she gave a fine performance and collected excellent reviews." I guess this is just another example of Seller's sometimes baffling ruthlessness. I would have thought with his roving eye she would have been right up his street.

[isotheos]

Strictly speaking, Sellers was right, as Virginia Maskell was far too elegant and self-possessed for the role of an Anglo-Welsh housewife. As for the roving eye, I think that Sellers was more attracted to the mosquita muerta (Spanish; 'little dead fly'), 'blonde bit of fluff' type, what?

[ejb]

I can provide some details about Virginia's death which I've managed to obtain from contemporary newspaper reports of the time. They're from the Scottish Daily Record newspaper dated January 30th 1968 , and the Glasgow Herald newspaper dated February 16th 1968.

She died from an overdose of barbiturates combined with the effects of hypothermia. She

was found in a wood suffering from the effects of both these conditions ,where she had apparently lain for up to 10 hours , and died the following day in hospital. The day before she died , she had asked her doctor for more tablets which he agreed to provide. These were antidepressants and barbiturates.

Virginia left a suicide note which was not read out at the inquest. According to the coroner , this "consisted of a hasty message of love and despair". The note was written on a scrap of paper torn from a sheet , and the writing was

such that he believed she was under the influence of the tablets when she wrote it.

Her history of depression seemed to start in 1966 with the birth of her second son ,and

in October 1967 when her doctor advised her to go into hospital , she told him that she didn't want to go on living.

On Wednesday, January 24th 1968 , she left home in her car and six hours later her husband reported her missing. Police searched woods 700 feet up in the Chiltern hills after her car was found a mile from her home. Virginia had wandered through the woods for hours before collapsing where the police eventually found her. She was taken to hospital and given emergency treatment for an overdose , and although doctors revived her she died the following day. Her funeral was held on Thursday, February 1st 1968

The coroner Dr Pim concluded "I cannot concede it was her intention she should be found alive",

and recorded a verdict that she took her own life.

I hope that this gives everyone a better insight into the tragic fate of this lovely actress.