Virginia Maskell

February 28, 1936

Virginia Elizabeth Maskell (1936–1968) was an English actress, poet and artist. After attending drama school she featured in several television roles. Her film debut was a minor role for director Roy Boulting in Happy Is the Bride (1957), after which she began switching between the theatre and the screen. She gained a British Lion contract and appeared in The Man Upstairs (1958) and as an air hostess in Jet Storm (1959). She made an impact on the stage in Ronald Duncan's The Catalyst, a play that initially the Lord Chamberlain's office had found troubling. There were distinguished appearances in live TV drama. She starred in Doctor in Love (1960), and as Peter Sellers's wife in Only Two Can Play (1962). She took a break from acting in 1962 to concentrate on her family, and returned after the birth of her second son to shoot Interlude (1968). In January of 1968, Maskell was reported missing. Police searched woods 700 feet up in the Chiltern Hills after her car was found a mile from her home. She apparently had wandered through the woods for hours before collapsing. She was taken to hospital and given emergency treatment for an overdose of barbiturates, but passed away the following day at the age of 31.