ACTOR
Rachel Roberts
16 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (16)
- #001
Her actual suicide, as detailed in her posthumously published journals, resulted from swallowing barbiturates along with soda water, an alkali or another unidentified caustic substance. The acidic effect of the poisonous substance caused a sudden death that sent her body through a decorative glass screen. On 26 November 1980 her gardener found her in her dressing gown on her kitchen floor among broken glass.
- #002
Her marriage to Rex Harrison surprised many of her friends, because she was a committed socialist while he was a fervent Conservative Party supporter.
- #003
She was the only actress to record her life vividly right up to the eve of her death. This writing was published posthumously as No Bells on Sunday: The Rachel Roberts Journals (edited by the late Alexander Walker and interwoven with commentary and interviews from friends and colleagues; Pavilion Books and Simon & Schuster, London and New York, first editions 1984).
- #004
For her magnificent performance in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), she became the first Welsh actress to win the BAFTA (the British version of the "Oscar") for Best British Actress.
- #005
An alcoholic for much of her life, Roberts had a habit of imitating her Welsh Corgi dog when drunk. At a party hosted by Richard Harris, she once attacked Robert Mitchum on all fours, chewed his trousers and, while gnawing his bare skin, stroked Robert Mitchum's head and said "there, there."
- #006
She first appeared on stage in 1951 as Ceres in Twelfth Night alongside Sir Michael Redgrave, and in 1954 and 1955 she performed Shakespearean roles with the Old Vic Company in Macbeth, Love's Labour's Lost, Othello and Henry V.
- #007
She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she was awarded the Athene Seyler Comedy Prize.
- #008
Her father was a clergyman.
- #009
She studied at the University of Wales.
- #010
She was nominated for Broadway's 1974 Tony Award for Best Actress (Dramatic) for her performances with the New Phoenix Repertory Company.
- #011
In her final years she became obsessed with reviving her relationship with Harrison.
- #012
Her death was initially attributed to a heart attack. Her gardener found her body on the kitchen floor among broken glass; she had fallen through the decorative glass partition between two rooms. A later autopsy determined that her death resulted from the ingestion of soda water or another alkali or unidentified caustic substance, as well as barbiturates and alcohol, as detailed in her posthumously published journals. The corrosive effect of the alkali was the direct cause of death.
- #013
At the time of her death, Roberts was intermittently involved with Darren Ramirez, an attractive Mexican nearly 20 years her junior.
- #014
No Bells (1984), a biography-memoir edited by the British film critic Alexander Walker and published posthumously on Sunday, contains diary entries from the last three years of the actress's life.
- #015
Roberts studied at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth (1945) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1948-50). She played classical roles at the Old Vic, Stratford and Bristol Old Vic, but some of her most notable theatre performances were on modern stages, in the 1964 musical Maggie May, in Alpha Beta in 1972 and in John Osborne's The End of Me Old Cigar in 1975. Her other memorable films include Anderson's O Lucky Man (1973), Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975).
- #016
In late November she completed the film A Matter of Honour.
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