Sheila Keith(1920-2004)

Character actress Sheila Keith was born to Scottish parents in London, England on June 9, 1920. Keith was raised since the age of two by an aunt in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Sheila trained to be an actress at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England. Keith began her acting career in repertory theater at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre in Scotland and the Bristol Old Vic in Bristol, England. Among the West End theater productions Sheila acted in are "Present Laughter," "Mame" (with Ginger Rogers), "Deathtrap," and "Anyone for Denis?". Keith started acting in various British TV shows in the mid-1960's and acted in her first movie in the early 1970's. Sheila achieved her greatest and most enduring cult cinema popularity with her memorable portrayals of nasty middle-aged women in several horror films directed by Pete Walker; she's especially chilling as vicious prison warder Walker in House of Whipcord (1974) and likewise quite frightening as aging, but still lethal cannibal Dorothy Yates in Frightmare (1974). Keith died at age 84 on October 14, 2004 in Chertsey, Surrey, England. She was survived by a son.