Mary Ure

[Euryale]

We watched the film version of Sons and Lovers yesterday and thought that Dean Stockwell acquitted himslf very well in his role.



Both supporting ladies died some years ago, Heather Sears at only 58 and Mary Ure even younger at 42. With Mary you wonder what might have been had her life followed a different path. She was born in Glasgow, died in London in 1975, and presumably lived in the States and elsewhere while married to Robert Shaw.

I was surprized to see therefore that she is buried at Coventry in the West Midlands. Not that there is anything wrong with that of course but I wondered why - maybe she had family connections there?





Mary Ure



E.

[Marky B]

Another one who oozed sexiness without effort. Went too early.

Ta Ta

Marky B

[stuart.scot]

Deserved as much credit for Where Eagles Dare as did Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. I don't think she got it.

[theuofc]

Deserved as much credit for Where Eagles Dare as did Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. I don't think she got it.

Mary Ure was such an excellent actress and as her photo shows had true beauty. She was perfect as the suffering wife of Dirk Bogarde in The Mind Benders (1963) and memorable in Look Back in Anger. To my mind, Ure was yet another actress who was the victim of her personal life and insecure choices of cold men like John Osborne and Robert Shaw, all of which fueled her dependence on alcohol. A real loss!



Barbara

[stuart.scot]

It's somewhat amusing comparing Look Back In Anger to Where Eagles Dare, made with Richard Burton, who played men of violence in both films. In LBIA Mary was brutally beaten up by husband Burton, but in WED she was a British secret agent able to take care of herself and on this occassion a match for Burton

[cornershop15]

To date, I've only ever seen Mary in those films with Richard Burton. I thought she was particularly good in Look Back In Anger, although it was a bit embarassing seeing her impersonate a squirrel (even more than Richard's attempt at Sandy Powell's catchphrase)!



Mary died while husband Robert Shaw was making a film called Diamonds. I have a Photoplay article which describes his actually filming a scene with Barbara Hershey (then Seagull) a couple of hours after he found out. He managed to remain professional despite this devastating news.

[stuart.scot]

The thread about Ingrid Pitt got me thinking about Mary Ure. I have to laugh when I compare her character in Look Back In Anger and Where Eagles Dare, as she was in both films romantically involved with violent Richard Burton. In LBIA she was a wife phyiscally abused by husband Burton, whereas in WED, both are British secret agents, both as violent as each other,as they fight off the German's.



What I do feel strongly about is the fact IMO Mary didn't get the credit she did in WED. It's nearly always described as that Burton/Clint Eastwood picture, yet in the film Mary stood shoulder to shoulder with Eastwood at the back of bus, fighting off the persuing German's, while Burton is driving.



I sometimes wonder if Mary had got the same recognition as her male co-stars it might have boosted her delf-confidence had helped her through the difficult times that led toward her early death



I think Mary in WED was one of the first great action heroines on film

[wearysloth]

The tragic Mary Ure, daring those eagles on...

[darrenburnfan]

Anthony Steele and Mary Ure (in her film debut) in Storm Over The Nile (1955).

[stuart.scot]

Great pictures Darren. Two different Mary's too, one who can kick ass and the other a ladylike heroine

[batman]

Mary Ure as Libbie Custer in Custer of the West.

[stuart.scot]

Great, though I think at the moment Olivia De Havilland is still the devinitive Libby. It's a pity niether actress did a sequel. Libby Custer's life after George Armstrong might be worth telling

[batman]

There were plans to make a mini-series about Libbie Custer based on her books, but unfortunately they never materialised. Blythe Danner is pretty good as Libbie in the fictional The Court Martial of George Armstrong Custer.

[narabdela]

I always thought that she had a very limited range as an actress.

[mrs_emma_peel]

Mary Ellison … ‘You took your time getting here … didn’t you?’







‘I nearly froze to death in that damn plane.

Why couldn't you have supplied some hot water bottles or an electrically heated suit?

I thought you loved me.’

Major John Smith … ‘Can't help what you think.’



Major John Smith … ‘You are going up to the castle tonight as … well, yes … as a domestic.’

Mary Ellison … ‘How? Naked?’

Major John Smith … ‘Not a bad idea, but it's a bit obvious.’







Stills of Mary as SOE agent Mary Ellison in Where Eagles Dare (1968) …

January, 1968 … very rare b/w shot of the enchantingly beautiful Mary Ure between takes,

in a snow-storm, in Werfen, Austria, on the set of Where Eagles Dare.

Eileen Mary Ure (18 February 1933 – 3 April 1975) … who died too young, aged just 42.



Where Eagles Dare … main titles …

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XKGhG0W0LQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XKGhG0W0LQ[/ame]

[cornershop15]

Hello 'Mrs Peel'.



Good grief! For a moment I thought Mary was Honor Blackman in Goldfinger. A re-enactment perhaps?

I like the capture of Richard Burton reading a 'paper and the one of Mary in the middle. Well done.



I've read that she and husband Robert had serious marital problems, but it was enormously brave of

him to return to filming, for one last scene, in Diamonds just hours after finding his wife dead. Very sad.



Still waiting for the chance to buy DVDs of Look Back in Anger and Where Eagles Dare, both starring

Richard Burton and Mary Ure, as I'd love to do a post at 'Together Again' one day.

[mrs_emma_peel]

Hi Cornershop,

Many thanks for your kind words …

I very was pleased to find such fine pictures of Mary from Where Eagles Dare.

I love the still with Richard Burton … but it’s not a newspaper he’s holding … it’s Mary’s knickers … which accounts for his wry smile and her look of slight shock and embarrassment … and makes the shot even better!



I also love the b/w still of Mary in the snow-storm on location in Werfen, Austria … she looks so very happy and relaxed.



I’ve read that incredible Photoplay July 1975 piece you mentioned, was in your wonderful collection, in an earlier post on another Mary Ure thread, about the most challenging scene Robert Shaw ever had to play in his life … the final cheque-signing scene with Barbara Seagull/Hershey from Diamonds (1975) when only a hours previously Robert had found his beautiful wife, Mary Ure, dead …



I hadn’t realised that Mary’s final performance in the play The Exorcism … with Honor Blackman and Brian Blessed … was the stage-play adaptation and production of the classic horror film The Exorcist (1973).



I’ve edited and transcribed part of that very moving Photoplay article with some additional source information …



It was just another routine day in Robert Shaw’s acting life … an 8am start on his latest movie Ace of Diamonds

aka Diamonds (1975) … location shooting in a jewellery store in Knightsbridge. Conferences with Israeli director Menachem Golan … it was the very last day of shooting … just one very short scene was waiting to be filmed.



But by 12 noon on that fateful day on Thurday 3rd April 1975, the worst, most tragic day of his life … the day he found his actress wife, the beautiful Mary Ure, dead in their Curzon Street home. Shaw had returned home for a very brief time during a break in filming … he had not planned it … his return home was a spur of moment decision.



Mary had been up late the night before celebrating her opening night success in the play The Exorcism with Honor Blackman and Brian Blessed … She was sleeping late … he would surprise her. But what he found at 11.30am on that dreadful morning was the lifeless body of his beautiful, talented actress wife.’



In 1975 Mary took a leading role with Honor Blackman and Brian Blessed in the Don Taylor stage-play production The Exorcism … adapted from the classic horror film … of The Exorcist (1973) screenplay/novel written by William Peter Blatty … both the film and the play were believed to be cursed … The circumstances of Mary’s death led the sensational press to talk of a ‘curse’ on the production in which she was appearing.



In April 1975, just prior to the opening of the play The Exorcism/The Exorcist … Mary visited her doctor … only Honor Blackman, Mary’s co-star seemed to realise that Mary was not feeling too well … but Mary was determined to go through with the play. She did … but tragically it was her last performance.

A few hours after it had opened on the London stage Mary Ure died.



The so-called curse or jinx apparently seemed to have carried to London, where Mary Ure, acting in the 1975 stage production of The Exorcism/The Exorcist, died a few hours after her opening night performance. Authorities attributed the 42-year-old's death to accidental alcohol and barbiturate poisoning. But that didn't matter …

‘Obviously the public felt very deeply about Mary's death,’ producer Frederick Granville said after the play's three-week run. ‘There is no doubt they were extremely frightened and just would not risk going to see the play.’



Much speculation has been made in the press about her death being suicidal but thorough researches have concluded that the most plausible reason was probably a severe case of opening night nerves (also mentioned by fellow actors, including Honor Blackman and Brian Blessed … during rehearsals, as well as her husband, Robert, who noted that Mary was visibly, intermittently shaking with fear), as she made a return to her acting career after taking so much time out to raise their family.



Later, at the inquest the actual cause of her death was at last revealed … the lethal combination of prescription drugs and alcohol. Since the birth of her daughter, Hannah, six years earlier, Mary had been on prescription medication for depression. Mary had been advised by her doctor to go into a nursing home where she was prescribed drugs to help her depression … they did … but only partly. Mary often became careless about her use of tablets …



On the night of her death … Mary had been celebrating her first night success … she had taken a few drinks at the play’s reception party … but when she had arrived home she had also taken some of her prescription drugs … tragically the combination proved fatal.

The verdict was accidental death … Mary was just 42.



The final scene of Diamonds was not difficult to shoot … all Robert Shaw (Charles/Earl Hodgson) had to do was meet co-star Barbara Seagull/Hershey (Sally) … in the jewellery store and write out a cheque for some damage to her crashed car … a scene filmed earlier in the day. As Robert waited he did his very best to hold back the tears … his whole life seemed to have collapsed around him. Robert and Mary had been happily married for 12 years.



They had been married in secret in Buckinghamshire in May 1963 … their honeymoon was spent in Istanbul where Robert was playing the vicious assassin Red Grant in the 1963 Bond film From Russia With Love. They had enjoyed 12 very happy years together … (they had 8 children … 4 from their own marriage and 4 from Robert’s previous marriage to Jennifer Bourke) … they shared two thriving careers and lived in a beautiful house in Ireland.



Robert Shaw, showing incredible professionalism, faced the cameras only hours after his wife’s death and played the most challenging and tragic film scene of his life … Robert signed the cheque and played out the final scene with Barbara Seagull/Hershey …



Robert immediately left the set and disappeared into the busy Knightbridge street …

a man who had just endured a sickening tragedy and endured it with astonishing fortitude and great courage.



Robert Shaw died just 3 years later on 28 August, 1978 on a country road in Ireland of a heart attack …

or perhaps of a broken heart … aged just 51.



Adapted and edited from Brian Stevens … Photoplay … July 1975 … with additional source information from … IMDb/Wikipedia/RobertShawForAllSeasons.com/WhereEaglesDare.com/WashingtonPost/MysticGames

[cornershop15]

Thank you very much indeed for that informative reply, 'Mrs. Peel'. You did a good job choosing which details to include. I bought the Photoplay magazine from an eBay seller a couple of years ago, who I also obtained a lot of other issues from.



It seems Mary had similar problems to my mother and quite a few other women who were raising children in the '60s and '70s - Virginia Maskell being one of them. I know a friend of hers, now in her 70s, and it's extraordinary that she, Virginia AND my mother all suffered from post-natal depression the same year (1967), and ALL seemed to get (ultimately) worse instead of better because of these prescription drugs. My mother has never recovered actually. It's left me with a deep mistrust of doctors, GPs anyway, believing they'll just 'fob' us off with yet more tablets.



I try to ignore theories that a 'curse' was to blame for injuries and deaths to those associated with The Exorcist, but learning of Gregory Peck's son's death after the actor had made The Omen was a bit creepy and the thought that this could apply to Mary equally so. Your post explains that it's perfectly plausible, after being so long away away from the stage, that she was simply suffering from 'stage fright', but seeing so many of those films where a character suddenly feels a shudder or 'unwell' tempts me to believe such things might be true (Rosemary's Baby or Night of the Eagle, for example).



Not in any way being light-hearted about this, but I wonder if those Paul McKenna-type 'positive-thinking sessions would have helped with such things as Mary Ure's (or Laurence Olivier's) stage fright? Same goes for the depressive illnesses I alluded to earlier.



Some light-relief IS needed at this point and I think it's hilarious that I mistook those "knickers" for a newspaper! I should have "view(ed) the full image" as the creases looked like printed words!



By the way, The Beatles filmed some of Help! in Salzburg, one of the locations of Where Eagles Dare. Surely some of the cast and crew would have been aware of this?



Where Eagles Dare posters from MovieGoods.com

[cornershop15]

Here you are, 'Mrs Peel' (and any other fans). A nice picture of Mary:

[mrs_emma_peel]

Many thanks Cornershop ... that's an enchanting photo of the lovely Mary

Emma