English actress Beryl Reid was BOTD in 1919. Born in Hereford to Scottish parents, she grew up in Manchester. After leaving high school, she became a music hall performer, appearing in variety shows and pantomimes before and during World War Two. In 1950, she began appearing in BBC radio comedy show Educating Archie, launching her professional career. She is best known for her starring role in Frank Marcus’ play The Killing of Sister George, playing a sadistic lesbian actress facing career oblivion as she is written out of a popular radio series. After two successful West End runs, it transferred to Broadway in 1966, winning Reid a Tony Award. She reprised the role for the 1968 film version, which (unusually for the time) foregrounded the play’s sexual subtext, becoming one of the first feature films to depict a (dysfunctional) lesbian relationship. She also starred in the 1970 film of Joe Orton‘s comedy Entertaining Mr Sloane, playing a sexually frustrated landlady who shares her handsome young male boarder with her bachelor brother, and the popular comedies The Belles of St Trinians and No Sex Please, We’re British. In later life, she appeared in TV adaptations of John Le Carré’s spy novels Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley’s People, winning a BAFTA television award for the latter. Married twice, she had no children but adopted ten cats. Known for her forthright remarks on sex – she admitted to multiple affairs and claimed to wear a perfume called “Easy Virtue” – she was also widely rumoured to be bisexual. She died in 1996, aged 77.