Fielding, whose career spanned seven decades, appeared in
Carry On Regardless and
Carry On Screaming!
The former Carry On actor,
Fenella Fielding, has died aged 90, her spokeswoman has said. The star, who enjoyed a showbusiness career spanning seven decades, suffered a stroke two weeks ago and died on Tuesday.
She appeared in two Carry On films – Carry On Regardless in 1961 and Carry On Screaming! in 1966 – and was awarded an OBE in the 2018 Queen’s birthday honours list.
“We are very sad to announce that Fenella Fielding OBE passed away this afternoon on Tuesday 11 September,” her spokeswoman said.
“This follows a severe stroke two weeks ago. During that time, she has been very comfortable and always looked tranquil and divine. And always wearing her eyelashes.
“Miss Fielding was an incredible talent. That voice! A unique woman, much loved by family, friends and fans. She will be missed tremendously.”
According to Fielding’s website, her career began in 1952 when she starred on stage in The Constant Lover. Her television roles included parts in The Avengers, The Prisoner and The Morecambe and Wise Show. She also boasted stage credits in plays by Shakespeare and Henry James.
But it is her role alongside Kenneth Williams as Valeria in Carry On Screaming! for which she is best known. The popular film parodied Hammer Horror movies and her 2017 memoir Do You Mind If I Smoke? is named after one of its best-known jokes.
She recounted falling out with Williams while they worked on the comedy revue Pieces of Eight together after a newspaper article praised her. “Kenneth came out of the wings and he had the paper in his hand and he had the most terrible temper about it. I thought, God, I can’t help the fact they’ve said something nice about me.”
While she had success, she felt typecast. Speaking to the Guardian last year about the public perception of her, she said: “There are always people who don’t think you should be able to climb out of your cave.”
She said that she felt she was not offered more serious roles because “you’ve got to show you’re not just a lark”. While her performance as Hedda Gabler was lauded, she felt that not enough people saw it. “Then you’ve got to get people to let you do one after another after another, before it obliterates the comedy you’ve done,” she added.
In her book, she accused the comic actor, Norman Wisdom, of “always making a pass – hand up your skirt first thing in the morning”. Looking back on that period last December, in the light of the #MeToo movement, she said: “There was a time when every man I met … it was really something horrid”
Fielding was born in London to a Lithuanian father and a Romanian mother. She is the younger sister of Basil Feldman, Baron Feldman, a former Conservative member of the House of Lords.