My mother, Jill Freud, who has died aged 98, was a dynamic actor and producer, and the founder of one of the UK’s most cherished summer rep theatres.
On graduating from the Rada drama school in London in 1947, Jill, under the stage name Jill Raymond, was given a leading role in the film The Woman in the Hall, starring Jean Simmons. She also worked in radio and television, including on Torchy the Battery Boy for the BBC Light Service. On stage, a highlight was The Dame of Sark with Celia Johnson at the Wyndham theatre (1974).
She was a highly active MP’s wife, married to the Liberal politician Clement Freud, and the mother of five children, but it was not until later life that she truly flourished creatively. In 1980, in her 60s, she founded Jill Freud & Company, producing seasons of summer repertory in Southwold and Aldeburgh for three decades.
The company brought high-quality theatre to coastal Suffolk, produced hundreds of plays, toured abroad, and became a cherished local institution. Actors she hired returned year after year, drawn by Jill’s fairness, wit and unwavering belief in the rights of the company members, and the importance of regional theatre. Her legacy continues each summer in the playhouses she brought to life.
