Patricia Barrie obituary

My mother, Patricia Barrie, who has died aged 94, was a successful actor in her early 20s, before she gave up her career to raise a family.

Paddy – as she was always known – fell in love with acting as a child. Born in Pembury, Kent, to Sydney Tucker, a doctor, and Winifred (nee Chatwin), a nurse, she attended Hamilton House school in Tunbridge Wells and then became a prizewinning student at Rada in London. She graduated in the summer of 1939 and landed a job at the Open Air theatre in Regent’s Park, playing Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.