Daphne Helen Slater (3 March 1928 – 4 October 2012)[1] was an English actress noted for Shakespearean and period films.
She was born in London and educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls, when it was in Acton, before attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she won the academy's gold medal.
Frequently lavished with praise by Kenneth Tynan, the most influential critic of his day, Slater divided her career between Shakespearean roles and appearances in television plays.[2] After leaving RADA with a Gold Medal, she was snapped up by the film director Herbert Wilcox, who gave her a seven-year contract and a leading role in The Courtneys of Curzon Street (1947) and she played major screen parts in dozens of television dramas and novel adaptations, including the role of Queen Mary I in the 1971 BBC TV serial Elizabeth R opposite Glenda Jackson.[1]
Slater died on 4 October 2012, aged 84.[3] She was predeceased by her brother and her second husband. She was survived by her first husband John Harrison (born 1924), film/television actor, director and producer and their two sons, Stephen and William.[4]