Actress and writer Molly Weir, the sister of broadcaster and naturalist Tom Weir was born in Springburn, Glasgow in 1910. She was brought up by her mother and grandmother after her father was killed during World War I. She began as a typist in a solicitor's office in Glasgow and was capable of 300 words-per-minute shorthand, becoming a British champion. Always a keen writer, her first article was published when she was only 15 years old.
After experience in amateur dramatics, she landed the role of Ivy in The McFlannels and turned professional. In 1940 she moved to London and joined the cast of Tommy Handley's 'It's that man again'. In 1950 she was offered the part that brought her national fame, Aggie the housekeeper in the radio show 'Life With The Lyons'. The progammes ran to a remarkable 11 series, eventually ending in 1961, and there were two films, Life With The Lyons and The Lyons In Paris (both 1954). Molly Weir also appeared in five series of a television version of the show that ran from 1955 to 1960, and later established a small-screen presence of her own in the 1970s with her commercials for the household cleaner Flash.
She contributed regularly to Woman's Hour and was a writer and performer on Children's Hour. Her television appearances included another children's programme, Rentaghost and Flowers of the Forest. Film roles included roles in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Carry on Regardless, Hands of the Ripper and One of our Dinosaurs is Missing. A prolific author, her published memoirs ran to five volumes of showbusiness anecdotes, and she wrote an acclaimed and bestselling trilogy about childhood in a Glasgow tenement, Shoes Were For Sunday, Best Foot Forward and A Toe On The Ladder, the last appearing in 1973.
Molly Weir died in 2004 aged 94. |
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