Maria Aitken

Aitken was born in Dublin Ireland the daughter of Sir William Aitken a Conservative MP and Penelope Aitken whose father was John Maffey 1st Baron Rugby Her grandfather was the UK Representative to Ireland 193949 She is a greatniece of newspaper magnate and wartime minister Lord Beaverbrook and sister to former Conservative cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken She attended Riddlesworth Hall Preparatory School in Norfolk Sherborne School for Girls in Dorset and St Annes College Oxford where she graduated with a degree in English Language and Literature She has directed several plays in the West End and on Broadway Her production of The 39 Steps which ran in London for nine years also played three years on Broadway and won Olivier and Tony Awards In 2011 she directed Frank Langella in Man and Boy on Broadway She is a Visiting Lecturer at Yale NYU and Juilliard drama schools Her extensive acting career includes leading roles at the Royal National Theatre the Royal Shakespeare Company and in the West End She has played more Noël Coward leads than any other actress Her film career includes appearances in Doctor Faustus 1967 Mary Queen of Scots 1971 Half Moon Street 1986 A Fish Called Wanda 1988 for which she was nominated for a BAFTA award The Fool 1990 The Grotesque 1995 Fierce Creatures 1997 Jinnah 1998 and Asylum 2005 She is the author of A Girdle Round the Earth a story of some of the more remarkable women travellers of the last 200 years and Style Acting in High Comedy published in 1996 which contends that High comedies are not bloodless refined wordy plays their themes are sex money and social advancement They contain a splendid contradiction wit and elegance at the service of mans basest drives From Wikipedia