Rosalind Knight

Biography: Rosalind Knight is a highly versatile English actress with a particular flair for comedy. She was the daughter of leading man Esmond Knight -- best remembered for his postwar work in the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger -- and the former Frances Clare; her stepmother was the actress Nora Swinburne. Knight studied at the Old Vic and, after a stint as assistant stage manager at the Midland Theatre Company in Coventry, she moved to the Ipswich Repertory Company, where the other assistant stage manager was future playwright Joe Orton (she subsequently played a small role in the 1987 Orton biopic Prick Up Your Ears). In 1956, Knight was seen by a film producer and signed up for her movie debut, as a schoolgirl in the comedy Blue Murder at St. Trinian's (1956). That same year, she starred with her father, cast as father and daughter, in a BBC adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby. Her next film was the trans-Atlantic hit Carry on Nurse (1959), playing Nurse Nightingale, andRosalind Knight is a highly versatile English actress with a particular flair for comedy. She was the daughter of leading man Esmond Knight -- best remembered for his postwar work in the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger -- and the former Frances Clare; her stepmother was the actress Nora Swinburne. Knight studied at the Old Vic and, after a stint as assistant stage manager at the Midland Theatre Company in Coventry, she moved to the Ipswich Repertory Company, where the other assistant stage manager was future playwright Joe Orton (she subsequently played a small role in the 1987 Orton biopic Prick Up Your Ears). In 1956, Knight was seen by a film producer and signed up for her movie debut, as a schoolgirl in the comedy Blue Murder at St. Trinian's (1956). That same year, she starred with her father, cast as father and daughter, in a BBC adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby. Her next film was the trans-Atlantic hit Carry on Nurse (1959), playing Nurse Nightingale, and she subsequently appeared in a co-starring role in Carry on Teacher. She also worked in James Hill's The Kitchen (1961) and Tony Richardson's Tom Jones (1963), in which she played Mrs. Fitzpatrick. Knight was busy in theater for the next few years, although she did get her first exposure on American television through an appearance in the Beverly Hillbillies episode "War of the Roses," part of a five-show story arc that was filmed in England. She also appeared in the French Revolution spoof Start The Revolution Without Me (1970), but most of her work over the next decade was on the stage. Knight returned to the St. Trinian's fold at the end of the decade, this time as a teacher, in The Wildcats of St. Trinian's (1980). She is a familiar figure on British television, in mysteries and comedies alike, even portraying a retired prostitute -- a break from the usual aristocratic parts of her later career -- on Gimme Gimme Gimme.… Expand