Acting

Topsy Jane

opsy Jane (2 December 1938 – 4 January 2014) was a British actress of the 1960s. She was in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) and was cast as Liz (the role eventually played by Julie Christie) in the 1963 film Billy Liar but was forced to pull out owing to mental health issues. She was born as Topsy Jane Legge in Erdington in Birmingham in 1938, the daughter of Anna Maud née Gumbrell (1907-2006) and Albert Harry Legge (1894-1961), a dairy-man and by 1939 a telephone engineer for the GPO. Her father was a committed Communist and later was to be a major influence in the political awakening of her husband, the British film and television producer and actor Tony Garnett. Topsy Jane was educated at Paget Road School before going on to study at Garrett's Green College. Initially, she intended to train as a children's nurse, but while appearing in amateur theatre at the Varley Players at Pype Hayes Church, the Birmingham Drama Group, and the Highbury Little Theatre she realised she had a talent for acting. Her husband, Tony Garnett, later wrote of her: Topsy Jane moved to London where she began to carve a career in television and film. Her roles included: Rosie in The Fanatics (1960); the rich young widow Dame Pliant in the television production of The Alchemist (1961) by Ben Jonson; Peggy in The Wind of Change (1961); Con in the TV movie Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring (1961); Céline in Maigret (1961); Stella Fairly in A Chance of Thunder (1961); in Shadow Play (1961); Amanda opposite Edith Evans in the BBC production of Time Remembered (1961) by Jean Anouilh; Mavis Wayne in Emergency Ward 10 (1962); Jane in Crying Down the Lane (1962), and Mona in Mix Me a Person (1962).