Britain says "Happy Birthday" to Claire Bloom who is 79 today

So, Claire Bloom is 79 today. This is how I first saw and remember her in John Osborne's 'Look Back in Anger' in 1958 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a_VPXM8i0s

Burton was magnificent and she was beautiful and the script resonated with Post-War anger, as men like Osborne broke free from their pre- and post-War time chains. They precursored the 1960's, in fact, without them the 60's would not have happened.

The things I didn't know :

* Daughter of Elizabeth Grew and Edward Blume.

* Paternal grandparents, Blumenthal, and maternal grandparents, Griewski, were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.

She appeared :

* In her stage debut in 1946, at 15, with the Oxford Repertory Theatre.

* On the London stage in 1947 in 'The Lady's Not For Burning' with Richard Burton and John Gielgud.

* In her first film role in 1948 in the 'The Blind Goddess'.

* In 'Limelight' after chosen by Chaplin in 1952.

* In Laurence Olivier's film of 'Richard III', Ibsen's 'A Doll's House', 'The Outrage' with Paul Newman and Laurence Harvey, as well as, the films, 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' and 'Look Back in Anger'.

* In the 1960s played, as an unhinged housewife, in 'The Chapman Report', a psychologist in 'Charly', and Theodora in 'The Haunting'.

* The 1989 Woody Allen film, 'Crimes and Misdemeanors'.

* 'Brideshead Revisited', on television, in 1981.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI8ZtLiNB00

* On the London stage in 'Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks' and co-starred with Billy Zane

* 'Doctor Who' in 2009.

Personal life :

* Married three times. First in 1959, to actor Rod Steiger.

* Third to Philip Roth and divorced in 1995.

* Written 2 memoirs. The second went into her marriages but her romantic relationships with Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier.