Attention:  Fans of the original Upstairs, Downstairs:  Death of Ruby
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Attention:  Fans of the original Upstairs, Downstairs:  Death of Ruby
I noticed that, sadly, Jenny Tomasin, who played Ruby in Upstairs, Downstairs, died in Jsnuary of this year at age 73 from heart disease.  No immediate survivors.  Always had a soft spot for "poor Ruby".  May she rest in peace.  She is now "up there" with Mrs. Bridges! Not sure if this was ever brought up before in the DataLounge.
by Anonymous
reply 13
04/03/2012
Ol' Ruby turned out to be pretty sharp in the end when she went off to work in the guest house Mr. Hudson and Mrs. Bridges were buying:
"Well, they can't live forever, can they?"
by Anonymous
reply 2
04/01/2012
Wow, I hadn't heard the news.  I didn't realize she was that old. I don't know she did much after the show ended.  I saw here in a couple of documentaries on the show and she looked pretty lost.  Who's left from the show now?
by Anonymous
reply 3
04/01/2012
Jenny Tomasin, who played put-upon kitchen-maid Ruby in the original show, has died of heart disease – apparently sometime around January 3rd. She was 75 (Equity says 73), and was found dead at her flat in Camden, London where she lived alone, a week or so later.
by Anonymous
04/01/2012
from the same site:
Cast in a minor role as the accident-prone scullery maid, Ruby Finch, in the drama Upstairs Downstairs, Jenny Tomasin often stole the scene.
Depicting an Edwardian aristocratic family living in a townhouse in Belgravia, waited on by a selection of servants, Upstairs Downstairs became so popular that a spin-off was planned. Tomasin was to play Ruby again, but this time helping to run a seaside boarding house with her two colleagues, Angela Baddeley, who had portrayed the cook, Mrs Bridges, and Gordon Jackson, who had been the butler, Angus Hudson. But plans for the series were scrapped when Baddeley died.
Thereafter, Tomasin seemed destined to play maids - in Crossroads, in Philip Kingâs farce, See How They Run, at Greenwich, and in two Coward comedies, Blithe Spirit and The Marquise. She was born into a working class family, who at the outset showed little interest in her career. Money was short and Tomasin had to sell her books of Green Shield saving stamps to pay the fare to the audition for Upstairs Downstairs.
She joined the cast for the second series and remained an integral part of life below stairs until the end of the fifth series in 1975, taking part in 41 episodes in all. By then, the show had won seven Emmy awards, two Baftas and was being shown in 70 countries. Tomasin found it difficult to come to terms with the end of the series.
âI felt that I belonged to a wonderful, happy family - and then all of a sudden the family broke up,â she said in a newspaper interview. âIt was terribly hard to adjust.â
In 1985, she appeared in Doctor Who and also played two characters in Emmerdale, one in 1980, the other in 2006. Both were killed off.
Jenny Tomasin, who was born on March 22, 1938, died on January 3, aged 73.
â¢ A funeral service will take place on Thursday, February 9 at 3pm, Islingon and Camden Cemetery, 278 High Road, East Finchley, London N2 9AG.
â¢ Simon Williams writes:
On Upstairs Downstairs we all had to surrender to the charge of being typecast - but of all the characters it was Jennyâs adorable, doe-eyed Ruby, the scullery maid who stole the nationâs heart. While the rest of us were being primped and preened in the make-up room, Jennyâs face was scrubbed clean and her hair left unwashed.
She had no vanity. She was a modest, generous, instinctive and dedicated actress.
When I last telephoned Jenny, her voicemail message told me that if it was about work âIâm freeâ¦â And I hope she is, God bless her.
by Anonymous
reply 5
04/01/2012
On stage and back to type, Tomasin played a parlour maid in a West End production of Man and Superman (Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 1982), starring Peter O'Toole, with the cast reprising their performances in a television film version the same year. She was also in pantomimes and national tours of Blithe Spirit (1988-89), as Edith, the maid, Lettice and Lovage (1990-91) and The Marquise (2004), in which she acted Kate O'Mara's devoted maid.
Tomasin believed her television career might be experiencing a revival when she returned to Emmerdale (as the serial was retitled in 1989) in the role of Noreen Bell (2005-06), a cantankerous, palm-reading, wig-wearing pensioner whose garden fence was painted by Val Lambert as part of a community service order. Noreen became friends with Val but died in a gas explosion while looking round a show home.
It was Tomasin's last screen role, but the character's legacy lives on. The money bequeathed by Noreen to Val enabled her to buy a half-share in The Woolpack pub, where last orders are called with the Noreen Bell bell. However, Tomasin â who never married â always remained optimistic that more work would come along. As she said in 2002: "I've been through such hard times, but I can always bounce back again. I still believe great things are just ahead."
Anthony Hayward
04/01/2012
from the Washington Post:
Jenny Tomasin, a British actress forever known to hundreds of millions of television viewers as the clumsy, disheveled, Valentino-obsessed kitchen maid Ruby Finch in âUpstairs, Downstairs,â has died at her home in London.
She died Jan. 3 of hypertensive heart disease, according to the coronerâs office in her neighborhood. She was 73, according to the membership records officer for the actorâs union Equity in Great Britain. Other reference guides put her age at 75. She had no immediate survivors, delaying confirmation of her death.
Jenny Tomasin, a British actress forever known to hundreds of millions of television viewers as the clumsy, disheveled, Valentino-obsessed kitchen maid Ruby Finch â shown at bottom â in "Upstairs, Downstairs," has died at her home in London.
âUpstairs, Downstairs,â one of the most beloved and literate television dramas of all time, chronicled the decline of a British aristocratic family and the fate of their servants from the Edwardian era through World War I, the Jazz Age and the stock market crash of 1929.
The program was produced between 1970 and 1975, drew audiences worldwide and has endured in public television reruns. It had a direct influence on films including Robert Altmanâs âGosford Parkâ (2001) and shows such as âDownton Abbey,â now airing on public television.
âUpstairs, Downstairsâ was celebrated for its finely drawn portrait of the British class system â including the hierarchy of servants. Although Conservative politician Richard Bellamy (David Langton) was the master upstairs at the fictional 165 Eaton Place in Londonâs Belgravia neighborhood, downstairs was the domain of the formidable head butler Hudson (Gordon Jackson) and the tyrannical cook Mrs. Bridges (Angela Baddeley).
Ruby â gray-faced, thatchy-haired and hopeless in the kitchen â was distinctly at the bottom of the social ladder. Few who saw the series will fail to remember Mrs. Bridges taking pity on the âpoor girlâ but also erupting in her trademark bellow, âRoo-BEEE!â
Ms. Tomasin joined the show in 1972 after another scullery maid committed suicide. During World War I, the maladroit Ruby leaves for a short-lived job in a munitions factory. Having left Eaton Place proud of her independence, Ruby returns blackened when the plant explodes.
In interviews, Ms. Tomasin said she was devastated when her career plummeted after the success of âUpstairs, Downstairs.â She appeared in small roles in Londonâs West End and in touring productions.
There was a melancholy consistency to her sporadic television work. She twice appeared on the British soap opera âEmmerdaleâ â in the early 1980s and in the mid-2000s â and each time, her character was killed off.
Jenny Tomasin was born in Leeds, in northern England, on March 22, 1938, according to the actorsâ union. Other reference works say she was born on Nov. 30, 1936, with no explanation for the discrepancy of day, month and year.
She said her parents, who were working-class, were unsupportive of her ambition to act. She had a middling career until âUpstairs, Downstairsâ producer John Hawkesworth exclaimed on seeing her photo in a British casting directory, âThatâs the face!â
Ms. Tomasin appeared in reunion documentaries of âUpstairs, Downstairs,â often noting with mixed feelings how the show affected her life.
âI had to wear these drab outfits and no makeup,â she said in a 2002 documentary, according to the London Independent. âThere was one particular incident when I was out with my boyfriend for a meal. I was feeling sexy and attractive, and suddenly somebody yelled out, âOh, look, thereâs Ruby!â I looked at my boyfriend and said, âI donât want to stay here.â It just felt awful.â
Staff writer Emily Langer contributed to this report.
by Anonymous
After 32 years, the surviving stars of Upstairs, Downstairs ...and what happened next
By LAURA ROBERTS
Last updated at 08:11 30 October 2007
It transfixed millions of viewers in the 1970s. Portraying the social niceties and sexual scandals of Edwardian England, Upstairs, Downstairs became one of the most successful TV series of all time, watched by 300 million viewers in 50 countries. It ran for 68 episodes on ITV from 1971 to 1975.
Although a number of the cast have died - including Gareth Hunt, Gordon Jackson and Angela Baddeley - nine of the originals attended Bafta's 60th birthday celebrations on Sunday.
by Anonymous
reply 12
04/03/2012
Ruby was such a clumsy ditz. The one kitchen maid from Downton Abbey always reminds me of Ruby with her 'but that's not wright!' tagline.
by Anonymous