Ann Emery

Ann Emery (12 March 1930 – 29 September 2016) was a British actress. She was the half-sister of actor and comedian Dick Emery.

Educated at Mrs Smith's School for Young Ladies and the Cone Ripman School, she excelled in tap dancing, which led to her first stage role as a Babe in Babes In The Wood at the King's Theatre, Hammersmith. During her career she performed in various theatre roles, including Sir Trevor Nunn's production of My Fair Lady (Royal National Theatre and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane). Emery originated the role of Grandma in Billy Elliot the Musical[2] which she played from 2005 to 2010. Reviewing the musical in The Guardian, Michael Billington noted, "[These lapses aside,] Stephen Daldry's production is a model of fluidity and intelligence. He constantly reminds us that the special power of the musical is that it can express a lyrical idea through physical action. Thus, when Ann Emery, as Billy's gran, sings of her sour memories of her husband, we get on the other side of the stage a collective demonstration of the slow movements of the inebriated working-class male. It is the kind of effect that can only be achieved in a musical." Following her appearance in Betty Blue Eyes, Emery returned to the role of Grandma which she played until 8 November 2014, when she retired.

Emery is possibly best known for playing Ethel Meaker in the BBC children's television programme Rentaghost. She also played Ethel Rocket in Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde in 1995 and appeared in the 2007 film Wednesday. In 1992, she had appeared in the national tour of the Kander and Ebb musical 70 Girls 70 with Dora Bryan. In 1999, she played a cleaner in the first episode of Miami 7, the first series featuring the pop group S Club 7, in which she appeared attempting to dance to one of the group's songs as they rehearsed in the opening scene.

She performed as Mother Dear in Cameron Mackintosh's West End musical comedy Betty Blue Eyes. Sarah Lancashire and Reece Shearsmith were her daughter and son-in-law Joyce and Gilbert Chilvers. The musical is based on the 1984 film A Private Function by Alan Bennett and Malcolm Mowbray, which starred Liz Smith as Joyce's mother alongside Maggie Smith and Michael Palin. Betty Blue Eyes ran at the Novello Theatre from April to September 2011, and was enthusiastically received by London critics, with many praising Emery's lively supporting turn.

Emery died on 29 September 2016, aged 86.