ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, October 14, 1996 TAG: 9610140117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LONDON
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: Associated Press
Beryl Reid, an untrained music hall performer who parlayed her comic timing and dramatic versatility into a career as one of Britain's best-loved actresses, died Sunday. She was 76.
Reid had been ill with pneumonia after an operation on her knees, her agent Robert Luff said. He would not say where she died.
Reid was best known overseas as the bitter lesbian soap opera star in the 1968 film version of ``The Killing of Sister George,'' a role she created on stage.
Her Broadway appearance in that play won her the Tony award for best actress in 1966.
She also starred opposite Sir Alec Guinness in the 1982 television series, ``Smiley's People,'' based on characters created by spy novelist John LeCarre. She won Britain's highest acting award for the series.
Reid left her home in Hereford, central England, when she was 16. She quickly landed work at a music hall on the northeastern coast. Soon she was auditioning in London for music hall parts and achieved national fame in the 1950s playing two different parts on a radio series, ``Educating Archie.''
Her comic timing, versatility and her vulnerability soon brought her to the attention of West End producers, where she was starring in character roles by the 1960s.
In the 1970s, Reid performed at the National Theater, usually reserved for the classically trained.
Reid was married and divorced twice, and had no children. She blamed her failed marriages on her devotion to theater, and encouraged a reputation as a bon vivant - once telling an interviewer that her favorite perfume was called ``Easy Virtue.''
Reid was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 1986. She lived out her final years with her cats in a country home west of London. She had no known survivors.
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Reidby CNB