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Rita Tushingham was born in Liverpool on March 14, 1942, and did her professional apprenticeship with the Liverpool Playhouse. In 1961, she made her film debut as a teenager in Tony Richardson's adaption of Shelagh Delaney's kitchen sink drama, A Taste of Honey (1961). For her work in that film, she won a BAFTA and the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1963, she followed those up with a Golden Globe Award as most promising newcomer.

In the first half of the Sixties, Tushingham became a symbol of the kitchen sink school of theater, which told stories about working class folk, people who had been ignored previously in class conscious England. It was a decade that saw the rise of a generation of actors born and raised outside Metropolitan London who refused to let go of their accents or adopt posh manners. She became one of the faces of the English New Wave. In 1964, Tushingham starred in Girl with Green Eyes (1964), an adaptation of an Edna O'Brien novel about a young Irish woman's affair with an older man, co-starring Peter Finch and Lynn Redgrave. She next starred as a working class woman married to a biker in Sidney J. Furie's cult classic The Leather Boys (1964), a film released at a time where Marlon Brando's biker opus The Wild One (1953) was still banned in Britain. She originated the role of Nancy in Ann Jellicoe's "The Knack...and How to Get It" at the Royal Court Theatre in 1962. The Royal Court was ground zero for the revolution in the British theater that started there in 1956 with John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1959).

She reached her high-water mark in 1965 when she reprised her stage role in the film version of The Knack... and How to Get It (1965) and played Omar Sharif (Yuri) and Julie Christie (Lara)'s love child in Doctor Zhivago (1965). While The Knack... and How to Get It (1965) was a box office hit, Doctor Zhivago (1965) was an international hit, one of cinema's all-time blockbusters. Her fame crested at the time her fellow Liverpudlians, The Beatles were establishing themselves as the biggest thing in post-WWII pop music.

But as the second half of the 60s kicked in, Tushingham's stardom began to wane as that of her "Zhivago" co-star (and on-screen mum) Christie began to skyrocket, making her the face of Swinging London. Tushingham has continued to act for five more decades since the Sixties came to a close, the very definition of a successful career.

<a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0001657/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Oliver Reed</a> said &quot;she&#39;s not the most classically beautiful woman that England has ever produced but she&#39;s got a pair of eyes that I would like to go swimming in&quot;.

Has two daughters, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm4901190/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Dodonna Bicknell</a> and <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0878239/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Aisha Bicknell</a>, from her marriage to photographer Terry Bicknell.

Since the mid 1990s, she has divided her time between London and
Germany, with her partner <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0956238/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Hans-Heinrich Ziemann</a>.

Lived in Canada for 20 years with husband <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0712561/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Ousama Rawi</a>.

Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1972 and 1990.

The daughter of Enid and John Tushingham (both now deceased), she has two older brothers, Peter and Colin.

Attended La Sagesse Convent School, Grassendale, Liverpool, England, UK.

Was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of Liverpool John Moores University in 2009.

Lives in a 300 year old house in Hertfordshire,.

About 1971/2 started filming &quot;Where Do You Go To From Here&quot; with a Norwegian cast but the film was canceled after 3 weeks.

One of first roles was playing the back of a horse in Toad of Toad Hall at £1 a week.

Cast in a film called &quot;The Case of Laura&quot; in the early 70&#39;s but its production was canceled.

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Rita Tushingham

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