A few thoughts about the great actor Charlotte Cornwell, who died yesterday.

Fearless Choices was the name she gave her project to help working class actors fund their training. It’s how she led her life. With her expressive, powerful look she played forthright people with ease. She was also the warmest, most empathetic person you could hope to meet.

I first saw her in the NT’s legendary Wild Honey, Michael Frayn’s reimagining of Chekhov’s Platonov. In theory the evening belonged to Ian McKellen’s hilarious, sexy, outlandish Platonov but it was Charlotte as Anna Petrovna who gave it if heft and fire and depth and romance.

She was luminous in Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca and bonded with the great Yvonne Bryceland. Both had a similar quality of existing on two planes, at once totally of the earth and of the spirit.

I was fortunate to have directed her in The History Boys in Los Angeles. It was an unlikely prospect in some ways but the US actors relished it, in large measure due to her. She adored the young actors and encouraged them: she just loved people to succeed and progress.

Not many people here know that she was a Professor at the University of Southern California for 8 years where predictably Charlotte inspired a whole new generation of student actors.
We’ve lost a great campaigner, a wonderful actor and a true friend to many.