FOUND A GRAVE

Actress. A pretty brunette, she is remembered for her long career on the British stage and screen. Raised in the city of her birth, she received her theatrical training at the Glover Turner-Robertson School of Drama, made her 1945 professional bow at Lerwick’s Garrison Theatre in “Peg o’My Heart”, then from 1945 thru 1949 refined her craft at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre. Rona made her 1948 silver screen debut in “Sleeping Car to Trieste”, met her future husband, actor Gordon Jackson, on the set of 1949’s “Floodtide”, and had her West End bow in 1950’s comedy “The White Sheep of the Family”. On the screen, she earned particular praise for “The Twenty Questions Murder Mystery” (1950), a 1951 adaptation of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” in which she was the young Scrooge’s girlfriend, 1954’s “Little Red Monkey”, and the 1956 “Soho Incident”, but after 1960 slowed down to raise her two children. Rona continued to make appearances, occasionally partnering with Jackson, one of their joint projects being 1969’s “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”. She was to amass a long list of small screen credits including “Bachelor Father”, “The Human Jungle”, and “The Professionals”; on the stage she was an original cast member of 1978’s “Whose Life Is It Anyway?”, portrayed Princess Di’s mother Frances Shand Kydd in the 1981 comedy “Her Royal Highness”, and in 1993 earned good reviews for a revival of “Present Laughter”. Rona lived out her days in London, was seen on television as late as 2012 in “Run For Your Wife”, and died of the complications of advanced age. A number of her performances are preserved on DVD.