Born in Penang, Federated Malay States, to British parents; her father was a rubber plantation owner.
Committed suicide from an overdose of pills in 1990, after suffering from acute depression abetted by her stormy marriage and divorce to writer John Osborne. She was his fourth wife.
Had a long-term relationship with the much older actor Sir Godfrey Tearle (1884-1953) in the late 1940s and early 1950s before marrying screenwriter Willis Hall. In her book, Godfrey: A Special Time Remembered (1983) she described their four years together as the happiest of her life.
Her many classical stage roles included Titania in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Iras in both "Caesar and Cleopatra" and "Antony and Cleopatra," Gertrude in "Hamlet," Hedda in "Hedda Gabler," Masha in "The Seagull," and Queen Elizabeth I in "Mary Stuart".
Once married to British playwright John Osborne.
Schooled at Priors Field, an independent girls boarding school in Godalming.
She had no children.
She starred in several of husband John Osborne's plays, winning an Evening Standard award and a Variety Club of Britain Award for her performance in "Time Present".
Trained at the Amersham Repertory and Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (1944-46)companies, she made her stage debut in 1949 at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford upon Avon.