Dilys Watling
Actress BORN MAY 5, 1943 – DIED AUGUST 10, 2021, AGED 78
DILYS Watling was a Tony-nominated actress best known for playing Merle Baker in Coronation Street and appearing on The Two Ronnies in the 1970s.
Wide-eyed with soft features and a waif-like figure, the star projected an on-stage innocence that won her plaudits for her performance in Georgy on Broadway in 1970.
The production, based on Margaret Forster’s novel Georgy Girl and the 1966 film adaptation starring Lynn Redgrave, closed after four performances but Dilys was so great in it she was nominated for a Tony.
She was born Dilys Rhys Jones, the daughter of actors Ion Rhys Jones and Patricia Hicks, in Fulmer Chase, Buckinghamshire.
Her father was killed in action during the Second World War and her mother later married actor Jack Watling. Dilys attended St Mary’s Convent School in Woodford, Essex, and appeared in repertory theatre and at the Bristol Old Vic. Her first screen credit was as Gillian Nesbitt on BBC soap opera Compact in 1962 followed by sitcom The Likely Lads three years later.
She continued her stage career in the West End in 1963 as Mary in Pickwick but did not move with the production to Broadway, opting for a brief pop career with her 1964 single Don’t Say You Love Me.
She starred in crime thriller Calculated Risk and comedy-drama Two Left Feet. Her final big screen outing was in the 1967 horror film Theatre Of Death. She also appeared in Sweeney Todd and Time in the West End in 1986.
Dilys was married twice, the second time to Game Of Thrones actor Owen Teale, with whom she had a son, Ion.
Dilys died at her home in south London after a long illness. She is survived by Ion.