CLASS ACT

Tuesday's curtain call on the life and career of Leonie Forbes kindled rousing applause for the quintessential doyenne of Jamaican theatre and broadcasting.

She was 85. The cause of her death was not disclosed.

Forbes was born on June 14, 1937, and grew up in Kingston as an only child.

She exhibited extensive range and versatility, whether presenting on radio or television or performing before an audience.

One of Forbes' best-known stage characters was the misguided and subservient Miss Aggy, in Old Story Time, who was a counterpart to Charles Hyatt's equally memorable Pa Ben, in Trevor Rhone's Jamaican classic.

It was a role to which she brought such emotional intensity that it became difficult for local audiences who had seen her in it to imagine anyone else playing the part. She also gave commanding performances in a dozen National Pantomimes and scores of other plays and films at home and abroad.

On the local theatre scene, these included The Rope and the Cross, Smile Orange, Whiplash, and Arawak Gold.

Actress, playwright and television host Dahlia Harris has called Forbes the “grand dame of Jamaican film, television and theatre”.

“I was in awe of her accomplishments, inspired by her exemplary professionalism, and will always cherish the nurturing way she guided my growth and development,” said Harris of the late actress' talent.

“Her mastery of radio broadcasting and production, both locally and overseas, encouraged me to see beyond limitations. On top of all that, she was an expert at fashion, art and craft, agriculture,” said Harris.

David Tulloch, managing director of Probemaster Entertainment, spoke of the many productions they did together.

“From a child, I have been blessed to have been in her presence. I have always admired her work as a teenager growing up still having her around,” said Tulloch.

He referred expressly to the 2016 staging of Not My Child, which he directed, and in which Forbes played the role of 74-year-old helper Mavis.

“I told her that if she wanted, I would love to have her back on stage, and she agreed, and she worked with me right through, and my productions were the last set she has done. She won Best Actress twice under my direction,” Tulloch said.

Among her movies were Children of Babylon (1980), the award-winning Milk and Honey (1988), for which joint screenwriters Trevor Rhone and Glen Salzman received a Canadian film trophy; The Orchid House (1991) and A Winter Tale (2007), which also received a prize for excellence at the Toronto Film Festival.

Forbes travelled extensively to perform, usually to critical acclaim, visiting theatre houses in the Caribbean, North and Latin America, Europe, and Africa.

She was honoured for her work locally by way of several Actor Boy awards, the Order of Distinction, Officer Class, the Centenary Medal and Silver and Bronze Musgrave Medals. In 2012, she published her memoires under the title Leonie: Her Autobiography.

Forbes' personal life had its own share of drama.

She was married and divorced three times, often amid much media attention, and two of her four children met sudden deaths. It was events like these that highlighted the reality that, by far, the greatest role she ever played was her own life.

The National Library of Jamaica said Forbes attended St George's Preparatory, Merrywood Elementary School, Mico Practising School, Kingston Senior School, Excelsior College, and Durham College.

Her first job after leaving school was with Sir Philip Sherlock as a typist, then with playwright Barry Reckord, during the early 1950s that precipitated the serendipitous events that gained her entry into both worlds.

She was occasionally called away from her secretarial duties to observe recording sessions in the studio and ended up playing minor parts in programmes broadcast by the Government Information Service.

Forbes became one of the most distinctive voices on the radio as an announcer in 1955 at the now-defunct Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC).

She spent six years studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in England where she pursued a diploma course in radio, television, and stage.

Forbes also worked on scripts for the British Broadcasting Corporation's Caribbean service.

During her presentations, her distinctively smooth voice was a standout and did not escape the notice of British national Robin Michelin who had come to the country to help establish the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC). Forbes was to become one of the voices of the JBC when she began working there as an announcer in 1955.

At the same time, the tasks she performed for Reckord as a de facto production assistant turned out to be a dress rehearsal for her stage debut. This occurred after Reckord invited her to audition for a supporting role in the 1957 National Pantomime that he was directing, Busha Bluebeard. She succeeded in getting the part in the production where she was to meet her second husband, veterinarian Dr Keith Amiel.

Bitten by the acting bug, the ingénue succumbed to the fever it transmitted. Her mentor, Michelin, helped Forbes to procure a scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, England, in 1960, where she studied for a diploma in radio, television and stage.

During her six-year stay at the prestigious school, Forbes appeared in several of its productions, including Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra, in which she played the Egyptian queen. The English bard was to beckon to her many more times, the next occasion being a continent away, in Australia, where she won the coveted role of Portia in The Merchant of Venice in a local staging of the play.

After a two-year stint with JBC following her graduation from the academy, Forbes had moved Down Under in 1968 with her husband, who was conducting research at the University of Queensland. Her craft kept her busy in Australia, and she also put her skills to good use as a drama teacher.

On her return home in 1970, Forbes returned to the JBC as a television producer and presenter.

In 1976, she was made director of radio broadcasting at the station and initiated the production of a popular series of radio plays under the auspices of the JBC Drama Workshop, including A Scent of Jasmine and the self-authored Let's Say Grace.

Forbes played leading roles in plays such as Sea Mama and also appeared in films such as Club Paradise.

She authored the book Re-Entry into Sound, along with Alma Mock-Yen, which is a standard text used to train broadcasters across the Caribbean.

editorial@gleanerjm.com