Samantha Eggar obituary

"In The Collector (1965), she was Miranda, an art-school student abducted by the shy but sinister lepidopterist Freddie (Terence Stamp), who imprisons her in the cellar of his country house in the hope that she will come around to loving him. Eggar received an Oscar nomination for the film, and both she and Stamp won acting prizes at Cannes. Her role demanded that she ricochet between extreme states of distress, some feigned to gain the upper hand over her captor, others paralysingly real, and interludes of calm and even tenderness, during which Miranda tries to convince Freddie to release her."

"If you let me go now, I shall begin to admire you, she says softly. I'll think, Well, he had me at his mercy but he was chivalrous. He behaved like a real gentleman.' She is extraordinary in one heart-stopping moment near the end of the film, when it finally dawns on Miranda that all her pleading and compassion has had no effect. She looks at Freddie, her face tear-stained, and says simply: I'm never getting out of here alive. Am I?"

"The actor's discomfort was not restricted to what happened on screen. All during the rehearsals I felt as if certain people were trying to stab me in the back, Eggar told the Daily Record in 1965. There were rumours of frostiness between her and Stamp. Chief among her antagonists, though, was the director William Wyler, with whom she clashed from the start. Samantha Eggar in the 1960s. Photograph: Everett/Shutterstock Knowing I was not getting along with Wyler, I was scared stiff all the time, she said in 1966. Terrified. During the whole four months that I was slogging away at the film, Wyler never even let me have lunch. He made me rehearse right through the lunch period. And I never knew how I was doing. Wyler never said, Well done' or anything like that. It was a grim time of my life."

Samantha Eggar became known for performances that alternated between being terrified and terrifying, most famously as Miranda in The Collector (1965). In that role she portrayed an art-school student abducted and imprisoned by a shy but sinister lepidopterist, a performance that earned an Oscar nomination and Cannes acting prizes. The role required rapid shifts from feigned calm and tenderness to paralysing distress. A single climactic moment captures Miranda’s realization of hopelessness. Offscreen tensions with cast and director William Wyler created a fraught production marked by anxiety during rehearsals and a gruelling shoot.

Read at www.theguardian.com