Patsy Rowlands, born Patricia Amy Rowlands, (19 January 1931 — 22 January 2005), was an English actress best known for her roles in the Carry On... Series and for playing Betty Lewis in Bless This House.
She graduated from the Guildhall School of Speech and Drama with the highest marks in the country. Rowlands began her career in the chorus of Annie Get Your Gun, followed by a summer season in Torquay. She then spent several years with the Players' Theatre in London, before making her West End debut in Valmouth as Thetis Tooke. In 1959, she appeared in the short-lived Gert and Daisy as Bonnie.
She made her debut in the Carry On films in Carry On Again Doctor in 1969 and soon became a regular cast member usually playing dowdy, put-upon wives or long-suffering secretaries. She appeared in nine of the films with her most substantial roles being Miss Withering in Carry On at Your Convenience, Mildred Bumble in Carry On Girls, and Linda Upmore in Carry On Behind.
From 1968 to 1970, she starred in Inside George Webley with Roy Kinnear as his wife, and from 1971 to 1976, she played Betty in the ITV sitcom Bless This House, which starred fellow Carry On star Sid James; the same year Bless This House began, she played Miss Twitty in Tottering Towers, and following this series, she was Susan Mason in The Squirrels. In 1977, she was Mrs. Young in the Miniseries Raven, and in 1979, she was on the radio voicing all the female characters in Ernest Fontwell Versus the Experts, and playing Annie Suthurst in the drama miniseries My Son, My Son.
In the early '80s, she played Policewoman Kitty Naylor in The Nesbitts Are Coming, Netta Kinvig in Kinvig, Thelma in Legacy of Murder, Flossie Nightingale in Rep, and co-starred with Thora Hird in Hallelujah!, in which they played Captain Emily Ridley and Alice Meredith, an aunt and niece in the Salvation Army. In the later series of Rainbow (1972), she had a recurring role as Auntie Patsy.
Towards the end of her life, Rowlands appeared in several Revivals of major musicals such as Oliver! at the London Palladium and My Fair Lady at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, as well as taking part in several DVD commentaries along with other surviving stars of the Carry On films in 2003.
Rowlands had planned to become an acting teacher, but tragically developed breast cancer and had to abandon her plans and quietly retire. She died of breast cancer in an East Sussex hospice, three days after her 74th birthday.
Works on TV Tropes she appeared in:
Films
- Tom Jones (1963) — Honor
- Carry On Again Doctor (1969) — Miss Fosdick
- Carry On Loving (1970) — Miss Dempsey
- Carry On Henry (1971) — Ex-Queen
- Carry On at Your Convenience (1971) — Miss Hortense Withering
- Carry On Matron (1972) — Miss Evelyn Banks
- Carry On Abroad (1972) — Miss Dobbs
- Carry On Girls (1973) — Mildred Bumble
- Carry On Dick (1974) — Mrs. Giles
- Carry On Behind (1975) — Linda Upmore
- Tess (1979) — Landlady
- The Princess and the Pea (2002) — Sasha
Series
- Danger Man, 2 episodes:
- "The Actor" (1961) — Mrs. Harkness
- "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove" (1965) — Mrs. Elsie Farebrother
- That Was the Week That Was, 1 episode (1962) — Woman by Postbox
- Out of the Unknown, episode "Come Buttercup, Come Daisy, Come......?" (1965) — Anne Lovejoy
- Inside George Webley, 12 episodes (1968-70) — Rosemary Webley
- The Avengers, episode "Love All" (1969) — Thelma
- Z Cars, 2-episode story "All Coppers Are Nanas" (1970) — Vera Pye
- If It Moves, File It, episode "Current Affairs" (1970) — Dorothy
- Jackanory, 5-episode story "Mrs Pepperpot" (1970) — Narrator
- Doctor at Large, episode "You've Really Landed Me in It This Time" (1971) — Liz Hickel
- Bless This House, 22 episodes (1971-76) — Betty Lewis
- Jackanory Playhouse, episode "The Lost Voice" (1974) — Daisy Higgs
- Carry on Laughing!, episode "The Nine Old Cobblers" (1975) — Miss Dawkins
- The Basil Brush Show, 1 episode (1975) — Dazzie
- George & Mildred, episode "The Twenty-Six Year Itch" (1979) — Beryl
- Super Gran, episode "Supergran and the Course of True Love" (1985) — Lady Valerie Glutt
- Rainbow, 5 episodesshow list (1987-92) — Auntie Patsy
- Zorro, episode "Miracle of the Pueblo" (1991) — Senora Jones
- Bottom, episode "Parade" (1992) — Mrs. Lil Potato
- Screen Two, episode "Femme Fatale" (1993) — Daisy Harty
- The Bill, episode "Off Limits" (1995) — Rachel Armfield
- Peak Practice, episode "Hit and Run" (2000) — Grace Page
- Animated Tales of the World, episode "Frau Holle" (2004) — Frau Holle
