Actors Chris McKenna and Roy Dotrice attend the after party for the premiere of the play "You Can't Take It With You" at the Ocean Avenue Seafood Restaurant on April 20, 2005 in Santa Monica, California.
Roy Dotrice, the veteran British actor who appeared in Game of Thrones, died on Monday. He was 94-years old and passed away at his home in London.
Dotrice was best known for playing Leopold Mozart in Amadeus, an Oscar-winning film. He also starred in many theater and TV roles and won a Tony Award in 2000 for being in the cast of A Moon for the Misbegotten. He appeared in the second season of Game of Thrones as Wisdom Hallyne the pyromancer and narrated the George R.R. Martin book series.
Dotrice was married to actress Katherine “Kay” Newman until 2007, when she died. They had three children together, all who had stints in the entertainment industry.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Roy Met Kay While They Acted in Theater Together
Dotrice and Kay got married in 1947, and stuck together for 60 years until her death. According to CineMind.com, Roy was born and raised in Guernsey and escaped to England in 1940 after the Germans occupied the island. His acting career started in a German prisoner-of-war camp in 1942 and he was shot after flying with the Royal Air Force Bomber Command.
After he was released from the Royal Air Force in 1945, he started acting in theater, the same place Kay was working at. She had a successful acting career herself and is best known for her role as Mrs. Crisp in Crossroads and also acted in Cheech & Chong’s The Corsican Brothers in 1984.
2. Kay Died of a Heart Attack in 2007
Kay died unexpectedly of a heart attack on August 2, 2007. She was 78-years old and had been married to Roy for 60 years when she passed away.
3. One of their Daughters Appeared in Marry Poppins
Actress Karen Dotrice speaks onstage at the 50th anniversary commemoration screening of Disney’s “Mary Poppins” during AFI FEST 2013 presented by Audi at TCL Chinese Theatre on November 9, 2013 in Hollywood, California.
Of the couple’s three children, Karen went on to find success on the movie screens. She’s best known for her role as Jane Banks in the film adaptation of Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins book series. Before that, she started her career on the theater stage and eventually went into film and TV. Some of her work in the industry includes voice overs for animated films, including voicing over Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas.
But in 1984, she retired from the entertainment industry so she had more time to be a mother, she initially said. She now has three children from two marriages and has received numerous honors and recognition for her acting career.
Karen was married to English actor Alex Hyde-White from 1986-1992, and they had a son together. In 1994, she married Universal Studios executive Edwin Nalle. She had two children with him: Isabella and Griffin.
4. Karen Said She Regrets Acting in Films When She Was a Child
Karen was just 8-years old when she appeared in Mary Poppins and now says that she regrets ever doing so.
“If I’d had my way, I’d still never have done any of those films, because kids should be kids,” she told The Daily Telegraph in 2013. “They should be doing their homework, or outside riding horses. They should be learning and growing at their own pace — and learning things at the right time, rather than when it’s convenient for others.”
During the interview, Karen praised her two parents, saying they were “normal” and helped her “cope with the limelight.” She also revealed the ultimate reason she decided to give up on her acting career was because she refused to appear topless for multiple films when she was a teenager.
5. Their Other Daughter Acted in a BBC Sitcom
The couple’s first child, Michele, was born in 1948 in England and also pursued an acting career. She’s best known for portraying Betty Spencer, the wife of Frank Spencer, in the BBC sitcom Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em. The show ran from 1973-78 and it made a return in 2016 for a one-off special.
Michele married actor Edward Woodward in January 1987, and they had a daughter named Emily Beth together. Woodward, who appeared in the 2007 film Hot Fuzz and the TV show The Equalizer, died in 2009 of pneumonia.
