> Hi Robert,
> Thanks for the links. I guess Rita was not nominated for the Academy
> Awards but she should have been.
> I think you must be British as you said "cinema" instead of movies.
> But, maybe not.
> Well, I have been a fan of Rita since I first saw "A Taste of
Honey".
> As a film student, writer and a visual artist, the scenes between
her
> and the gay guy really moved me. Since I am a gay woman, it sort of
> brought to light the prejudices that we encounter.
> I live in California. Where do you live?
> Hope to hear from you,
> Cheryl
-------------------------------------

Hi Cheryl,

Rita's IMDB filmography is fairly complete. For a slightly more
complete list of her performances, click on the link to her TV Tome
page. (Well, okay, I'll cut and paste it for you right here.)
http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/PersonDetail/personid-151288/

I'm not British, but I do correspond with some British friends by
email, so I guess I'm used to saying "cinema" for their benefit.

One of my Brit friends asked me just the other day whether Murray
Melvin was gay. I said that he had done a great job acting the part
of a gay character in ATOH, but that I really didn't know if he was
gay in real life. Does anyone in the group know for sure???

This reminds me of the first Rita film that I saw. One day in about
1995 or thereabouts, I was channel surfing and stumbled across a
cable channel that was showing "The Trap". I was tremendously
impressed by this unknown (to me) actress who played the part of a
mute woman. I wondered if the actress herself was mute (ha!), just
like some might wonder if Murray Melvin is gay because he did such a
great job playing a gay character.

Bear with me here....in August of 2003, the Earth was passing close
to the planet Mars, and a friend of mine told me to check out
the "Mars Observers" Yahoo Group. That is how I learned about the
existence of Yahoo Groups.

I then went looking for a group dedicated to my favorite 1960's TV
show, "The Fugitive". Scanning down the list of groups beginning
with the letter "F" - for Fugitive - I came across a group
called "Finally A Rita Tushingham Club". This triggered my memory of
seeing "The Trap" in 1995 -- "Oh, yeah, that's that terrific mute
actress from The Trap!"

I joined the group and looked at the backlog of messages up to that
point. From the discussions of other group members, I learned that
Rita had made many more movies than just "The Trap". I bought a few
of her more popular movies on DVD, and they were great, so I just
kept on getting more of her movies. After a while, I had so many
that I figured I might as well try to collect them all! (This hobby
keeps me off the streets, and prevents me from spending my money on
useless frivolities like food, rent, and utilities.) :o)

Every so often, another rare Rita movie will turn up, or perhaps an
old TV performance. Not everyone is interested in some of Rita's
more arcane performances, so I'm afraid that I may bore some of the
group members to tears with this stuff. Oh, well.

Which of Rita's performances is your favorite? Which movies have you
seen? Which would you LIKE to see but just can't find?

Cheers,
Robert, from Phoenix