Kate Reid

Esteemed London-born stage, radio and TV actress Kate Reid was actually born Daphne Katherine Reid in 1930 of Canadian parents. The family moved back to Ontario before she was a year old. An introverted child of delicate health, Kate sought refuge in books and role-playing and began studying drama in her mid-teens. She apprenticed in summer stock and trained with Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof at the HB Studio in New York. Earning critical acclaim for her Lizzie in "The Rainmaker" and Masha in "The Three Sisters," her ten years with the Stratford Festival in Canada would establish her as one of Canada's most accomplished actresses. On the Shakespearean stage she would play everything from Lady Macbeth to the shrewish Katherine. A bulky, highly insecure woman, Kate tended to look and play older than she was, battling alcohol and weight problems throughout much of her life. She was to have taken "The Rainmaker" to England's West End at one point but severe anxiety attacks kept her from do