Nyree Dawn Porter

Nyree Dawn Porter, born on 22 January 1936, possessed a rare combination of elegance, intelligence, artistic curiosity and quiet determination that made her one of the most memorable actresses of her generation. Best remembered for her unforgettable portrayal of Irene in The Forsyte Saga, she enjoyed a career that stretched across theatre, television and musical performance, earning widespread admiration for both her versatility and her grace.

Born Ngaire Dawn Porter—her first name meaning "little white star-shaped flower"—in Napier, New Zealand, Porter later reflected on the passions that shaped her childhood. “I always wanted to be an actress but also loved painting and writing,” she recalled. “All my interests leaned heavily towards the arts, but, in truth, I think I always knew what I wanted to do from a very early age.”

Alongside her love of acting came an equally strong devotion to ballet. She began training at just three-and-a-half years old and displayed exceptional promise from the outset. By her early teens she had passed the first of her major ballet examinations with honours, an achievement she remembered as being especially significant for “a young girl growing up in New Zealand.” At the age of sixteen she further distinguished herself by earning an associate position with New Zealand's Royal Academy of Ballet. She even established a successful school for ballet and mime, demonstrating both her talent and entrepreneurial spirit while still remarkably young.

Although ballet occupied much of her life, acting remained her greatest ambition. Her father encouraged this interest by taking her to see a production of Annie Get Your Gun, an experience she greatly enjoyed. Another formative moment came during a school outing to see Laurence Olivier perform in Hamlet. “I was completely riveted by his performance in it and his many other roles in subsequent years,” she later remembered. The inspiration she drew from Olivier strengthened her resolve to pursue the stage.

Her opportunity arrived when she auditioned for The Solid Gold Cadillac, produced by the New Zealand National Theatre. Winning the role proved to be a turning point. Porter remained with the company for the next two-and-a-half years, performing everything from Shakespeare to revues while touring throughout New Zealand. “We did everything from Shakespeare to Reviews. I also got the opportunity to travel around New Zealand and get to know my own country much better before I left to come to England,” she recalled.

In 1958, fortune intervened once again when a friend entered her into the Rank Organisation's Miss Cinema Talent competition for young actresses. The prize included a round-the-world trip and a film test in London. Once she arrived in Britain, she made the life-changing decision to stay.

Porter made her London stage debut in 1959 in the Fortune Theatre revue Look Who's Here, before appearing as Connie in Neil Simon's Come Blow Your Horn at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Her television debut followed in 1960 in Brian Clemens' Identity Unknown, a Danziger Brothers production. Small roles in Danger Man, The Avengers, No Hiding Place, The Saint and Public Eye steadily established her reputation, while co-starring roles, including in Granada Television's now-lost The Liars, demonstrated her growing range.

Her great breakthrough came through Donald Wilson, then head of BBC drama, who had previously cast her in Madame Bovary and Judith Paris. Impressed by her performances, Wilson invited her to meet director David Giles and offered her the role that would define her career. Porter remembered the meeting vividly: “It was during this meeting that I was told that they had it in mind to offer me the role of Irene. Apparently, MGM Studios, which used to hold the copyright to The Forsyte Saga with the BBC, had seen a clip of some of my work and decided I was OK.”

With her classical beauty, ethereal presence and emotional subtlety, Porter seemed born to play Irene Forsyte. Adapted from John Galsworthy's novels, The Forsyte Saga became one of the BBC's greatest triumphs. The 26-part serial captivated audiences across Britain, where it was repeated three times, and eventually reached an astonishing 160 million viewers in 26 countries. It became the first Western drama purchased by the Soviet Union and marked the BBC's breakthrough in exporting classic television drama to the United States.

As Irene, trapped in a loveless marriage to the possessive Soames Forsyte, played by Eric Porter, Nyree Dawn Porter created one of television's most enduring heroines. Her Irene appeared outwardly composed and elegant yet conveyed extraordinary emotional depth and restrained sensuality. Viewers across the world became enthralled by her performance, and fan letters arrived from countries as distant as China.

One of the serial's most controversial moments remains the harrowing scene in which Soames rapes Irene. It provoked a nationwide debate about violence within marriage, something almost unprecedented on British television. Porter later reflected, “It was staggering how seriously it was taken. Politicians had televised discussions on whether Soames was right to rape his wife.” The filming itself was equally dramatic. Eric Porter accidentally gashed his hand on one of her brooches while tearing Irene's dress. “I didn't have any difficulty putting on a horrified expression,” she remembered. “When I looked down and saw blood, I thought: ‘What has he done to me?’”

For her magnificent portrayal of Irene, Porter received the BAFTA Award and, in 1970, was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to drama. Yet the extraordinary success of The Forsyte Saga also created difficulties. The BBC became reluctant to cast her in contrasting roles, referring to her simply as “our Irene.” Rather than accept artistic limitations, she returned enthusiastically to the theatre, undertaking international tours that eventually saw her travel around the world four times.

Personal tragedy struck in 1970 when her first husband, Bryon O'Leary, died from an accidental overdose of whisky and sleeping tablets. Grief led her to withdraw from acting for a period after appearing as Deirdre in the first series of the LWT comedy Never a Cross Word, with Barbara Murray replacing her in the second series.

A fresh chapter began in 1971 when she attended an awards banquet and was approached by Lord Lew Grade. Porter fondly remembered the encounter: “I was sitting at my table when, suddenly, a cigar appeared over my shoulder followed by the legendary Lord Lew. He said to me, ‘My dear, I'd like you to do a series for us.’ Of course, I was thrilled and said, ‘How lovely. Could I see the scripts?’ He answered, ‘Don't worry, they'll be written for you. Now, who would you prefer as your leading man, Gene Barry, Chuck Connors or Robert Vaughn?’”

She chose Robert Vaughn. “I don't think it would have made much difference what I had said since he'd already cast the programme but that's how it was done. He put his hand forward and said, ‘Shake on it,’ and I thought, ‘What have I done?’”

Thus she became one of the stars of The Protectors, the stylish ITC adventure series produced by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and Reg Hill. Porter greatly admired Anderson, describing him as “an extremely kind and caring individual. At times he seemed to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders but he did his best to make his actors feel as relaxed as possible.” Starring opposite Vaughn as the wealthy widow of an Italian count, she helped make the series one of the early 1970s' big television successes.

Throughout the following decades she continued to demonstrate remarkable versatility. Her stage work included Nadya Feodorovna in Jack Holton Dell's The Duel, St Joan, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Francis Durbridge's Deadly Nightcap, Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George, Jeffrey Archer's Beyond Reasonable Doubt, a theatrical revival of The Forsyte Saga in which she returned to Irene, The Winslow Boy, and finally a touring production of Great Expectations, where she delighted audiences as Miss Havisham in a musical production of the Dickens novel.

Among her favourite screen performances were The Forsyte Saga and Madame Bovary, though she also held particular affection for the surreal television musical The Polyviny Girl (1961), written by Carl Davis and directed by Philip Saville and starring John Fortune, Peter Butterworth, Patricia Routledge, Frank Thornton and Barbara Windsor. “I played a store dummy called Mildred who is actually alive and tries to get this young man (played by Fortune) to join her and the other dummies in their world. It was a weird, surreal thing—shades of George Orwell's 1984—with lots of lovely music.”

Her later television appearances included Doctor in Charge, Anne of Green Gables, Softly, Softly and the BBC's David Copperfield. In 1980 she starred opposite Ian Hendry in ATV's From Maddie With Love, portraying a woman with only months to live. It proved to be her last major television role.

Her final stage performances demonstrated that neither wit nor presence had deserted her. She appeared as the sharp-tongued Carlotta in Noël Coward's Song at Twilight at the Arts Theatre before joining the cast of Charley's Aunt at the Theatre Royal, Windsor. Sadly, after being diagnosed with leukaemia, she withdrew from the production in early April 2001. Only days later, on 10 April, Porter passed away at the age of 65.

Nyree Dawn Porter left behind far more than a gallery of distinguished performances. She embodied elegance without vanity, intelligence without pretension and professionalism without compromise. Whether portraying the tragic Irene Forsyte, solving international intrigues in The Protectors, captivating audiences in classical theatre or delighting them in musical roles, she consistently brought warmth, humanity and quiet strength to every performance. More than two decades after her passing, she remains one of the finest actresses to emerge from New Zealand and one of the most enduring stars of British television's golden age.