Two Fat Ladies star Clarissa Dickson Wright died Saturday at Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary of an unspecified illness, according to CBS.
The surviving member of the hilarious duo that made the world laugh on the hit BBC show was 66 years old. Her full name was Clarissa Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmerelda Dickson Wright, and like her name, her personality was larger than life itself.
She was described as “a marvelous cook and hugely knowledgeable about food and food history” by the shows producer, Patricia Llewellyn. “She was a force of nature and a true character, someone who knew how to tell a great story and had a fabulous sense of humor.”
After Two Fat Ladies ended in 1999 with the death of co-star Jennifer Paterson, Clarissa Dickson Wright moved on to make other TV series and wrote books including A History of English Food and her memoir called Spilling the Beans.
Dickson Wright began life in an affluent London family as the daughter of a brilliant and respected surgeon who also happened to be a violent alcoholic.
She grew up to become a lawyer, but alcohol addiction brought an early end to her promising career. So, she ran a cookbook store until she was discovered for the BBC show. The rest is BBC history.
Her agent Heather Holden-Brown said of her, “Her fun and laughter, extraordinary learning and intelligence, will be missed always, by so many of us.”, according to the BBC.
She went on to say, “Loved dearly by her friends and many fans all over the world, Clarissa was utterly non-PC and fought for what she believed in, always, with no thought to her own personal cost.”
She led the fantastical life comparable to her huge personality, and is recently quoted as saying, “I’ve had a fantastic life and I’ve done everything I could have wanted to do and more”.
Image Via Wikimedia Commons
