Biography

Gene Anderson (28 March 1931, London — 5 May 1965, London) was an English actress who had a career in television, film, and theatre from the early 1950s up until her death in 1965 at the age of 34. The first wife of actor Edward Judd, she is best known for her performances in the films The Long Haul (1957) and The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961). A main cast member of the 1950s British television dramas The Crime of the Century and A Mask for Alexis, she was a frequent guest actress on British television series in the 1950s and 1960s. Also active as a stage actress, she created the role of Marie Charlet in the world premiere of Pierre La Mure's Monsieur Toulouse at the Connaught Theatre in 1957 and performed the role of Euphrenia in the first modern revival of John Ford's 1633 tragedy The Broken Heart at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1962; a production directed by and starring Laurence Olivier. In the West End she portrayed the central role of the Nurse in the UK premiere of Edward Albee's The Death of Bessie Smith in 1961 and the role of Kate Croy in the 1963 West End adaptation of Henry James's The Wings of the Dove.