1948–1959 ''; clockwise from left: Stella Claire, Lyn Connorty,
Eric Berry, Laye,
Millicent Martin (1955) Laye made her stage début at the New Lindsey Theatre Club,
Notting Hill in April 1948, playing a boy, Moritz Scharf, in
The Burning Bush,
Noel Langley's drama about state persecution of Jews. In the 1948–49 Christmas season she played Bobby, the nephew of the wicked Baron de Rostonveg (
"Monsewer" Eddie Gray) in the
pantomime Babes in the Wood at the
Prince's Theatre, London. She had her first film role in 1949 in
Trottie True playing Trottie (
Jean Kent) as a child, Laye first appeared on the
West End stage in October 1951 at the
New Theatre in the musical
And So to Bed by
J. B. Fagan, playing Lettice, maid to
Samuel Pepys's wife. In January 1953 she returned to the New Lindsey for the revue
Intimacy at Eight, which was seen there and elsewhere in various revised versions intermittently over the next two years. At the
Hippodrome in May 1953 Laye appeared in the revue
High Spirits, starring
Cyril Ritchard and
Diana Churchill, in a supporting cast including
Ian Carmichael,
Joan Sims and
Patrick Cargill. In April 1954 she was in another revised version of the New Lindsey revue, presented at the
Criterion Theatre as
Intimacy at 8.30, alongside Sims,
Joan Heal,
Ron Moody and
Ronnie Stevens. Laye made her
Broadway début in September 1954, playing Dulcie in the musical
The Boy Friend opposite
Julie Andrews (as Polly), with whom she shared a flat for much of the 485-performance run. Although the stage remained her first love, Laye made several films in the 1950s. and ''
Blue Murder at St Trinian's and Jasmine Hatchet in Doctor at Large'' in 1957. One of the few failures of Laye's stage career came in 1957 with
The Crystal Heart at the
Saville Theatre, London.
Ned Sherrin described the piece as "a disastrous camp American musical". The production closed after five performances. At
Her Majesty's Theatre in December 1957 Laye played Estell Novick in a non-musical comedy,
The Tunnel of Love. Despite mixed notices for the play, Laye and her co-star Carmichael were praised, and the piece ran for more than a year. Laye then joined
Joan Littlewood's
Theatre Workshop company to play Redhead in a musical adaptation of
Wolf Mankowitz's novel
Make Me an Offer, seen first at the
Theatre Royal, Stratford East in October 1959 and then at the New from December. but she later commented that she did not work with Littlewood again, "and you can draw your own conclusions from that". On television she appeared in an episode of the
BBC television sitcom
The Rag Trade in 1962 and in 1965 she co-starred with her friend
Sheila Hancock in six episodes of the sitcom
The Bed-Sit Girl. After that she appeared in the West End comedy
Say Who You Are with Carmichael, Cargill and
Jan Holden. In 1967 she had a cameo role in
Charlie Chaplin's romantic film comedy
A Countess from Hong Kong, playing a scene opposite
Marlon Brando. The following year she toured as Miriam in
Gwyn Thomas's comedy,
The Keep. The following year she made her first appearance with the
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), playing Theresa Diego in Barnes's historical drama
The Bewitched. She continued in the role in May 1974 when the production transferred to the
Aldwych Theatre, London. Two years later, at the
Old Vic, Barnes directed
The Frontiers of Farce, a double bill of his adaptations of one-act plays by
Frank Wedekind and
Georges Feydeau, in which Laye starred with
Leonard Rossiter,
John Stride and
John Phillips. Actress and playwright worked together on three more radio presentations in the 1970s: his adaptations of Wedekind's
Lulu, in which she played Countess Geschwitz (1978) and of
Thomas Middleton's
A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, described in the
Radio Times as "a bawdy Jacobean black comedy", She had leading roles in two further Barnes adaptations for the BBC: Helen in Wedekind's
The Singer and Catherine in Feydeau's
Le Bourgeon, given as
The Primrose Path (1984). and Ruth in a version of
The Pirates of Penzance at the
Manchester Opera House with
Michael Ball as Frederic and
Paul Nicholas as the Pirate King in 1985. Laye's later RSC appearances were as Maria in
Twelfth Night (1996) and Mrs Medlock in the musical
The Secret Garden (2000 and 2001). Her later West End credits included the musicals
Nine in 1997 and
Into the Woods in 1998, both at the
Donmar Warehouse, a
Mother Courage figure in Barnes's mediaeval play
Dreaming at the
Queen's (1999),
Elizabeth II in
Single Spies in 2000, and Mrs Pearce in
Trevor Nunn's revival of
My Fair Lady at the
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 2002. Laye featured as Madame de Rosemond in a revival of
Christopher Hampton's
Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the
Playhouse Theatre in 2004, receiving the
Clarence Derwent Award for best supporting actress. In 2005, she toured Britain as the Grandmother in
Roald Dahl's
The Witches. Her later television work included Mrs Sparsit in Barnes's adaptation of
Hard Times, and character roles in
EastEnders,
Coronation Street,
Holby City,
Midsomer Murders,
Doctors,
The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, and
The Commander. Her final stage work came in 2006 in the three roles of Miss La Creevy, Mrs Gudden, and Peg Sliderskew in the
Chichester Festival Theatre's revival of the RSC's epic
Nicholas Nickleby. During rehearsals, she was diagnosed with
lung cancer. She kept her illness secret from the rest of the cast, but was too ill to transfer with the production to London. ==Personal life and death==