June Ritchie

British actress June Ritchie (1938) is perhaps best known for starring opposite Alan Bates in A Kind of Loving (1962).


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/190. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood. Publicity still for Die Dreigroschenoper/The Three Penny Opera (1962).

Polly Peachum
June R. Ritchie was born in Manchester, England, in 1938. Ritchie trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, where she later became an Associate Member. She started off her acting career with the Stretford Childrens Theatre in Manchester before landing her first major film role in the kitchen sink drama A Kind of Loving (1962, John Schlesinger). A Kind Of Loving was filmed in late 1961 and released in 1962 after being given an X certificate by the British Board of Film Censors. According to Eleanor Mannikka at AllMovie it is a 'well-wrought romance' situated in the industrial area of Lancashire, where a draftsman (Alan Bates) wants only a physical relationship with the woman of his choice, a typist (Ritchie) who wants true love. She becomes pregnant, which tests the mettle of their relationship more than anything else they could have imagined. June Ritchie’s next film role was Polly Peachum in a French-German adaptation of the Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht piece Die Dreigroschenoper/The Three Penny Opera (1962, Wolfgang Staudte). The reactions on the film were mixed although the critics were positive about the central performances of Curd Jürgens as robber captain MacHeath and his romantic interest Polly Peachum, the daughter of beggar king J. J. Peachum (Gert Frobe). For the film's American release, distributor Joseph E. Levine hired Sammy Davis Jr. to play the Ballad Singer, who narrates the story, introduces the scenes, and sings the opera's most famous song Moritat (The Ballad of Mack the Knife).


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1768, 1962. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Progress. Publicity still from A Kind of Loving (1962) with Alan Bates.

Pussycat Alley
June Ritchie also appeared in the comedy-drama Live Now Pay Later (1962, Jay Lewis) about an unscrupulous salesman, Albert (Ian Hendry), who is beset by a whole series of problems, all of his own making. She then appeared with Sylvia Sims in the dour drama The World Ten Times Over (1963, Wolf Rilla) as two prostitutes. The two women live together in an apartment in London, and work in a night club on Pussycat Alley. Ritchie also appeared in the comedy The Mouse on the Moon (1963, Richard Lester) a less-successful sequel to the The Mouse that Roared. Just when her film career was kicking off, June Ritchie married Marcus Goodrich and semi-retired. When she felt like it she played roles in films, TV-series or stage productions. In the cinema she was seen in films like the African adventure The Syndicate (1968, Frederic Goodis). On stage she made her London debut in Too True to Be Good (1965) at the Strand Theatre and she played Scarlett O'Hara in a musical version of Gone With the Wind (1972) at the Drury Lane Theatre opposite Harve Presnell as Rhett Butler. She appeared in many British television dramas including series like Pere Goriot (1968) an adaptation of Honoré de Balzac's tragic novel, The Persuaders (1971) with Roger Moore and Tony Curtis, the drama series You're On Your Own (1975) and Tales of the Unexpected (1982). June Ritchie still turns up in British radio plays quite regularly, and she is also still married to Marcus Goodrich.


Trailer for The World Ten Times Over. Source: DVDFilmFun (YouTube).

Sources: Eleanor Mannikka (AllMovie), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.