Virginia Maskell

Virginia Elizabeth Maskell, Lady Shakerley (27 February 1936 – 25 January 1968) was an English actress.

Virginia Maskell was born in Shepherd's Bush, London. After the outbreak of the Second World War, Maskell's family were evacuated to South Africa. After the war she returned to London and entered a convent school, where she developed an interest in acting.

After attending drama school, she featured in television roles mainly playing demure young women in action series such as The Buccaneers and The Adventures of Robin Hood.

She made a minor film debut for director Roy Boulting with Happy Is the Bride (1957), and then began switching between the theatre and the screen. In director Pat Jackson's comedy Virgin Island (US: Our Virgin Island, 1958) she appeared with John Cassavetes and Sidney Poitier. She gained a British Lion contract and appeared in The Man Upstairs (1958) with Richard Attenborough, and as an air-hostess in Jet Storm (1959).

She also made an impact on the stage, in The Catalyst, and in live TV drama. She later starred in Doctor in Love (1960), and as Peter Sellers's wife in Only Two Can Play (1962); Sellers was unconvinced she could manage a credible Welsh accent and asked for her dismissal, though it was suspected that his ulterior motive was to replace Maskell with Welsh born actress Siân Phillips.

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