Sylvia May Laura Syms (6 January 1934 – 27 January 2023) was an English stage and screen actress. Her best-known film roles include My Teenage Daughter (1956), Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957), for which she was nominated for a BAFTA Award, Ice Cold in Alex (1958), No Trees in the Street (1959), Victim (1961), and The Tamarind Seed (1974). Known as the "Grand Dame of British Cinema", Syms was a major player in films from the mid-1950s until mid-1960s, usually in stiff-upper-lip English pictures, as opposed to kitchen sink realism dramas, before becoming more of a supporting actress in both film and television roles. On television, she was known for her recurring role as Olive Woodhouse on the BBC soap opera EastEnders. She was also a notable theatre player. Syms portrayed Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in the 2006 biopic The Queen. Early life and education Syms was born in Woolwich, London, England, in 1934, the daughter of Daisy (née Hale) and Edwin Syms, a trade unionist and civil servant. With the outbreak of World War II, Syms was evacuated to Kent and subsequently Monmouthshire. She grew up in Well Hall, Eltham. When Syms was 12, her mother committed suicide. At 16, she suffered a nervous breakdown and contemplated taking her own life until an intervention from her stepmother. Syms was educated at convent schools before deciding to become an actress and attending The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1954. She later served on RADA's council. Syms's career began in repertory theatre in Eastbourne and Bath. She made her West End debut in The Apple Cart with Noel Coward. Film career Syms appeared in a TV play The Romantic Young Lady. This led to two offers, one to make a film for Herbert Wilcox, My Teenage Daughter, another to sign a long term contract with Associated British. She accepted both. In My Teenage Daughter (1956), Syms played Anna Neagle's troubled daughter. The film was successful at the British box office. For Associated British she made No Time for Tears then appeared in The Birthday Present. Syms had the third lead in Woman in a Dressing Gown for director J. Lee Thompson which was very popular. She then made the English Civil War film, The Moonraker and the war film Ice Cold in Alex, also directed by Thompson. In early 1958 she made a third film for Thompson,