Maria Britneva

In 1939, when registered at the outset of the Second World War, her mother was living in Fulham and stated her occupation as “writer and translator” and her date of birth as 3 April 1894.

Britneva represented her paternal grandfather as having been court physician at Tsarskoye Selo, but no record has been traced of him.

As a child, Britneva studied ballet with Tamara Karsavina and was known as "the little grasshopper" for her ability to jump high, but later she could not pursue a career as a dancer because she was too small or because of foot trouble and, she said, overly large breasts.

She instead studied acting at Michel Saint-Denis's London Theatre Studio school, where she was a contemporary of Peter Ustinov, and John Gielgud employed her in his London theatre company, but he and others considered her a poor actress.

Maria Britneva, Baroness St Just, (2 July 1921 – 15 February 1994) was a Russian-British actress who was a close friend of Tennessee Williams.

As co-trustee of the trust which he set up for his sister, she became his literary executor.

Maria Britneva was born in Petrograd in the Soviet Union.

Her mother, Mary Britneva, was British by birth, a daughter of Charles Herbert Bucknall, business partner in St Petersburg of the French wholesale gem dealers Leo and Georges Sachs.

In the summer of 1922, when Britneva was just thirteen months old, her mother left Russia and emigrated to England, taking with her Maria and her brother Vladimir.

She was brought up in Hammersmith, where her mother settled and worked as a translator of Chekhov, and also by teaching Russian and French.

Her father, Alexander Britnev, was a physician who served in the Red Army and was shot by the Stalinists in the purges of 1930.

In 1948, at a party at Gielgud's house, Britneva met Tennessee Williams, and fell in love with him.

They corresponded for some time, and then she moved to New York, where in the early 1950s she lived in a small flat.

Britneva wanted more than friendship, and fantasized to Arthur Miller about Williams wanting to marry her.

She discussed the friendship with a psychotherapist, but essentially Britneva and Williams were close friends.

Williams arranged parts for Britneva in performances of some of his plays; these were not much praised.

He wrote epitaphs for her diabetic cousin, with whom she had been brought up, and her bulldog, who always snarled at him.

Britneva often traveled with Williams and his partner Frank Merlo; at one point, he said he felt guilty about using her as bait to attract others.

She was reported to be the inspiration for the character of Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

The biographer of Gore Vidal, who was close to Britneva and Williams, says of Britneva that she "cast herself in the role of devoted sister-caretaker" while a biographer of James Laughlin says she was "Tennessee's confidant and protective demon".

In an article published in The New Yorker soon after her death, John Lahr wrote that he believed Britneva reminded Williams of his mother.

She was rumoured to have slept with Marlon Brando, and other affairs included one with John Huston; according to some reports, she had an abortion in 1951.

Britneva fell in love with James Laughlin, and in 1954 they became engaged to be married.

Williams was reported as saying that for him this would be an "old-time happy ending", because Britneva and Laughlin had "a similar place in my heart"; but Laughlin broke off the engagement.

He has been quoted as saying that life with Britneva would have been too restless, and that he had not realized how committed she was to the theatre.

One assessment is that Laughlin became "terrified" of Britneva's "castrating willfulness".

In 1955, Williams said after Britneva’s opening night performance as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, in a production in Florida, "I thought I had written a good play till I saw her in it."

Britneva had other entanglements while in the US.

In 1956, Britneva met an English peer, Peter Grenfell, second Lord St Just, and married him on 25 July 1956.

Her mother had been in Canada and returned to England, arriving the day after the wedding.

She was then of 24, Tennyson Mansions, Hammersmith.

In marrying St Just, Britneva became the stepmother of Laura Claire Grenfell, his six-year-old daughter by his first wife, Leslie Nast, daughter of Condé Nast.

With him, she had two daughters of her own, Katherine Grenfell (born 1957), known as Pulcheria, and Natasha Jeannine Mary Grenfell (born 1959).

One of her daughters had as a godfather Franco Zeffirelli, a good friend of Britneva’s.

Britneva kept up her friendship with Williams, who was a frequent visitor to Wilbury House, her new home in England.

In 1964, Britneva’s mother died at the St George’s Retreat, Burgess Hill, West Sussex, and was buried in Earl's Court, her funeral being conducted by the Russian Orthodox Bishop of Great Britain, Nikodem.

He was rehabilitated (his reputation restored) in 1969.

She was increasingly protective of him, going so far as to attempt to push his brother Dakin off a catwalk at the Lyceum Theatre after the Broadway opening of Out Cry in 1973.

In 1975, Williams angered Britneva by mentioning her only briefly in his memoirs, in which he referred to her as "an occasional actress" and said she was "afflicted with folie de grandeur".

Britneva and Williams continued to write to each other, until shortly before his death in 1983.