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Clarissa Kaye

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Clarissa Kaye
Born
Clarissa Knipe

2 August 1931[1]
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died21 July 1994(1994-07-21) (aged 62)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Other namesClarissa Kaye-Mason
OccupationActress
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1971; died 1984)​

Clarissa Kaye (2 August 1931 – 21 July 1994)[2] was an Australian stage, film and television actress. She was the second wife (1971–1984) of the British actor James Mason. After her marriage, she was often known as Clarissa Kaye-Mason.

Biography

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Clarissa Kaye was born as Clarissa Knipe in Sydney in 1931. In 1958 she became one of a class of informal students of Hayes Gordon, who taught "The Method" (the group included Reg Livermore and Jon Ewing). Their first public performances were a series of one-act plays by Tennessee Williams. The group later became the Ensemble Theatre, Sydney's first theatre in the round and its longest established professional theatre company.[3][4]

She appeared in an episode of Adventure Unlimited.[5]

Her first film role was as Meg in Age of Consent (1969), in which she appeared in scenes with James Mason, including a sex scene that was censored from Columbia Pictures' UK and U.S. releases.[6]

Kaye was attracted to Mason and later tracked him down. She wrote to Mason reminding him of their meeting and their sex scene in Age of Consent, and he wrote back. A correspondence between the two followed, and Kaye fuelled the relationship by travelling long distance to meet him.[citation needed]

Marriage

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Mason and Kaye were married on 8 August 1971[2] in Corseaux-sur-Vevey, Switzerland,[7] and remained together until his death in 1984. (It has been reported that it was her second marriage.)[7] Kaye reportedly was willing to put her career on hold, but Mason regularly insisted that she be given roles in his films.[8] They shared scenes in Frankenstein: The True Story (1973); they also both appeared in Salem's Lot (1979), but did not share any scenes.

They appeared on Broadway in April 1979 in Brian Friel's play Faith Healer,[9] but were never on stage together (the play is constructed as four monologues by three characters). Her involvement in Faith Healer was also largely at Mason's request, but she struggled with both the role and José Quintero's direction. Ed Flanders eventually left the play, refusing to work with Kaye, and the production ended after only 17 days.[10]

Death

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James Mason died in 1984. Clarissa Kaye died a decade later, aged 62, on 21 July 1994 from cancer.[2] Before Mason remarried, his children Portland[11] and Morgan (both from his first marriage to Pamela Mason) were to be the beneficiaries of his large estate, valued at £15 million. Mason changed his will to leave Clarissa Kaye as the sole beneficiary, but the children understood from a letter that Mason wrote to them that they would still ultimately receive the proceeds after their stepmother's death. However, she was on such bad terms with them to the point of pathological jealousy that she cut them out of all photos with Mason.

Disregarding Mason's letter saying the children would get his money after Kaye's death, Kaye left Mason's entire estate to an unidentified trust rumoured to be on behalf of the Sathya Sai Organization, run by devotees of the Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba. The organization, based in an ashram near Bangalore, neither confirmed nor denied this.[12]

Mason's ashes were also the subject of controversy. Kaye initially had them in an urn in her home, never telling Mason's children she had them. She later deposited them in a Geneva bank vault, again to hide them. They tracked them down after Kaye's death, and took legal action to retrieve and inter them, and through court order by the judge who declared that his children deserved the right to choose the wording on their father's gravestone.[citation needed]

Filmography

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Film

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Television

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References

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  1. ^ "Clarissa Kaye Knipe Mason (1931-1994)". Find a Grave Memorial. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "Biography for James Mason". Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  3. ^ "Hayes Gordon OBE AO 1920-1999". liveperformance.com.au. Archived from the original on 12 November 2009. Retrieved 26 July 2009.
  4. ^ "Hayes Gordon AO OBE & The Ensemble Acting Studios". Archived from the original on 13 October 2009. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  5. ^ Vagg, Stephen (6 May 2023). "Forgotten Australian TV Series: Adventure Unlimited". FilmInk. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  6. ^ "Age of Consent". Senses of Cinema. Archived from the original on 15 October 2010. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  7. ^ a b "Milestones, Sep. 6, 1971". 6 September 1971. Time magazine. Retrieved 3 November 2014 (subscription required)
  8. ^ "James Mason: Odd Man Out". Bright Lights Film Journal. Archived from the original on 21 July 2012.
  9. ^ " T. E. Kalem (16 April 1979) Theater: Touch and Go". Time magazine, Retrieved 3 November 2014 (subscription required)
  10. ^ Christopher Murray (24 April 2014). The Theatre of Brian Friel: Tradition and Modernity. A&C Black. pp. 80–. ISBN 978-1-4081-5451-9.
  11. ^ "Portland Mason Schuyler, 55, Child Actor". The New York Times. Associated Press. 27 May 2004. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  12. ^ Davies, Caroline (25 November 2000). "James Mason's ashes finally laid to rest". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
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