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In July 1967, well-known Derby actress Mary Laine took her final curtain call after performing to rave reviews in War and Peace at the Playhouse in Sacheverel Street. She quit, with no explanation, never to return, though her career continued elsewhere – as Pat Parkin reports.

Forty years after the final curtain fell on the Derby career of actress Mary Laine – who had been the darling of Playhouse theatre audiences – mystery still remains about why she left.

For 11 years she had played the leading lady in almost every production, winning tremendous reviews and popularity; but then, after taking her usual curtain calls for her role in War and Peace in July 1967, the audience was surprised when she returned to the stage to receive farewell gifts, including a gold bracelet, from the board of management.

Few had known she was going. When she informed the theatre of her decision, she had requested there should be no fuss. The official announcement said: "She has given excellent service and we are very sorry she is leaving." No explanation for her departure was ever given and, even today, few are aware that she, in fact, enjoyed a highly successful career in London and around the country.

Telegraph critic, Geoff Hammerton, who sadly is also no longer with us, wrote, when she died in 1983, that she would always hold a place in the hearts and memories of Derby playgoers - "myself included."

She was, he said, the leading lady of the repertory company, playing a formidable range of parts, first in weekly productions and then only slightly less fatiguing fortnightly rep.

She later married, though only briefly, as her husband died 18 months later. She, herself, died in her mid-60s, three years after undergoing a serious operation.

Before that, she had appeared in the record-breaking The Mousetrap at the St Martin's Theatre, London, for more than 12 months.

Other notable events in her career, after leaving Derby, included playing Oscar Wilde's Lady Bracknell at Liverpool and appearing in George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh. She also did several Christmas pantomimes at the London Palladium, Birmingham and Bristol, toured with various productions and made many television appearances.

Mary Laine arrived in Derby soon after the Playhouse reopened in Sacheverel Street following the disastrous fire of 1956.

She quickly won a devoted following and became close friends with two of the top actors, Michael Hall and Ian Cooper. They became known as "the gang of three". In those days, Playhouse performers were easily recognised around the town centre.

Playhouse veteran volunteer worker Wilf Badham knew them well. "They were real characters. In those days, actors behaved like very special people, unlike today when many of them seem to be just being themselves rather than acting a part."

They would be seen almost daily around the streets, cafes and bars of Derby and no-one needed to ask who they were.

Mary Laine, an outstanding looking woman who walked with grace and style, was always immaculately made-up and dressed in beautiful clothes, which she had generally made herself.

Her friend, Michael Hall, could be seen almost every morning striding up St Peter's Street with his rolled umbrella after taking coffee in the Kardomah in the Corn Market on his way to the theatre.

The actors lived in flats in Burton Road and were all great friends.

"They really were the stars of their day," said Wilf.

Mary Laine was born in South Wales but was brought up in Guernsey. She trained for the stage at the end of the 1930s but with the outbreak of war went straight into military service driving lorries.

After the war, she worked on staff training at Harrod's and went to South Africa doing similar work before deciding to make the theatre her career.

She was with the repertory company in Northampton and toured with Leslie Henson before coming to Derby.

Geoff Hammerton said of her: "Her sheer professionalism made her capable of not only accepting the challenge of any role but of giving her audiences a finely crafted and thoroughly competent performance of it."

He said her final triumph at Derby had been in the title role of The Killing of Sister George, which he chose as 1967's top performance by an actress. Her death, he said, marked the end of an era at Derby Playhouse.

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