Millicent Martin

The Roar of British Satire

Millicent Martin didn't need permission to enter British homes. In 1962, the BBC launched That Was The Week That Was, and she took the lead of a team of men who dissected politics with unprecedented bite. She sang the news with an aim that made the ministers of the day nervous.

It was the age of black-and-white television and scripts written on the fly. Martin was the only woman in a den of aggressive writers. But her training in musical theater let her keep up the pace without blinking, because she knew live TV doesn't forgive mistakes.

She was the only woman in a den of aggressive writers.

Before that television breakthrough, she had already trod the boards on Broadway in The Boy Friend in 1954. She shared the stage with a very young Julie Andrews and quickly learned that in New York talent is only half the job. The other half is handling the box office pressure every night.

In 1963, her popularity reached absurd levels for a variety singer. The London press followed her everywhere, and producers offered contracts worth triple what any character actor earned. Martin was earning a thousand pounds a week that year, which was an obscene fortune.

The Sitcom Assault

Crossing the Atlantic for good was not an artistic whim. It was a purely financial decision. In the late 70s, she moved to the United States to work on Broadway and ended up finding a golden refuge in American television. Casting directors were looking for that refined British air that could still deliver a cutting line.

Nobody expected a musical star to end up in a sitcom set in Seattle.

And that's how Gertrude Moon came to be. In 2000, she joined the cast of Frasier to play Daphne's mother. The character was a walking nightmare (a chain smoker, nitpicker and manipulator) who clashed head-on with the Crane brothers' neuroses. She worked so well that she stayed for thirty-three episodes until the show's finale in 2004.

But work didn't stop after the closing of the Nervosa café. In 2017, she signed on for Grace and Frankie to bring Joan-Margaret to life. Her chemistry with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin showed that Martin handled modern comedy timing with the same precision as the classics of the sixties. She didn't seek the spotlight, but she stole every scene she appeared in.

And the gamble paid off.

Her presence on the Netflix series extended until 2022. During those years she filmed scenes that required enviable mental agility for an actress already past her eighties. The secret of her professional longevity lies in never saying no to a good supporting role.

The Stamina of the Stage

In 2023, she appeared in the final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, playing Mamie. It's a brief role that serves as a reminder of her standing in the industry. New York producers keep calling her because they know Martin arrives on set with her lines learned and a discipline that today's acting schools no longer turn out.

Despite her age, she keeps a schedule that would exhaust any recent graduate. In 2024, she joined the feature film The Last Showgirl, directed by Gia Coppola. Filming in Las Vegas lasted just eighteen calendar days.