Mona Hammond, who has died at the age of 91, was a pioneer of black actors in Britain who co-founded the Talawa theater group before finding TV starship in EastEnders as Blossom, matriarch of the Jackson clan.
His EastEnders character moved with his grandson, Alan, and his partner, Carol, to the former Albert Square home in Dot Cotton in 1994. While supporting Alan (Howard Antony) while doing a series of works and Carol (Lindsey Coulson). ) whenever he needed a nice shoulder to cry on, as well as Carol’s four children, Blossom worked at the Bridge Street Cafe next to Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth).
He enjoyed a Platonic friendship with a neighbor, Jules Tavernier (Tommy Eytle), another wise leader, before sharing deeper feelings with Felix Kawalski (Harry Landis), a Holocaust survivor who located his sister until to Israel. In 1997 Blossom accepted his offer to join there.
Hammond said he would leave EastEnders after three years due to a nervous breakdown caused by the show’s production schedule. He returned to the soap briefly in 2010 for the funeral of Blossom’s great-grandson, Billie, Alan and Carol’s only child.
Mona Hammond, second left, in EastEnders, 1996. From left: Natalie Cassidy, Sid Owen, Patsy Palmer and Dean Gaffney. Photography: BBC
Prior to joining EastEnders, Hammond had impressed on screen with a handful of appearances sprinkled over the five years of Desmond’s sitcom (1989-94). He played Aunty Susu, Shirley’s odious older sister (Carmen Munroe), who was married to the title barber Peckham played by Norman Beaton. They formed a distinguished triumvirate of actors who had led the way for black performers in Britain.
Hammond’s character in Desmond’s, who had just arrived from a visit to Jamaica, was portrayed as the “dream girl” of Desmond’s old friend Porkpie (Ram John Holder), and became his fiancée, but he was eventually deported to his home country. Hammond then appeared in two episodes of the Porkpie-derived series, returning flying from the Caribbean, where she had married another man and stolen his savings, after learning that Porkpie had won £ 10 million in the lottery.
Hammond was born Mavis Chin in Tweedside, Jamaica, his last name derives from his father’s Chinese heritage. In 1959 he moved to Britain on a scholarship and worked for architects Norman and Dawbarn. Eager to perform, he attended evening classes at the City Literary Institute in London for two years and won a scholarship to Rada and graduated in 1964.
Changing her name to Mona Hammond to avoid being embedded, she made her professional debut the following year at Liverpool’s Everyman Theater, in Jack of Spades, a musical written by Beaton and Ken S Hignett.
He played Gillian, the girlfriend of Danny Daniels immigrant who faced racism, social deprivation and was beaten by police after arriving from Guyana. The Times described the play as “brave.”
Mona Hammond at Desmond’s. Photography: YouTube
Hammond caught the attention of London theater critics when he took the lead role in The Black Girl in Search of God (Mermaid theater, 1968), based on George Bernard Shaw’s storybook. Then, at the Roundhouse in 1972, he played the wife of Oscar James’ main character, redesigned as Mbeth, in The Black Macbeth, the first all-black version of Shakspeare’s play, directed by Peter Coe. It was set in Africa rather than Scotland, among the Barotse tribe of present-day Zambia, and featured actors from Africa and the West Indies. In 1989 she played Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, performed at the Tyne Theater, Newcastle, Bloomsbury Theater, London and Cork Opera House.
This was for Talawa, the company Hammond had founded three years earlier, with Carmen Munroe, Yvonne Brewster and Inigo Espejel, performing black versions of plays written for white actors as well as original productions. Its name comes from a Jamaican word meaning courage and strength.
For King Lear’s 1994 Talawa production at the Cochrane Theater in London, Hammond interpreted the Fool as a divided personality, with makeup applied to the middle of his face.
Mona Hammond during rehearsals for George Bernard Shaw’s The Black Girl in Search of God at the Mermaid Theater in London, 1968. Photo: Bob Aylott / Getty Images
At the time, he was also advancing on television. After playing many one-off roles in the Play for Today productions of In the Beautiful Caribbean (1972) and Victims of Apartheid (1978), she acted as the proud mother of the British black detective who appears in Wolcott, an innovative mini -ITV of 1981. series. Four years later he had a regular role in the legal drama Black Silk as Marjorie Scott, the separated wife of the lawyer played by Rudolph Walker.
She made her first appearance in EastEnders in 1986, as a midwife giving birth to Vicki Fowler, Michelle’s daughter (Susan Tully). In 1988 she was on Coronation Street for a handful of episodes as Mrs Armitage, unhappy that her daughter Shirley had moved in with Curly Watts.
Several of Hammond’s later roles on television were as grandmothers, such as the three-generation West Indian family series Us Girls (1992-93), the winning children’s series of the Bafta Pig Heart Boy (1999), and the family drama The Crouches (2003-05). ), with Walker as her husband.
Her other soap opera role was on the radio as Mabel Thompson, mother-in-law of the motorcycle accountant turned vicar Alan Franks (John Telfer), in The Archers for a short run (2003-04), with a brief return. visits in 2008 and 2009. In 2005 she was named OBE.
Hammond’s marriage to Michael Sanders (1965-87) ended in divorce. He is survived by his son, Matthew.
Mona Hammond (Mavis Chin), actor, born January 1, 1931; died July 4, 2022