Kay Hawtrey

Kay Hawtrey (born November 8, 1926) is a Canadian actress. She was born in Toronto.

Full name Katharine Mary Craven Hawtrey, she is part of the Canadian branch of this very old English family, the Anglicized name having been derived from D'awtrey. Their ancient pedigree goes back to their 1565 restoration and enlargement of Chequers, now the country house of prime ministers of Great Britain, and beyond. Later, the family seat shifted to the Elizabethan era Eastcote House in the London suburb of Eastcote, which was demolished to make way for the London underground extension. Only the dovecote, a wall, and coach house survive. The family became more visible with Ralph Hawtrey, whose only daughter became Lady Mary Bankes when she married Sir John Bankes, Chief Justice to Charles 1st. As a Royalist, she defended their home in Dorset, Corfe Castle, against the parliamentarians in 1643 at the time of the first Civil War. There is a plaque commemorating her heroic act on the South wall of Ruislip church. Her great great grandfather was Edward Craven Hawtrey (1789-1862) headmaster of Eton College. The family then turned to the quite separate professions of acting, economics, and athletics, producing in the first instance Sir Charles Hawtrey (not Charles Hawtrey, the Carry On actor who borrowed the name) and Anthony Hawtrey, Sir Ralph Hawtrey, the pre-Keynesian economist in the second, and thirdly, England's champion runner in the 1906 Olympics, Henry Hawtrey.

Educated at Toronto's Trinity College, she appeared in television plays for the CBC and married English actor John Clark in 1956. They moved to New York in 1959, where they had a son, naming him Jonathan Hawtrey Clark in 1963. She and her husband were divorced in 1967, and thereafter she returned to Toronto with their son, where she appeared in many film and television productions. She is best remembered for the 1980 film Funeral Home.