Theatrical agent,
choreographer, dancer
Born August 16th
1945; died December 24th 2012
Without Pat Lovett, who
has died aged 67 after a long battle with emphysema, theatre, film
and television in Scotland would be a much duller place. As the boss
of Scotland's longest-standing acting agency, Lovett was a larger
than life figure whose social flamboyance sat alongside a
straight-talking steeliness when doing business. It was a skill she
honed while working as a dancer on Ken Russell's 1971 feature film,
The Boy Friend. As Equity rep, she was forced to square up to Russell
after he'd perched his ensemble on a perilously high set of aeroplane
wings. Lovett won the battle, as well as danger money for the
company. It would hold her in good stead as the dynamic agent she
became.
Patricia Diane Lovett
was born in Woolwich and grew up in Blackheath in South-East London,
the youngest of three sisters to Fred and Irene, a seamstress. Fred,
who flitted between stints as an engineer, inventor and owner of a
driving school, was hoping for a boy, and named his newly-born Pat in
the hope that she'd turn out to be a tomboy. As it was, the convent
educated Lovett started ballet classes at the Royal Academy of Dance
from a young age, and appeared as a child dancer at the Royal
Festival Hall.
Lovett went on to train
further in dance at an Arts Educational stage school in London, and
on graduating moved straight into the West End and the London
Palladium. On television, Lovett danced in a plethora of prime-time
light-entertainment shows alongside the likes of Cliff Richard and
Bruce Forsyth with the Young Generation and Pan's People. She was
even sacked from pop show, Ready Steady Go! for being too old. She
was twenty-one.
Lovett arrived in
London just as it started to swing, and for a time she hung out with
The Beatles. She told the story of how, somewhat refreshed at John
Lennon's twenty-fourth birthday party, she was escorted to a taxi by
Lennon himself. Another time, George Harrison's then girlfriend Patti
Boyd asked Lovett if she danced merely as a hobby.
On film, as well as The
Boy Friend, Lovett appeared in Half A Sixpence and Chitty Chitty Bang
Bang, before being asked to choreograph some TV shows filmed in
Scotland. She asked one of the cameramen, Stuart Logan, where she
could buy French cigarettes, and the pair argued over which was best,
Gauloises or Gitanes. Lovett fell in love with both Logan and
Scotland, and the couple married in 1974.
Lovett choreographed
pantomimes and shows with Billy Connolly, and moved into straight
theatre via 7:84, the Young Lyceum company, Borderline and the
Traverse. Lovett became publicity manager for the latter theatre
following the birth of her daughter Dolina in 1976, using the then
Grassmarket bar as a kind of creche, while passing actors became
unpaid babysitters as she put up posters.
In 1981, Lovett took
over the Esel Agency, which she developed into PLA (Pat Lovett
Associates), and then Lovett Logan Associates as it is today. In its
thirty-year existence, there isn't a film, theatre or TV company who
hasn't come into contact with Lovett, while her numerous clients have
included Kevin McKidd and Iain Glen.
In 1990, Dolina joined
the agency, eventually taking the lead as the business expanded to
London and Lovett became ill. Lovett and Logan divorced in 1981, but
they remained friends until the end. A second marriage, to writer
Raymond Ross, didn't last. For the past two years since her illness
worsened, Lovett was looked after daily by Tam Jamieson, her devoted
friend who she met in the early 1990s, and who provided a kind of
sanctuary beyond the theatre world.
Lovett took delight in
nurturing young actors, and, whether as agent, friend or life-long
socialist, cared deeply about their welfare. Her gregarious sense of
mischief also made her a presence at any first night party, her
throaty laughter punctuating any sense of seriousness with a bohemian
largesse that would see her face light up at the prospect of gossip.
Lovett's own stories were legion, and she was a fountain of fabulous
indiscretion. Only later would you notice her talking earnestly in a
corner with her clients, dissecting the good and bad points of their
performance and the show it had contributed to with a gimlet-eyed
precision that retained a compassionate generosity of spirit at all
times. Lovett was a force of nature who became both a theatrical
institution and a legend. In an industry founded on make-believe,
Lovett was a rare and real thing.
Lovett is survived by
Jamieson, her daughter Dolina and partner Kevin, her grand-daughter
Natasha, and her sisters, Sandra and Rita. A humanist funeral will
take place at Warrieston Crematorium, Edinburgh, on January 7th.
The Herald, January 3rd, 2013
ends
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