Anna Karen was born in Durban, South Africa, on September 19, 1936. She began acting when she was 15 and joined the South African National Theatre. For two years, she happily toured the country until she had to leave after breaking the apartheid laws.
Arriving in England in 1953, she moved into a hostel in Paddington, west London and enrolled at the London School of Dramatic Art. She earned her keep by washing up in a restaurant before earning far more money by working as a stripper at the Panama Club.
Her film debut also required her to lose her clothes when she appeared naked in Nudist Memories (1961).
Despite being 33, she played a schoolgirl in Carry On Camping (1969) where she met and became friendly with Barbara Windsor, a friendship that was to endure until Windsor’s death in December 2020. They appeared together in the Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney sitcom Wild, Wild Women.
The two Ronnies were impressed by Karen that they cast her as Olive in their new sitcom On The Buses which starred 43-year-old Reg Varney as randy bus driver Stan Butler who still lived at home with his mum, Mabel (originally Dame Cicely Courtneidge, then Doris Hare who was only 11 years older than Varney), sister Oliver, her husband Arthur (Michael Robbins) and next door to his best mate and conductor Jack Harper (Bob Grant).
The show was incredibly popular despite the incongruity of two middle-aged men – one of whom it has to be said could never be classed as handsome – chasing the “birds” and meeting rather a lot of success.
On screen, Karen wore a wig, thick glasses and padding to play Olive, described by Karen as the “ugliest woman on television”.
She appeared in all 74 episodes plus three spin-off films. One, On The Buses (1971), was the highest grossing film of 1971, beating the Bond film Diamonds Are Forever.
Away from the small screen she was a model and appeared nude in the men’s magazine Men Only.
After On The Buses pulled into the depot for the final time, Karen appeared in the theatre and on the small screen was in And Mother Makes Five, The Kenneth Williams Show and The Dick Emery Show.
In 1977, she returned to playing Oliver in the reworking of the two Ronnies’ The Rag Trade with original stars Peter Jones and Miriam Karlin and Christopher Beeney taking over a similar part to that played by Reg Varney in the original.
In 1996, she acted opposite Barbara Windsor in the soap EastEnders, playing Peggy Mitchell’s sister Aunt Sal. Although never a regular she played the role on and off until January 2017.
In 2016, she had a fall in her home in Windsor Road, Ilford, Essex breaking her back. Her last public appearance was in a wheelchair at Barbara Windsor’s funeral in January 2021.
Anna Karen married the actor Terry Duggan (who appeared in various roles in On The Buses) in 1967 and they were together until his death on May 1, 2008. There were no children of the match.
Anna Karen born September 19, 1936 died February 22, 2022
