Anna was born in Durban, South Africa in 1940. Her first professional acting job was being the voices of various puppets. Also 3 years training with the South African National Theatre.
Undoubtedly Anna is best known for her creation of the delectable Olive in On the Buses who became a national figure, the symbol of the suffering wife. Anna played in seven series of On the Buses, and the movies ON THE BUSES, Mutiny on the Buses, and Holiday on the Buses. The series also transferred to the stage/ which in 1987 took Anna to Victoria and Vancouver and the next year to Toronto.
Believe it or not Anna started her career as a glamour model, before getting into acting.
In another hit series, The Rag Trade she created yet another splendid character and went on to play the bossy Rosita in two series of Trouble and Strife for Central Television and in BBC's Roland Rat - The Series. Other television appearances are as varied as Celebrity Squares to the BBC's Play for Today. Anna made a cameo appearance in the Pilot for Gayle Tuesday's new show, Gayle's World, with Frank Skinner on Fantasy Football League. Cash in Hand for 6 Foot High Films and was the regular Aunt Sal in Eastenders. Other work has been on Birds of a Feather for Alomo and Boyz Unlimited for Hatrick & Revolver for BBC Scotland.
Other films include two in the Carry On series, Poor Cow, Lock Up Your Daughter, Stainless Steel, Star Spies and Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing playing Marlene the nosey neighbour.
She has appeared in countless pantomimes in such roles as Empress of China in Aladdin, Nurse Glucose in Robin Hood, Alice in Dick Whittington, Fairy Godmother in Cinderella and Fairy Bowbells in Dick Whittington. Anna starred in the national tours of Steaming. Not Now Darling and Noises Off, in which she played Dottie Otley, and at Theatre Clwyd appeared in The Brother of Merlin - her first Jacobean text. This was followed by a revival of The Late Edwina Black and Sue Townsends's Bazarr and Rummage with Jill Gasgoine and she was invited back to Theatre Clywd to play Emma Hornett in Watch it Sailor.
She starred in Sailor Beware on the Isle of Man and a very successful No.l tour of When did you last see your trousers? for the Live Theatre Company/ Straight and Narrow for Multistar Productions. The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomens Dramatic Society Murder Mystery at Hornchurch and on tour, Noises Off for Birmingham Old Stage and No. 1 Tour of The Unexpected Guest playing Mrs Warwick and lately playing Joan Maple in Murdered to Death on tour.
Theatre-in-Education - Ark Theatre Company, Class Actors/ Role Play. Anna has acted and directed for these companies. Who Goes Bare Tour. Starring Trevor Bannister, Linda Lusardi, Melvyn Hayes, Brian Cant and Anna Karen
Information courtesy of UK Productions
CAREER DETAILS
1959 Nudist Memories
1966 The Sandwich Man Starring Michael Bentine as the central character, Norman Wisdom, Terry-Thomas, Harry H. Corbett and Bernard Cribbins Bentine plays a character carrying a sandwich board around the streets of London
1967 Poor Cow This film also starred Terry Duggan (Anna's husband) as a Prisoner Kate Williams (Nurse in Holiday ON THE BUSES) played Beryl
also starred Queenie Watts (in Holiday ON THE BUSES) as Aunt Emm
1968 Wild, Wild Women Created by Ronnie Wolfe and Ronnie Chesney, and starring Barbara Windsor as a young and sprightly cockney. Anna played Maude.
(Olive visited Aunt Maude in the episode Foggy Night.) Also starred Pat Coombs who appeared in Mutiny ON THE BUSES
1969 On The Buses
1969 Carry On Camping
1970 Carry On Loving
1970 The Kenneth Williams Show
1971 The Ski Bum
1971 On The Buses The movie
1973 The Affair
1973 BUSMANS HOLIDAY Torbay (June) with Stephen Lewis & Bob Grant
1973 Cinderella East ham The last Granada panto also starring Tony Blackburn, Anna Karen and Valentine Dyall. It played from the 23rd December 1973 to the 19th January, 1974
1973 Mutiny On The Buses- Holiday On The Buses
1974 WHO GOES BARE? Terry Duggan Dave King
1974 Murder Mystery Pavilion Theatre Rhyl Wales Karen, Larry Dann, Josie Kidd an1974 Cinderella 1974 Pantomime Programme
1974 Cinderella 1974 Pantomime Programme
1975 Milk O with Bob Grant
1976 The Kenneth Williams Show
1976/1977 THE OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE WEYMOUTH PAVILION SEASON 76,77
1977 What's Up Nurse! Anna Karen as Knitter Terry Duggan as Old Salt Kate Williams as Matron
1977 The Rag Trade
1978 Stainless Steel And The Star Spies
1982- 1983 NELL GWYNNE THEATRE HEREFORD Panto DICK WHITTINGTON
1985 EastEnders
1985 Troubles & Strife Anna played Rosita as leader of a group of Church members who's lives were put in a spin by the arrival of a handsome Vicar
1986 Roland Rat, the Series
1991 ANNA KAREN ROY NORTH DAVID BRICE in Noises Off at the GRAND THEATRE Blackpool
1992 Hull New Theatre IBAZAAR & RUMMAGE By Sue Townsend Jill Gascoine, Sophie Lawrence (Eastenders) and Debbie Arnold.
1993 Goodnight Sweetheart
1993 When Did You Last See your.....Trousers by Ray Galton and John Antrobus held at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham from Monday 21st October to Saturday 5th November 1994
Great cast list includes Linda Lusardi (Page 3 Girl), Arthur Bostrom (Hallo Hallo), Hilary Minster (Hallo Hallo) and John D.Collins (You Rang M'Lord) and other actors, including Ronnie Toms, Kieran
McGivern, Kaki Lucius, Howard Nightingall and Stephanie Barry
1996 Beautiful Thing 1996
1999 DICK WHITTINGTON Ben SHEPHERD McAndrew Bright. Blackpool
1997 EastEnders playing "Aunt Sal" 21 August
1997 Theatre Royal, Brighton, September 2-6, The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery’
1998 Mike Reid: Alive and Kidding Herself/Audience Member
1998 Goodnight Sweetheart playing "Mrs. Hardcore" in episode: "Have You Ever Seen a Dream Walking?"13 April
1999 Boyz Unlimited
1999 'Dick Whittington' at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool starring Ben Shephard from 'GMTV', Deborah McAndrew from 'Coronation Street' and Michael Knowles from 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum'.
2000 Travelwise, 2
2000 BBC Hall of Fame: Barbara Windsor Audience member
2001 EastEnders playing "Aunt Sal" 5 October
2002 Another Audience with Ken Dodd ) Audience member October
2002 EastEnders playing "Aunt Sal" 3 October
2002 EastEnders playing "Aunt Sal" 4 October
2002 The Bill playing "Margie Connell" 2002 24 October
2003 EastEnders playing "Aunt Sal" 6 January
2007 to present day 'East Enders'
Anna was married to Terry Duggan who also appeared in, yes you guest it On The Buses, as Nobby played The Depot Mechanic. He also played the Shopkeeper when the Butler Family went to buy a new loo.
STARED ANNA KAREN 1974
ALSO STARRED TERRY DUGGAN
NEWSPAPER OBITUARY LINK FOR ANN KAREN
🎭 Anna Karen — Full Career
4
Anna Karen (Ann Harrison McCall) was a South African-born British actress whose career stretched from the late 1950s to 2017. She became famous as Olive Rudge in On the Buses and later enjoyed a second major television career as Aunt Sal in EastEnders. She also worked extensively in films, theatre, pantomime and touring productions.
👶 1936 — Early life
📅 Born: 19 September 1936
📍 Durban, South Africa
👤 Birth name: Ann Harrison McCall
⚰️ Died: 22 February 2022, aged 85
Anna was born in Durban to John McCall, an accountant, and Muriel Harrison.
As a child, she originally wanted to become:
🐕 A vet
But after seeing the 1944 film National Velvet, she became fascinated by acting and changed her career ambition.
🎭 Moving towards acting
Anna trained for around three years at the South African National Theatre.
🇿🇦 She began developing her acting skills in South Africa before eventually moving to Britain with her mother and sister.
🇬🇧 London became the centre of her professional career.
She also spent several years in Italy, partly because her first husband, opera singer Dick Smart, was training there.
💃 Early career — a very unusual beginning
Before becoming a well-known actress, Anna worked as a striptease dancer at London's Panama Club.
💷 She had taken evening work washing dishes to help pay her rent and drama-school expenses, but discovered that dancing could earn substantially more.
This became one of the unusual chapters of her early life before she established herself as a conventional actress.
🎬 1950s–1960s — Film and television
Anna began building a career in British film and television.
🎬 Among her early screen work were:
- The Price of Fear
- Lock Up Your Daughters
- Poor Cow
- The Sandwich Man
- Wild, Wild Women
She also appeared in television productions including Dixon of Dock Green and The Wednesday Play.
🎬 1966 — The Sandwich Man
Anna appeared in Michael Bentine's comedy film The Sandwich Man.
🎭 It was another step in establishing her as a screen actress.
She also worked with performers who would become important parts of her later career.
🎬 1967 — Poor Cow
Anna had a small role in Ken Loach's first feature film, Poor Cow.
🎬 It was an early example of her appearing in British cinema outside purely lightweight comedy.
🎬 1969 — Carry On Camping
One of Anna's best-known early film appearances came in:
🏕️ Carry On Camping (1969)
She appeared alongside Barbara Windsor, and the two women subsequently became lifelong friends.
Anna played one of the young women at the fictional finishing school.
😂 The film's famous keep-fit sequence helped make it one of the most recognisable entries in the Carry On series.
📺 1968–1969 — Wild, Wild Women
Anna appeared in the BBC sitcom:
📺 Wild, Wild Women
She played one of the workers in a millinery sweatshop.
👭 Barbara Windsor was also involved in the production, strengthening the friendship between the two actresses.
🚌 1969 — OLIVE RUDGE
⭐ The role that made Anna Karen famous
In 1969, Anna Karen was cast as:
👩 Olive Rudge
in ITV's hugely successful sitcom:
🚌 On the Buses
7
Olive was:
👩 Stan Butler's sister
💍 Arthur Rudge's wife
🏠 A member of the Butler/Rudge household
😂 One of the show's main sources of comedy
She was deliberately portrayed as rather dowdy, awkward and unlucky in love and marriage.
Her husband Arthur, played by Michael Robbins, was one of the show's other major comic characters.
😂 Olive's personality
Olive was almost the opposite of the glamorous young women that Stan and Jack were constantly chasing.
She was:
😐 Downtrodden
😂 Comic
💍 Married to Arthur
🏠 Domestic
😩 Frequently frustrated
❤️ Essentially good-hearted
🤣 Often the victim of the family's chaos
Her relationship with Arthur provided a completely different type of comedy from Stan's adventures at the bus depot.
The show's humour often came from the contrast:
🚌 Stan: wants freedom and women
👩 Olive: wants a husband who behaves properly
👨 Arthur: has his own peculiar ways
👵 Mum: adds another layer of family chaos
Anna's portrayal made Olive one of the most memorable female sitcom characters of the era.
🎬 1971 — On the Buses film
The success of the television series led to a cinema film.
🎬 On the Buses — 1971
Anna returned as Olive Rudge.
🚌 Reg Varney — Stan
👩 Anna Karen — Olive
👨 Michael Robbins — Arthur
👮 Stephen Lewis — Blakey
🎟️ Bob Grant — Jack
The film was a major British box-office success.
🎬 1972 — Mutiny on the Buses
Anna again played Olive in:
🚌 Mutiny on the Buses — 1972
The characters were taken into another large-scale comedy adventure away from the normal sitcom format.
🎬 1973 — Holiday on the Buses
The third film was:
🏖️ Holiday on the Buses — 1973
Anna once again played Olive.
This completed the original On the Buses film trilogy.
🚌 1969–1973 — Her On the Buses years
Anna's career became closely associated with Olive.
📺 Television: 1969–1973
🎬 Films: 3
🎭 Stage: later returned to the character
The series became one of Britain's biggest sitcoms, and Olive became one of Anna's signature characters.
🎭 Theatre career
Anna was not simply a television actress.
She had a substantial theatre career, appearing in:
🎭 Not Now, Darling
🎭 Steaming
🎭 Noises Off
🎭 The Unexpected Guest
🎭 Murdered to Death
🎭 Sailor Beware
🎭 When Did You Last See My Trousers?
She toured nationally and internationally.
Her theatre work demonstrated that she was a much more versatile performer than her famous sitcom role might suggest.
🚌 1977–1978 — Back to The Rag Trade
One of the most interesting connections in Anna's career was her return to the work of On the Buses creators Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe.
📺 The Rag Trade — 1977–1978
Anna played Olive again.
The character was effectively transferred into another workplace sitcom created by the same writing team.
This was a fascinating continuation of the comic character that had made her famous.
📺 1985–1986 — Trouble and Strife
Anna got another significant television role in:
📺 Trouble and Strife
She played:
🍸 Rosita Pearlman
Rosita was a much stronger and more assertive character than Olive.
She was a gin-drinking church caretaker and one of the powers behind the scenes at St Anselm's parish church.
This gave Anna another opportunity to show her comic range.
🐀 1986 — Roland Rat: The Series
Anna appeared in:
📺 Roland Rat: The Series
🎭 Character: Maureen McConkey
She continued to appear in comedy and children's television throughout the decade.
🎭 1980s–1990s — Theatre and pantomime
Anna became a familiar figure in British theatre touring.
🎭 She appeared in numerous pantomimes, playing characters such as:
👑 Empress of China — Aladdin
🏹 Nurse Glucose — Robin Hood
👠 Alice — Dick Whittington
✨ Fairy Godmother — Cinderella
🔔 Fairy Bowbells — Dick Whittington
She also worked in Theatre-in-Education, including acting and directing.
🎬 1996 — Beautiful Thing
Anna appeared in the acclaimed British film:
🎬 Beautiful Thing — 1996
🎭 She played Marlene, the nosey neighbour.
The film became an important British coming-of-age movie and introduced Anna to a new generation of viewers.
👑 1996 — AUNT SAL in EastEnders
⭐ Her second defining role
In 1996, Anna began appearing in BBC's long-running soap:
📺 EastEnders
as:
👵 Aunt Sal — Sallie Martin
Aunt Sal was:
👩 Sister of Peggy Mitchell
👦 Aunt of Phil Mitchell
👦 Aunt of Grant Mitchell
👧 Part of the wider Mitchell family
Barbara Windsor played Peggy Mitchell, making their relationship particularly memorable.
Anna appeared in EastEnders on and off from 1996 until 2017, appearing in roughly 59 episodes according to IMDb.
👑 Aunt Sal's personality
Aunt Sal was very different from Olive.
Olive:
😩 Downtrodden
🏠 Domestic
😂 Awkward
Aunt Sal:
💄 Glamorous
😏 Sharp-tongued
🍸 Confident
😂 Outspoken
👑 Strong-minded
💥 Not easily intimidated
Anna clearly enjoyed the opportunity to play a much more assertive older woman.
She frequently appeared at:
💒 Weddings
🎉 Family celebrations
⚰️ Funerals
💥 Mitchell family crises
Her appearances became something of an EastEnders tradition.
📺 2000s — Later television
Anna continued acting into the 21st century.
Her credits included:
📺 Doctors
📺 The Bill
📺 Goodnight Sweetheart
📺 Boyz Unlimited
📺 The Golden Hour
📺 Flick
📺 The Second Quest
She also appeared in various television documentaries and comedy retrospectives.
🎭 2010s — Still working
Even in her later years, Anna continued to make occasional appearances.
📺 EastEnders remained her best-known contemporary role.
She also appeared in programmes such as:
⭐ Pointless Celebrities
⭐ Comedy Classics
⭐ The Barbara Windsor Story
Her final EastEnders appearance came in 2017.
🏠 Her final years
Anna continued living in Ilford, East London, and maintained connections with the entertainment world.
She had a serious fall in 2016, breaking her back. Despite the injury, she continued filming EastEnders scenes, later appearing with a walking frame and eventually a wheelchair.
🕯️ Death
📅 22 February 2022
🎂 Age: 85
📍 Ilford, London
Anna died following a house fire at her home in Ilford.
The fire was later determined to have started after she fell asleep while smoking a cigarette. Police said her death was not suspicious.
Her funeral was held at Golders Green Crematorium on 18 March 2022 and was attended by numerous colleagues and friends from British television.
🏆 Anna Karen — Career at a glance
📅 Period🎭 Career highlight👶 1936🇿🇦 Born in Durban, South Africa🎓 Youth🎭 Trained for the stage💃 1950s🌙 Worked at Panama Club while establishing herself🎬 1960🎥 Nudist Memories🎬 1966🍞 The Sandwich Man🎬 1967🐄 Poor Cow📺 1968–69👒 Wild, Wild Women🎬 1969🏕️ Carry On Camping🚌 1969–73⭐ Olive Rudge — On the Buses🎬 1970❤️ Carry On Loving🎬 1971🚌 On the Buses🎬 1972🚌 Mutiny on the Buses🎬 1973🏖️ Holiday on the Buses🎭 1974 onward🎟️ Major theatre & touring career📺 1977–78👩 The Rag Trade📺 1985–86🍸 Trouble and Strife🐀 1986🐀 Roland Rat: The Series🎭 1980s–90s🎪 Pantomime & theatre🎬 1996🏘️ Beautiful Thing📺 1996–2017👑 Aunt Sal — EastEnders📺 2000s⭐ Doctors, The Bill, Goodnight Sweetheart🎭 2010s📺 Television appearances🕯️ 2022⚰️ Died aged 85
🌟 Her two great characters
🚌 Olive Rudge
Anna Karen + On the Buses
👩 Stan's sister
💍 Arthur's wife
😩 Put-upon
😂 Downtrodden
🏠 Domestic
⭐ Her breakthrough television character
👑 Aunt Sal
Anna Karen + EastEnders
👩 Peggy's sister
👦 Phil & Grant's aunt
😏 Sharp-tongued
💄 Glamorous
🍸 Confident
⭐ Her second major television identity
🎭 The bigger picture
Anna Karen's career is remarkable because she successfully reinvented herself.
She went from:
💃 Early dance work
⬇️
🎭 Stage actress
⬇️
🎬 British film performer
⬇️
😂 Olive in On the Buses
⬇️
🎟️ Major theatre and touring actress
⬇️
📺 Comedy and television roles
⬇️
👑 Aunt Sal in EastEnders
⬇️
⭐ A career spanning nearly six decades
So, like Reg Varney, Anna Karen was much more than the character for which she is best remembered. She had a substantial career in film, television, theatre, touring and pantomime, and her career lasted approximately 58 years.