Clarissa Kaye (ca. 1931 – 21 July 1994) was an Australian stage, film and television actress. She was the second wife (1971–84) of British actor James Mason. After her marriage, she was often known as Clarissa Kaye-Mason.
Clarissa Kaye was born as Clarissa Knipe in Sydney around 1931. In 1958 she became one of a class of informal students of Hayes Gordon, who taught "The Method" (the group included Reg Livermore and Jon Ewing). Their first public...
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Clarissa Kaye (ca. 1931 – 21 July 1994) was an Australian stage, film and television actress. She was the second wife (1971–84) of British actor James Mason. After her marriage, she was often known as Clarissa Kaye-Mason.
Clarissa Kaye was born as Clarissa Knipe in Sydney around 1931. In 1958 she became one of a class of informal students of Hayes Gordon, who taught "The Method" (the group included Reg Livermore and Jon Ewing). Their first public performances were a series of one-act plays by Tennessee Williams. The group later became the Ensemble Theatre, Sydney's first theatre-in-the round and its longest established professional theatre company.
Her first film role was as Meg in Age of Consent (1969), in which she appeared in scenes with James Mason, including a sex scene that was censored from Columbia Pictures' UK and US releases. She was recovering from pneumonia at the time and still had a temperature of 103 °F (40 °C).
Mason, who was over 20 years Kaye's senior, sent her a...
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