Actress and writer Phyllis Craig dies at 74

Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2001 | 6:09 a.m.

A Las Vegas resident since 1991, Craig died Jan. 10 at the Harbor House hospice after a long battle with cancer. She was 74.

Born Aug. 5, 1926, in London, Craig began performing at age 4, following in the footsteps of her actor father, Charles Robert Biggs, whose friends included such theatrical giants as Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Alec Guinness and Judith Anderson.

Her stage roles ranged from the Shakespearean - including Lady Macbeth and Hamlet's mother Gertrude - to the saucy. She was Broadway's first topless actress in the hit "Scuba Duba."

For 18 years in New York, Craig ran Royal Court Repertory, writing and directing 23 murder mysteries, including the long-running "Bargain for Murder," which she published as a novel last year.

Craig first came to Las Vegas in the early 1960s, when she sang at the Riviera and the Sands. She returned in the 1990s to revive Royal Court Repertory at a local theater.

Recently honored by the Daughters of the British Empire for her book, Craig also won awards from the Southern California Motion Picture Council for her achievements as an actress, producer, director and writer.