Bloom, Claire (1931– )

English actor. She formed the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1948, and moved to the Old Vic in 1952, establishing a reputation as a distinguished Shakespearean actor. Her many film appearances include Limelight (1952), Richard III (1955), Look Back in Anger (1959), and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). On television she has played in Backstairs at the White House (1979), Brideshead Revisited (1981), and A Village Affair (1995).

Her stage roles include Cordelia opposite John Gielgud in a West End production of King Lear (1955) and Blanche du Bois in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire (1974). She published her memoirs, Leaving a Doll's House, in 1996.

She was married to US actor Rod Steiger 1959–69, to US producer Hillard Elkins 1969–72, and to US writer Philip Roth 1990–95.