Phyllis Gets Glam for Hollywood

Jan 29 2013 by Kenneth Speirs, Paisley Daily Express

Actress Phyllis Logan swapped her dowdy housekeeper’s uniform for a stunning evening dress when she rubbed shoulders with Hollywood A-listers at a glittering awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

The Johnstone-born star was representing the cast of hit TV period drama Downton Abbey, in which she plays dour Mrs Hughes, to pick up the Best Drama Series Cast prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Downton beat Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, and Homeland to scoop the prestigious accolade on Sunday night.

Fifty-seven-year-old Phyllis looked stunned as she went up to collect the prize at the ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium. The former Johnstone High School pupil said: “We were so not expecting this. Shut the French windows, honestly!

“We would like to thank, first of all, SAG for even bothering to consider us against this fantastic category that we’re in.

“We’re just absolutely overwhelmed by it all.” So delighted were other members of the cast that Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary Crawley, even jumped into Phyllis’s arms.

Phyllis graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, in Glasgow, with the prestigious James Bridie Gold Medal in 1977.

In 1982, she was acclaimed for her performance as Janie in feature film Another Time, Another Place.

For that, she won a won a Gold Award for Best Actress at the Taormina Film Festival and the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress in 1983 and the BAFTA Award for the Most Outstanding Newcomer to Film in 1984.

Before Downton Abbey, she was best known to TV viewers as Lady Jane Felsham in hit detective series Lovejoy.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards are particularly prized as the nominations and winners are chosen by their peers.

More than 1,200 of the industry’s finest performers attended Sunday’s event