Background
Clarissa Kaye was born as Clarissa Knipe in Sydney around 1931.
Clarissa Kaye was born as Clarissa Knipe in Sydney around 1931.
She was the second wife (1971-1984) of the British actor James Mason. In 1958 she became one of a class of informal students of Hayes Gordon, who taught "The Method" (the group included Regional 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" United Kingdom and United States releases. Mason, who was over 20 years Kaye"s senior, sent her a long letter telling her of his admiration.
This was followed by a card the following Valentine"s Day, and a long correspondence ensued. James Mason died in 1984, and Clarissa Kaye died on 21 July 1994 from cancer.
However, she was on such bad terms with them that she left her estate to an unidentified trust rumoured to be on behalf of the Sathya Sai Organization, run by devotees of the Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba.
The organization, based in an ashram near Bangalore, neither confirmed nor denied this. Mason"s ashes were also the subject of controversy. Kaye initially had them in an urn in her home, but later deposited them in a Geneva bank vault, without informing Mason"s children.
They tracked them down after Kaye"s death, and took legal action to retrieve and inter them, and to choose the wording on Mason"s gravestone.