Eileen Mabel Elizabeth Way (2 September 1911 – 16 June 1994)[1] was a British actress who appeared in film and television roles in a career dating back to the 1930s.

She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from the age of 16.

[1][2] She was in some of the first productions of Tennessee Williams' plays in Great Britain, including playing the role of the Mexican Woman in A Streetcar Named Desire,[3] and appeared at the Bristol Old Vic and Nottingham Playhouse.

[4] She appeared in an early televised episode of Hancock's Half Hour as a puritanical former ATS member, the TV series Doctor Who, in the serials An Unearthly Child (as Old Mother, the programme's first on-screen death) and The Creature from the Pit (as Karela),[5] as well as in the 1966 film Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (as Old Woman), based on the serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964).

[6] She also appeared in the second series of Poldark (1977) as Aunt Agatha; Century Falls;[5] Upstairs, Downstairs;[1] By the Sword Divided;[7] Inspector Morse;[1] Bergerac; and Ripping Yarns.