'That's just my face' octogenarian star tells critic disgusted by her 'make-up'

Rose Knox-Peebles has hit back at a theatre critic who said her stage make-up looked ‘a fright’, only the 81-year-old wasn’t wearing any.

The former Vogue model was performing as Erda, the earth goddess, in a new production of Das Rheingold at the Royal Opera House in London.

Rose’s presence on stage is constant throughout but it was her face that caught the eye of a reviewer.

She spends most of the production wearing not a single stitch of clothing – let alone a full face of theatrical make-up.

Financial Times reviewer Richard Fairman attended opening night of the new production of the first chapter of Wagner’s Ring cycle.

He wrote of Rose’s performance: ‘Erda, the earth goddess, is also on stage the whole evening, played by Rose Knox-Peebles and made up to look quite a fright, though that probably goes with the territory if you have been around since the dawn of time.’


Rose did not appreciate this description of herself as ‘frightful’ since that was simply her natural face and she wrote to the paper to tell them as such.

She said: ‘Your reviewer tells readers that Erda, the earth goddess, was made up to look “quite a fright”.

‘This is not so. I wore no make-up – the “fright” look is all naturally mine.’

Rose’s career has spanned decades, writing short stories and novels, collecting art, and acting in various shows, films and theatre productions.

The model had previously taken part in an Age UK charity project, during which she revealed she had once kissed Elvis.


According to The Mirror, in the 70s, she attended his concert with her husband while on holiday in Las Vegas.

‘We got a table right at the back of a gigantic room, very dark,’ Rose shared.

‘The first time, and the only time it ever happened, the singer stepped off the stage into the audience. I felt as if I was flying over the heads of everybody, and I landed I pulled his head towards me and I kissed him.

‘I remembered thinking as I walked back to the table, am I ever going to wash my face again?’

The actress has four children and six grandchildren, living what she describes as her ‘hermit crab’ life in West London.

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