This week: actor known for Beryl's Lot, the founder of Toys R Us, and a French film icon

THE actress Carmel McSharry, who has died aged 91, was probably best known for the 1970s ITV series Beryl's Lot, a comedy drama about a milkman's wife whose life changes when she does a night class in philosophy. Its story of a working class woman who discovers there's more to life than domestic drudgery was a forerunner of later dramas that explored the same theme such as Educating Rida and Shirley Valentine.

McSharry stared in the series from 1973 to 1977, having made a name for herself in theatre and in supporting roles on television in series such as Z Cars and Emergency Ward 10. Later, she would play the neighbour and love interest of Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett in the second series of In Sickness and in Health.

She was born in Ireland (her mother took her there from London so she would be born Irish) and won a scholarship to Rada in the 1940s. She began working in television in the 1960s and played Nancy in a 1962 BBC adaptation of Oliver Twist. She is survived by her three children.

THE businessman Charles Lazarus, who has died aged 94, founded the worldwide chain Toys R Us which for decades was a dominant force in the industry until the move to online shopping changed the market completely. Lazarus died just a few days after the firm he founded announced it would shut all 100 of its UK stores.

He was born in Washington and from an early age helped his father refurbish bikes to re-sell. After serving in the Second World War, he took over his father's bicycle shop before opening a shop children's children's furniture. He then moved into toys, opening his first Toys R Us store in Maryland in 1957.

By the mid 1960s, Lazarus had four stores and by 2017, there were 1,758 stores worldwide, employing 65,000 pe4ople. However, the chain ran in to trouble and the firm filed for bankruptcy in September last year. It annonced in March that it would close all of its UK stores after administrators failed to find a buyer, resulting in the loss of 3,000 jobs.

A spokesman for the toy chain said: "There have been many sad moments for Toys R Us in recent weeks, and none more heartbreaking than today's news about the passing of our beloved founder, Charles Lazarus. He visited us in New Jersey just last year and we will forever be grateful for his positive energy, passion for the customer and love for children everywhere."

THE actress Stephane Audran, who has died aged 85, was a French actress known for the Oscar-winning films Babette’s Feast and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie as well as the 23 films she made with her husband, the director Claude Chabrol.

Many of the films she made with Chabrol, whom she met on the set of The Sign of Leo in 1962, featured her as an unfaithful or betrayed wife called Helene. The films, which all played on the theme of infidelity, came to be known as the Helene Cycle.

The films that the couple made together included The Hinds, which earned Audran a Berlin Silver Bear best actress prize, The Butcher, and Just Before Nightfall. They divorced in 1980.

Audran, who was born in Versailles the daughter of a doctor, appeared in some English-language films, notably the Second World War drama The Big Red One in 1980; she also played Jean-Claude Van Damme’s mother in the 1996 action film Maximum Risk, and the Italian mistress of Laurence Olivier’s Lord Marchmain in the 1980s miniseries Brideshead Revisited.