Pamela Helen Mason, actress, author, talk show host; born Ostrer, in Southend on Sea 1916, died Beverly Hills, California, June 29, 1996

PAMELA Mason, who has died aged 80, was a garrulous woman, often the centre of controversy. The way she and her second husband, actor James Mason, brought up their daughter, Portland, while living in Hollywood, caused raised eyebrows worldwide. The child was precocious and allowed to behave like an adult. Her parents' attitude might seem unremarkable today, but it was extremely daring in the late 1940s, the bourgeoisie were duly outraged and Portland became a minor celebrity in her own right.

Pamela's father, Isidore Ostrer, the textile tycoon, was the eldest of five brothers, children of a Polish shoemaker who had settled in the East End of London in the late nineteenth century. He worked as a stockbroker's clerk, is said to have made a fortune dealing in gold during the First World War, and in 1920 set up a merchant bank, Ostrer Brothers. They formed Amalgamated Textile, which in time became Illingworth Morris. He also become involved in the film business, holding a controlling share in the Gaumont British film production company which was also a distributor for Rank.

Illingworth Morris, was one of Britain's biggest textile businesses, manufacturing high-quality cloths with labels in its control like Crombie. A family row after her father's death in 1975 - she held a controlling 46% of the shares - put Pamela in the headlines again. There was criticism of the way she tried to run the firm from the United States, and a row over family cash. Isidore's adopted daughter, Isabella, had her removed as his executrix and the family trusts placed in the hands of a receiver when in January 1982 the High Court ruled that she be replaced as the administrator of her father's #1.3m estate.

Pamela Ostrer claimed she left school aged nine - ``education simply confused the mind'' - and embarked on a career as an actress. She was 16 when she married Kellino, who was to be the cinematographer on her first film, Jew Suss, which was made in 1934 and produced by the Ostrers. In 1940 she married Mason, after her divorce from Kellino, and the following year the couple collaborated on the film, I Met A Murderer. They had two children, a daughter, Portland and son, Morgan, who later worked as a special assistant to the President in the Reagan White House.

It was a stormy relationship, Mason being a taciturn son of Huddersfield, not at all like his screen image as the cad of the Gainsborough melodramas women adored, whereas Pamela was known for never keeping quiet. Groucho Marx once said of her that she was ``the steadiest talking woman I've ever encountered'', and the writer Nora Ephron that she had been ``vaccinated with a phonograph needle''.

The marriage lasted 23 years during which she continued her acting career spasmodically, appearing with Mason on Broadway in 1947 in Bathesheba, and also on television. When they divorced in 1964 she received a $1.5m settlement, and never looked back, embarking on a career as a chat-show hostess on radio and television in the United States. She also wrote a society gossip column, and continued, even though she was now the ex-wife of a star, to play the role of Hollywood socialite.

Her books included The Cats in Our Lives, written with Mason, Marriage is the First Step Forward, and The Female Pleasure Hunt, a tome full of advice on everything from love making to make-up. In 1985 she appeared in the television film, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, the legend of Errol Flynn.

She is survived by her son and daughter.