Actress's tragic suicide

A brilliant young actress was found dead in her flat today after a tragic suicide.

Fritha Goodey, 32, was discovered by her father with stab wounds in her Notting Hill home.

She had appeared in About A Boy with Hugh Grant and on stage at the National Theatre. She was also due to appear in a play with David Suchet next month.

A police spokesman said the death was not being treated as suspicious. "At 1am police attended an address in St Charles Square following reports that a woman had been found inside with stab wounds," he said.

"A man had discovered his daughter with injuries at the flat and called an ambulance. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene."

Her father Glenn, a former newspaper executive, found his daughter's body. She had left a suicide note. Mr Goodey, his wife Sally and Fritha's sister Tabitha are said to be in "deep shock". A friend of the family said: "This a terrible tragedy. They are all so close and they are all in deep shock at what has happened.

"She had everything to live for. It is just so awful for all the family."

A neighbour who lives above the actress's ?330,000 apartment said: "She was a lovely girl. I last saw her on Monday, gardening at the front.

He added: "She seemed happy, although obviously concerned about the insecurity of working as an actress. Her father was always visiting to help her with domestic stuff." Miss Goodey was due to open soon in Terence Rattigan's Man And Boy alongside David Suchet in Cambridge.

The Lamda- trained actress worked on TV programmes including A Case Of Evil, Hearts And Bones, Randall & Hopkirk Deceased, Dr Willoughby and The Lost Prince.

Theatre critic Michael Coveney described her performance as Odette in Remembrance Of Things Past at the National as "exquisite". The Evening Standard's Nicholas De Jongh described her as "superlative" in 1999's Some Explicit Polaroids at the Ambassador's theatre.