Educating Rita (film) Educating Rita (film) Educating Rita is a British 1983 drama/comedy film directed by Lewis Gilbert with a screenplay by Willy Russell based on his 1980 stage play. The film stars Michael Caine, Julie Walters, and Maureen Lipman. It won multiple major awards for best actor and best actress and was nominated for three Academy Awards. Caine and Walters both won BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for best actor and actress. The British Film Institute ranked "Educating Rita" the 84th greatest British film of the 20th century. A Liverpudlian working-class young hairdresser Rita (Julie Walters) wants to better herself by studying
Rita Bennett Dexter Morgan's girlfriend. It is revealed early on that Rita was physically and sexually abused by Paul Bennett (Mark Pellegrino), her ex-husband and the father of her children, Astor (Christina Robinson) and Cody (Preston Bailey). Dexter's sister Debra Morgan answered a domestic violence call and saved her life. Rita, who is ignorant of Dexter's secret life as a serial killer, appears regularly throughout the first season as his main source of support. She plays a much larger role in the episode "Return to Sender", in which Paul is released from prison and demands to be at Astor's birthday party. Rita