Stephanie Cole

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Stephanie Cole OBE
Born	Patricia Stephanie Cole October 5, 1941 (1941-10-05) (age 68) Solihull, Warwickshire, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1968–present
Spouse(s)	Henry Marshall (1973–86) (divorced) 1 child Peter Birrel (1998–2004) (his death)

Stephanie Cole, OBE (born 5 October 1941) is an English stage, television, and film actress, best known for playing characters a great deal older than her actual age.

Cole was born in Solihull, then Warwickshire, now West Midlands. She trained at the world famous Bristol Old Vic Theatre School 1958–1960 and like most actors of that time went on to consolidate her acting skills in repertory theatres around the United Kingdom. She made her stage debut at the age of seventeen playing the 90-year-old Madame Arcati in Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit. At the age of 63 she returned to the same role when the play was revived at the West End's Savoy Theatre in 2004.

Contents 1 Career 2 Personal life 3 Charity work 4 Television roles 5 External links 6 References

[edit] Career

One of her most recognised and popular roles was of Dr Beatrice Mason in the hugely popular series Tenko, a drama which chronicled the lives of British women in Singapore after the Japanese invasion and their consequent confinement in a Japanese Prisoner of War camp. The series pulled no punches in portraying the horrific conditions and brutality faced by the women during their imprisonment, and cleverly dealt with highly relevant modern day issues such as rape, stillbirth, lesbianism, suicide, abortion and euthanasia, all within the context of 1940s morality. Known by many of the women as 'Big Bea', Cole played the role of the stern, officious yet kindly doctor over three series and a one off special between 1981 and 1985.

During this same period, and by now in her very early forties, she also played the elderly paranoid and morose customer Delphine Featherstone (nicknamed "The Black Widow") in the BBC comedy Open All Hours. Mrs Featherstone was the only rival to Nurse Gladys Emmanuel for shopkeeper Arkwright's affections; though she was only attracted to him because she liked his stingy ways. Arkwright was scared of her advances and often hid when he saw her approaching the shop.

In 1988 Cole joined the likes of Thora Hird, Maggie Smith, Julie Walters and Patricia Routledge in the ground breaking, award winning first series of Talking Heads. Talking Heads was a series of dramatic monologues written for BBC television by the acclaimed British playwright Alan Bennett. Cole performed the role of 'Muriel' to great acclaim during the 30-minute monologue "Soldiering On". In later years Cole would repeat her performance of this now famous monologue on both the London stage and for BBC radio.

Another of Cole's famous roles was of the crabby ex-photojournalist Diana Trent in the sitcom Waiting for God which ran from 1990 to 1994. The role of Diana Trent was of a sixty/seventysomething woman, yet Cole was merely forty-eight years old when she started taping the first series of the show. She was also two decades younger than her leading man, Graham Crowden. Set at the Bayview Retirement home, the comedy broke new ground by making serious points throughout its 47 episodes that the elderly are in fact no different than any other age group. They should not be patronised as a defined group or as individuals, nor treated as mentally inferior. Cole received the 1992 Best TV Comedy Actress award at the British Comedy Awards for the role.

In 2006 Cole starred along side Victoria Wood in the Bafta award winning drama Housewife 49 as Mrs Waite, the local head of the WRVS (Women's Voluntary Service).

Cole also had a small role in 2008's romantic comedy Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, as Miss Pettigrew's grumpy boss, Miss Holt.

She has also recently appeared in the BBC Radio 4 comedy, Ed Reardon's Week as Olive,a student in Ed's writing class. Other work for BBC Radio 4 includes the role of Carolyn Knapp-Shappey in the hit airline sitcom Cabin Pressure (radio series) ^[1]

Cole currently stars as Joan Norton, alongside Martin Clunes and Caroline Catz in the popular ITV comedy-drama, Doc Martin. She plays the aunt of Clunes's character Dr. Martin Ellingham.

Aside from television, Cole's best work can also be seen on stage where she has been active for almost forty years. On the West End stage she has featured in Noises Off in 1986 (Savoy Theatre), Steel Magnolias in 1989 (Lyric Theatre) and Quartet in 1999 (Albery Theatre). Her most prominent stage role was as Betty in the hit comedy 'A Passionate Woman' written by Kay Mellor. Directed by Ned Sherrin the play opened at the Comedy Theatre in 1994 and had a nine month extended run. On the West End's production's last curtain call Cole was surprised by Michael Aspel carrying the 'big red book' and was made the subject of This Is Your Life.

In 1998 Stephanie Cole's career in comedy was commemorated in the BBC documentary series 'Funny Women'.^[2]

Cole was awarded an honorary Masters of Arts degree from the University of Bristol in 2002.^[3]

In 2005, Cole was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours for her services to Drama, Elderly People, and to Mental Health Charities.

Stephanie Cole's autobiography 'A Passionate Life' was published in 1998. The book's foreward was written by British theatre director Ned Sherrin.

Cole was voted Solihull's favourite Silhillian in a competition run by Solihull Council in December 2006. She beat Lucy Davis, Martin Johnson and Richard Hammond to pick up the top crown in 'The S Factor'.^[4]

[edit] Personal life

Stephanie Cole married fight director Henry Marshall in 1973. Marshall was one of the founders of the British Academy of Dramatic Combat and was a Master at Arms at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.^[5] They have a daughter Emma who was born in 1973. They divorced after thirteen years of marriage in 1986.

In 1998 Cole married fellow actor Peter Birrel after meeting him again by chance, thirty years after they first appeared together in a production of Richard II at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She remained his wife until his death from cancer in 2004.

[edit] Charity work

Stephanie Cole is a patron of Age Concern and Rethink, the largest severe mental illness charity in the UK.^[6]

[edit] Television roles

Year	Title	Role
1981 to 1985	Tenko	Dr Beatrice Mason
1982 to 1985	Open All Hours	Mrs Delphine Featherstone
1989	A Bit of a Do	Betty Sillitoe
1990 to 1994	Waiting For God (TV series)	Diana Trent
1997 to 1998	Keeping Mum (TV series)	Mrs. Bear
2004 to -	Doc Martin	Joan Norton

[edit] External links

• Stephanie Cole at the Internet Movie Database
• Stephanie Cole archive at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection, University of Bristol

[edit] References