Susan Penhaligon
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This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (January 2010) |
| Susan Penhaligon | |
|---|---|
| Born | 3 July 1949 Manila, Philippines |
| Occupation | Actress, writer |
| Years active | 1971–present |
| Spouse(s) | Nicholas Loukes (m. 1971–1972) (divorced) David Munro (m. 1974–1981) (divorced) Duncan Preston (m. 1986–1992) (divorced) |
| Partner(s) | Duncan Preston (since 1997) |
| Children | Truan Munro (b. 1979) |
Susan Penhaligon (born 3 July 1949) is a British actress and writer, probably best known for her appearances in the controversial 1976 drama Bouquet of Barbed Wire and several ongoing roles in UK television series.
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Early days [edit]
Penhaligon's father worked as an engineer for the Shell oil company and was working in the Philippines at the time of her birth there. Her parents separated and she was sent to live with her grandmother in Cornwall in 1956. After her parents divorced she went to live with her mother who had returned to Cornwall to run a bed and breakfast in St Ives. For a few years she enjoyed an idyllic existence, growing up in a bohemian community of up-and-coming abstract artists but when Penhaligon was ten her mother sent her away to boarding school. Her family upbringing was interrupted and she had little contact with her father who had remarried and moved to San Francisco. She did not meet him again until 1969 just two years before he died.[citation needed]
Acting career [edit]
While training at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art,[1] Penhaligon shared a flat with soon-to-be rock star Peter Hammill.[2] She is named in his songs "Refugees"[2] and "Easy to Slip Away". Tagged the British Bardot in the 1970s, Clive Aslet in The Daily Telegraph wrote that Penhaligon "was the face of the decade";[3] Penhaligon had a high profile at the time.
She acted in several feature films during the decade. These included Under Milk Wood (1972); No Sex Please, We're British (adapted from the stage farce, 1973); The Last Chapter (1974) with Denholm Elliot; The Land That Time Forgot (1975); House Of Mortal Sin (1976); Soldier of Orange (1977), Leopard in the Snow (1978) and the Australian-made horror film Patrick (also 1978). She portrayed Juliane Koepcke in I Miracoli accadono ancora (1974), a film which graphically depicted Koepcke's ordeal in the jungle after surviving the crash of LANSA Flight 508.
She is perhaps best known for the role of Prue, in ITV’s 1976 adaptation of Bouquet of Barbed Wire. Other significant television appearances have been as Lucy in the 1977 BBC adaptation Count Dracula starring Louis Jourdan, Bianca in a 1980 TV adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew and A Kind of Loving (1982). She had a regular role in the UK television situation comedy, A Fine Romance (1981–84), as the more glamorous sister of Judi Dench's character.
Television guest starring roles include appearances in such series as Public Eye (1975); Casualty; A Touch of Frost; Bergerac; Tales of the Unexpected; Return of the Saint; the original Upstairs, Downstairs in 1971; and Doctor Who (portraying Lakis in the story The Time Monster). Most recently she played the character Jean Hope in the British soap opera Emmerdale (2006).[4]
She is also a stage actress. She starred in the UK premier of Karoline Leach's play The Mysterious Mr Love (see Tryst, 1997) as Annie Wilkes in Misery (an adaptation of the Stephen King novel) at the Kings Head Theatre in 2005 in which she was "a first-class psycho, effortlessly switching between attitudes of faux-worshipful subservience and sour-faced fury".[5] and as Queen Charlotte in a touring production of Alan Bennett's The Madness of King George lll during 2010.[6]
Penhaligon was in a pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Bath in December 2008 – January 2009, along with Colin Baker and Lewis Bradley. For The Love Of Angel, her novel, was published in 2008. The book is set in Cornwall during the 1880s as Truro Cathedral was being built.
Personal life [edit]
She has been married three times:
- Nicholas Loukes, actor (1971–72); divorced
- David Munro, filmmaker (1974–81, divorced; one son, Truan Munro, born 1979)
- Duncan Preston, actor (1986–92; divorced; reconciled in 1997 without remarrying but live separately (Preston in North London and Penhaligon on a Dutch barge on the Thames).[7]
In late 2009 she went public concerning the results of botox based cosmetic treatment that she felt had not gone well as a warning to others.[8]
She has a half-brother, Greg Penhaligon, born to her father after he moved to San Francisco. David Penhaligon, a Liberal MP who died in 1986 was a second cousin.[9]
References [edit]
- ^ Catherine Jones "Actress Susan Penhaligon on her role in Agatha Christie’s Verdict", Liverpool Echo, 6 May 2011
- ^ a b "My Favourite Things: Susan Penhaligon", The Argus, 6 September 2010
- ^ Aslet, Clive. "Susan Penhaligon take note: vanity is worse than a few wrinkles", Daily Telegraph, 29 December 2009
- ^ "Susan Penhaligon bemoans lack of TV roles for older actresses", Yorkshire Evening Post]
- ^ Dominic Cavendish "Misery is pure pleasure", Daily Telegraph, 6 October 2005
- ^ "Theatre review: The Madness of King George III", The Scotsman, 30 September 2010
- ^ Hoyle, Antonia. "'I thought it would last forever... but I went into a dark period': Bouquet Of Barbed Wire star Susan Penhaligon reveals her controversial route to fame", Daily Mail, 2 November 2009
- ^ Anita Singh "Susan Penhaligon: Botox left me like Planet of Apes character", Daily Telegraph, 29 December 2009; Jenny Johnston and Sadie Nicholas "The Botox backlash: 'British Bardot' says it left her looking like a creature from Planet Of The Apes", Daily Mail, 30 December 2009
- ^ http://www.cornwallcommunitynews.co.uk/2013/04/05/penhali-gone/
External links [edit]
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