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Joanna Lumley, OBE, FRGS (born May 1, 1946 in Srinagar, Kashmir, India) is an English actress and former model.

Early career

Lumley was educated at St Mary's School, Sussex. Tall, leggy, thin and blonde, Lumley spent three years as a photographic model,and is said to have made her TV debut in a well-known UK advert for Nimble bread first screened in 1969 [1]. She also worked as a house model for the late Jean Muir.

Lumley's acting career began with her playing the role of a Bond girl in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). She went on to have a brief, but memorable, role in Coronation Street in which she turned down Ken Barlow's offer of marriage. In the Are You Being Served? episode entitled "His and Hers" broadcast on BBC1 on April 11, 1973 (season 1; episode 4), she guested as perfume representative Miss French. In the April 3, 1975 episode entitled "German Week" (season 3; episode 6), she guested once again, that time as "German Lady."

Major roles

Her first major role, however, was as Purdey in The New Avengers, a revival of the secret agent series The Avengers. Although critical reaction to the series was lukewarm, the casting of Lumley was seen as inspired and following the tradition of iconic Avengers actresses. Lumley's bobbed hairstyle quickly became known as the 'Purdey bob' and was hugely popular for a time in the mid-1970s.

In 1979 she appeared in another series with a cult following: Sapphire and Steel, opposite David McCallum. Conceived as ITV's answer to Doctor Who, Lumley played a mysterious ephemeral being ('Sapphire') who, with her cohort 'Steel', dealt with breaches in the fabric of time.

Lumley went on to find fame with a new generation for her portrayal of the chain smoking, boozing, cocaine-sniffing and other drug-taking sexpot Patsy Stone on the British comedy television show Absolutely Fabulous (1992 - 2004).

She has specialised in playing upper-class parts, and her distinctive plummy voice has reinforced this. However she has demonstrated her ability to go beyond stereotypical images, most notably in the monologue series of playlets Up In Town (2002), written by Hugo Blick, and focusing on a society hostess's realisation that her star is fading.

Other work has included: The Curse of Fatal Death — a special 1999 Comic Relief episode of Doctor Who — where she was a female version of the Doctor, a film about a journey made by her grandparents in Bhutan - In the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon (1996) - and A Rather English Marriage (nominated for a BAFTA for Best Actress 1999) and Dr Willoughby. In 1995 she provided the voice of Annie the rag doll in the animated series The Forgotten Toys. In 2000 she co-produced a new drama series entitled The Cazalets. She has also appeared in a tv series on Sarawak, where she spent time as a girl.

Private Life

Following her rise to fame, she revealed that she had been an unmarried mother (son James, born 1967) during the 1960s when it was socially unacceptable. James Lumley's natural father is the photographer Michael Claydon and is of Anglo Indian ethnicity. The first of her two subsequent marriages was to comedy writer Jeremy Lloyd ("Are You Being Served?" see early career) . She is currently married (1986) to conductor Stephen Barlow and lives in London.

Lumley was awarded an OBE in 1995. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS). In 2006 she was awarded an honorary degree from the University of St. Andrews.

She is a noted animal rights campaigner and vegetarian. She is also a car enthusiast, whose favourite TV programme is Top Gear. Her favourite car is a Triumph Stag convertible. She has been involved with a number of charities, including The Druk White Lotus School (in Kashmir), The Born Free Foundation, Mind (the UK mental health charity), Sight Savers, The Friends of Kadzinuni and many others. She has an interest in and concern about environmental matters, and sponsors the Joanna Lumley Fellowship in Environmental Science at the University of Oxford.

Selected credits

Television

• Steptoe & Son 1972
• Coronation Street 1973
• The New Avengers 1976-1977
• Sapphire & Steel 1979-1982
• Cluedo 1990
• Absolutely Fabulous 1992-2004
• Girl Friday 1994
• Class Act 1994
• Cold Comfort Farm 1995
• The Tale of Sweeney Todd 1997
• Coming Home 1998
• A Rather English Marriage 1998
• Dr Willoughby 1999
• Nancherrow 1999
• Whispers: An Elephant's Tale 2000
• Up In Town 2002
• Top Gear 2004
• Sensitive Skin 2005
• Jam and Jerusalem 2006

Theatre

• Blithe Spirit
• Hedda Gabler - Dundee Rep
• Noel & Gertie - King's Head
• Private Lives

Film

• Some Girls Do 1969
• On Her Majesty's Secret Service 1969
• The Breaking of Bumbo 1970
• Games That Lovers Play 1970
• Tam Lin 1970
• Don't Just Lie There, Say Something! 1973
• The Satanic Rites of Dracula 1974
• Trail of the Pink Panther 1982
• Curse of the Pink Panther 1983
• Shirley Valentine 1988
• Cold Comfort Farm 1995
• Innocent Lies 1995
• James and the Giant Peach 1996
• Prince Valiant 1997
• Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death 1999
• Mad Cows 1999
• Parting Shots 1999
• Maybe Baby 2000
• The Cat's Meow 2001
• Ella Enchanted 2004
• The Magic Roundabout 2005
• Tim Burton's Corpse Bride 2005

Books

By Lumley

• Peacocks and Commas: Best of the "Spectator" Competitions (1983) — Editor
• Stare Back and Smile: Memoirs (1989) — Autobiography
• Forces Sweethearts
• Girl Friday (1994)
• In the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon (1997)
• No Room for Secrets (2005) — Autobiography

She has also narrated a number of audiobooks and provided forewords for works by other authors.

About Lumley

Joanna Lumley- The Biography by Tim Ewbank and Stafford Hildred; an unauthorised biography.

External links

• BBC biography

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