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1-15 of 15
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Emma was born Emma Gwynedd Mary Chambers born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire in 1964 to John, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, and Noelle (nee Strange). The family moved around and, while attending St Swithun's school, Winchester, Chambers acted in Winchester college productions - saying she "enjoyed showing off" - and played lacrosse for Hampshire. Her parents eventually split up and she trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, where the former EastEnders actor Ross Kemp was one of her contemporaries.
Her best remembered film role, in Curtis's 1999 romcom Notting Hill, was the eccentric Honey Thacker, star-struck and overawed at meeting the Hollywood actor (played by Julia Roberts) who has fallen for her bookshop-owner brother (Hugh Grant). Honey explains her own difficulties in finding a partner: "I don't have hair - I've got feathers - and I've got funny, goggly eyes, and I'm attracted to cruel men and no one will ever marry me because my boosies have actually started shrinking." She eventually becomes engaged to her brother's slovenly housemate (Rhys Ifans).
Her sister, Sarah Doukas, and brother, Simon, went on to run Storm Model Management, which discovered Kate Moss at the age of 14.
Chambers made her television debut as Margaret, one of the young Brangwen children, in a 1988 BBC adaptation of the DH Lawrence novel The Rainbow. In between one-off roles on TV, she played Charity Pecksniff in a six-part serialisation of Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, which began in the same week as The Vicar of Dibley (1994).
The popular BBC sitcom, written by Richard Curtis with Paul Mayhew-Archer, ran for two series, from 1994 to 1998, finishing with Alice's marriage to Hugo Horton (played by James Fleet), her second cousin once removed. Geraldine described both as having the intellectual capacity of a cactus and the wedding was notable for the two bridal attendants dressed as Teletubbies. Chambers won the 1998 British Comedy Award for best actress and returned as Alice in various Vicar of Dibley specials between 1999 and 2007.
She had significant supporting roles in the sitcom How Do You Want Me? (1998-99) as Helen Yardley, sister of the newlywed Lisa (Charlotte Coleman) returning from London to be near her family in the countryside, and Take a Girl Like You (2000), Andrew Davies's adaptation of Kingsley Amis's comic novel, as Martha Thompson, the bored housewife hostile to her beautiful, northern lodger.
Chambers' West End theatre debut came with the part of Geain, estranged daughter of Ian McKellen's composer Jerome, in Alan Ayckbourn's comedy Henceforward... (Vaudeville theatre, 1988-89) after appearing in the original 1987 production at the Stephen Joseph theatre, Scarborough. In his casting notes for Geain, Ayckbourn stipulated: "Not a child, please. Just a very small actress." Chambers lodged with McKellen for a while and said she regarded him as a father figure.
When, in 1989, she starred in the Scarborough premiere of Ayckbourn's Invisible Friends as another teenage daughter, Lucy Baines, who has an imaginary companion to relieve the awfulness of living with her family, the critic Harry Eyres praised Chambers' skill in "conveying Lucy's kaleidoscopic emotional states with startling immediacy" and negotiating the tricky device of also acting as the play's narrator. She reprised the role in London at the Cottesloe during two stints with the National Theatre company (1991-92) that included appearances in productions such as Franz Kafka's The Trial and Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III.
She gave a hilarious performance as Orgon's daughter Mariane in Tartuffe (Almeida theatre, 1996) and starred as Sheila in Michael Frayn's Benefactors (Albery theatre, 2002), a performance described by one critic as "a touching study in parasitic helplessness".
Chambers who suffered from asthma, attacks of which were often brought on by an acute allergy to animals, withdrew largely but not entirely from public life after the final episode of The Vicar of Dibley (1994) in 2007, which was also to remain her final television role. On the evening of 21st February 2018 Chambers suffered a heart attack and died at her home in Lymington, Hampshire, England at the age of just 53. Her death was announced three days later by her agent John Grant.
Chambers was survived by her husband, the actor Ian Dunn, whom she married in 1991, and by her siblings.- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Ken Russell tried several professions before choosing to become a film director; he was a still photographer and a dancer and he even served in the Army, but film was his destiny. He began by making several short films which paved the way for his brilliant television films of the 1960s that are acclaimed for his attention to detail and opulent visuals. His third feature film Women in Love (1969) was a triumph that made him known internationally. In the 1970s, his talent truly blossomed. Over the next two decades he would direct a succession of remarkable films, most containing the trademark flamboyance that critics generally dismiss but many find engrossing. He will forever be remembered as a controversial, visionary artist with something of a third eye for oddball dramas with captivating images and themes.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Stuart Burge was born on 15 January 1918 in Brentwood, Essex, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for Drama 61-67 (1961), Talking Heads 2 (1998) and Secret Agent (1964). He was married to Josephine Parker. He died on 24 January 2002 in Lymington, Hampshire, England, UK.- Douglas Milvain was born in 1932 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Hereward the Wake (1965), Thursday Theatre (1964) and BBC Play of the Month (1965). He died on 26 June 2011 in Lymington, Hampshire, England, UK.
- Actress
- Music Department
Susan Denny was born on 3 July 1934 in Gosport, Hampshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Department S (1969), Tales from the Crypt (1972) and Playgirl After Dark (1960). She was married to Nicholas Anthony Spanos. She died on 1 December 2012 in Lymington, Hampshire, England, UK.- Iris Ballard was born on 29 June 1913 in Croydon, Surrey, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Quatermass Experiment (1953), Life in Her Hands (1951) and Five Children and It (1951). She died on 22 April 1986 in Lymington, Hampshire, England, UK.
- J.A. Ferguson was born in 1871 in Callander, Perthshire, Scotland, UK. J.A. was a writer, known for Shoestring Theatre (1959), Out of Town Theatre (1966) and Campbell of Kilmhor (1939). J.A. died on 3 December 1952 in Lymington, Hampshire, England, UK.
- Additional Crew
David Balme was born on 1 October 1920 in Kensington, London, England, UK. He is known for U-571 (2000), Convoy: War for the Atlantic (2009) and World War II: Witness to War (2017). He was married to Susan im Thurn. He died on 3 January 2016 in Lymington, Hampshire, England, UK.- Vivian Tremayne was born on 23 February 1887 in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Little Women (1917). She died on 19 November 1985 in Lymington, Hampshire, England, UK.
- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Chris McMaster was born on 3 November 1925 in Marylebone, London, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for Midnight Is a Place (1977), Saturday Playhouse (1958) and Biggles (1960). He was married to Margaret Gotts. He died on 1 November 1995 in Lymington, Hampshire, England, UK.- Camera and Electrical Department
- Cinematographer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Trevor Brooker was born on 21 August 1948 in Willesden, Middlesex, England, UK. He was a cinematographer and assistant director, known for The Fourth Protocol (1987), Book of Blood (2009) and The Insomniac (1971). He died on 13 March 2014 in Lymington, Hampshire, England, UK.- Josephine Parker was born on 7 November 1922 in Buffalo, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Anna Karenina (1977). She was married to Stuart Burge. She died on 21 April 2011 in Lymington, Hampshire, England, UK.
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Nicholas Struthers was born on 20 March 1947 in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, UK. He was a cinematographer, known for Late Flowering Love (1981), The Passionate Pilgrim (1983) and Burroughs: The Movie (1983). He died on 9 August 2018 in Lymington, Hampshire, England, UK.- Edward Shackleton was born on 15 July 1911 in Wandsworth, Surrey, England, UK. He died on 22 September 1994 in Lymington, Hampshire, England, UK.
- Additional Crew
Gordon Pirie was born on 10 February 1931 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, UK. He is known for The Games (1970). He died on 7 December 1991 in Lymington, Hampshire, England, UK.