Zoë Wanamaker

Zoë Wanamaker
Zoë Wanamaker in 2013
Born	(1949-05-13) 13 May 1949 New York, New York, United States[1]
Nationality	US/UK
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1973–present
Spouse(s)	Gawn Grainger (m.1994–present)
Parent(s)	Sam Wanamaker (deceased) Charlotte Holland (deceased)
Website	www.zoewanamaker.com
Zoë Wanamaker's voice from the BBC programme Front Row, 2 May 2013[2]

Zoë Wanamaker, CBE (born 13 May 1949)^[1][3] is an American-born British stage, television and film actress, who has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. A nine-time Olivier Award nominee, she won for Once in a Lifetime (1979) and Electra (1998). She has also received four Tony Award nominations for her work on Broadway; for Piaf (1981), Loot (1986), Electra (1999), and Awake and Sing! (2006).

Wanamaker's film appearances include Wilde (1997), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), and My Week with Marilyn (2011), while her television roles have included starring as Tessa Piggott in the drama series Love Hurts (1992–94) and Susan Harper in the long-running sitcom My Family (2000–11). She has also appeared in the ITV dramas Agatha Christie's Poirot (2005–13) and Mr Selfridge (2015).

Early life and family

Wanamaker was born in New York City, the daughter of Canadian-born actress and radio performer Charlotte Holland, and American-born actor, film director and radio producer Sam Wanamaker, who decided not to return to the United States after being blacklisted in 1952.^[1] Her parents were Jewish, although she had a non-religious and non-observant upbringing. Her father's family was of Ukrainian extraction.^[4]

The BBC documentary Who Do You Think You Are?, broadcast on 24 February 2009, revealed that Wanamaker's paternal grandfather Maurice Wanamaker (originally Manus Watmacher) was a tailor (born 1895) in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. She was educated at the independent King Alfred School in Hampstead and at Sidcot School, a Quaker boarding school in Somerset. Zoe attended Hornsey College of Art for the Pre-Diploma Course before she trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.^[1][5]

Career

Stage

Wanamaker's career started in the theatre. From 1976 to 1984 she was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. She won an Olivier Award for her 1979 performance in Once In a Lifetime^[6] and a second for Sophocles' Electra in 1998.^[7] In 1985, she played Verdi's wife Giuseppina Strepponi in the original production of After Aida. She appeared on stage playing the part of Beatrice opposite Simon Russell Beale as Benedick in the National Theatre's production of Much Ado About Nothing. She has received Tony Award nominations for her performances in Piaf, Loot, Electra, and Awake and Sing!.

In 1997, Wanamaker was the first person to speak on the stage of the newly completed replica theatre, Shakespeare's Globe, on London's South Bank.^[8] This was in recognition of the role played by her father in founding the new theatre. She subsequently became Honorary President of the Globe.^[9]

From May to October 2010, Wanamaker appeared in Arthur Miller's All My Sons as Kate Keller at the Apollo Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in London.^[10]

Wanamaker appeared in Terence Rattigan's All On Her Own from 24 October 2015 till 13 January 2016 at the Garrick Theatre. The work is a one-woman play that preceded Rattigan's Harlequinade, which she also appeared in, each night as part of a never-before-seen double bill.^[11]

Screen

Starting in the early 1980s, Wanamaker began performing on screen, most notably in a number of critically acclaimed television productions, such as the BBC Television production Edge of Darkness; she was nominated for a BAFTA Award for her portrayal of the love interest of a suspected serial killer in the first instalment of the Granada series Prime Suspect.^[12]

Television series have included Paradise Postponed (as Charlotte Fanner-Titmuss, 1986) and Love Hurts (1992–94) with Adam Faith.

She played Madam Hooch in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.^[13]

She played Clarice, one of the dim-witted twin sisters of Lord Groan in Gormenghast (2000), a BBC television adaptation of Mervyn Peake's trilogy.

Wanamaker portrayed Susan Harper in the BBC situation comedy My Family from 2000 to 2011.^[13]

She voiced a CGI character named Lady Cassandra in the Doctor Who episode "The End of the World" (2005), and reprised the role (also appearing in the flesh this time) in the episode "New Earth" (2006).

Wanamaker lent her voice to the 2008 Xbox 360 game Fable II as the blind Seeress Theresa, who guides the playing character throughout the game. She returned to voice Theresa again in Fable III in 2010, and again in 2012 for Fable: The Journey.

She has played Ariadne Oliver in several episodes of Agatha Christie's Poirot.

Wanamaker was in the Australian Film "We of the Outback" (2013) where she played the role of Sheila Williams, the wife of Australian Bush Legend R M Williams, (played by Michael Markidis). The film won many AFI awards with Wanamaker being awarded the Best Actress title and Markidis Best Actor.

In 2015, she joined the cast of Mr. Selfridge as Princess Marie, the Russian mother-in-law of Rosalie Selfridge/Bolotoff.

Nationality

Zoë Wanamaker holds both British and American citizenship. She became a British citizen in 2000.^[14]

Honours

Wanamaker was appointed a CBE in the 2001 Queen's New Years Honours List for her services to drama. She also received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of East Anglia on 19 July 2012.^[15]

Public advocacy

Wanamaker has been a Patron of the UK charity Tree Aid,^[16] since 1997. Tree Aid enables communities in Africa's drylands to fight poverty and become self-reliant, while improving the environment. In 2006 Wanamaker recorded a successful Radio 4 appeal for the charity.

She is a patron of Dignity in Dying, the Lymphoedema Support Network,^[17] Youth Music Theatre: UK and of the Young Actors' Theatre, Islington. She is also one of the Honorary Patrons of the London children's charity Scene & Heard.^[18] Wanamaker also supports Survival International's campaign to save the threatened native tribes in Brazil.^[19]

In August 2014, Wanamaker was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.^[20]

Wanamaker is one of nine presidents of The Young People's Trust for the Environment.^[21]

Personal life

Wanamaker lived for many years with fellow Royal Shakespeare Company actor David Lyon.^[22] In November 1994, she married actor/dramatist Gawn Grainger.^[1]

Filmography

Television

Video Games

Theatre work

• The Devil's Disciple, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1976
• Wild Oats, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1976
• Ivanov, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1976
• The Taming of the Shrew, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1978
• Captain Swing, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1978
• Piaf, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1978
• Once in a Lifetime, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1979
• Piaf, Plymouth Theatre, New York City, 1981
• The Importance of Being Earnest, National Theatre, London, 1982
• Twelfth Night, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1983
• The Time of Your Life, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1983
• The Comedy of Errors, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1983
• Mother Courage, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1984
• Loot, Manhattan Theatre Club, then Music Box Theatre, both New York City, 1986
• The Bay at Nice and Wrecked Eggs, National Theatre, London, 1986
• Mrs Klein, National Theatre, 1988, then Apollo Theatre, both London, 1989
• Othello, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1989
• The Crucible, National Theatre, London, 1990
• The Last Yankee, Young Vic, London, 1993
• Dead Funny, Hampstead Theatre, then Vaudeville Theatre, both London, 1994
• The Glass Menagerie, Donmar Warehouse, then Comedy Theatre, both London, 1995
• Sylvia, Apollo Theatre, London, 1996
• Electra, Chichester Festival and Donmar Warehouse, London, 1997, then McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, and Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York City, 1998
• The Old Neighbourhood, Royal Court Theatre, London, 1998
• Battle Royal, National Theatre, London, 1999
• Boston Marriage, Donmar Warehouse, then New Ambassadors Theatre, both London, 2001
• His Girl Friday, National Theatre, London, 2003
• Awake and Sing!, Belasco Theatre, New York City, 2006
• The Rose Tattoo, National Theatre, London, 2007
• Much Ado About Nothing, National Theatre, London, 2007
• All My Sons, Apollo Theatre, London, 2010
• The Cherry Orchard, National Theatre, London, 2011
• Passion Play, Duke of York's Theatre, London, 2013
• Stevie, Minerva Theatre, Chichester, 2014, then Hampstead Theatre, London, 2015
• Harlequinade and All On Her Own (double-bill), Garrick Theatre, London, 2015
• Elegy, Donmar Warehouse, London, 2016

Awards and nominations

• For her stage work, Wanamaker has been nominated four times for the United States' most prestigious theatre award the Tony and nine times for the most prestigious British theatre award the Olivier, winning two.
• For her screen work, Wanamaker has received three BAFTA nominations.^[24]

year given is year of ceremony

• In 2006, Wanamaker and the rest of the cast of Awake and Sing! won a special Drama Desk award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zoë Wanamaker.

• Zoë Wanamaker at the Internet Movie Database
• Zoë Wanamaker at the Internet Broadway Database
• Natasha Lehrer, Biography of Zoë Wanamaker, Jewish Women Encyclopedia
• Controversy over payment for Harry Potter film Guardian Unlimited article
• Zoë Wanamaker – Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org
• Actors On Performing Working in the Theatre seminar video at American Theatre Wing, April 2006
• Zoë Wanamaker interviewed by Beth Stevens about Awake and Sing! on Broadway.com
• Zoë Wanamaker demands equal pay for actresses – Telegraph