Sophie Ward
Sophie Ward | |
---|---|
Born |
London, England, UK | 30 December 1964
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1974–present |
Spouse(s) |
Paul Hobson (m. 1988; div. 1996) Rena Brannan (m. 2014) |
Children | 2 |
Sophie Ward (born 30 December 1964) is an English actress and the daughter of the actor Simon Ward. Her screen roles include that of Elizabeth Hardy, the beautiful, ill-fated true love of Sherlock Holmes in the film Young Sherlock Holmes.
Career
Ward started work as an actress when she was aged 10,[1] and has worked all over the world in film, television and theatre. She trained as a dancer under world-famous ballerina Merle Park. One of Ward's early film roles was in the film Young Sherlock Holmes directed by Barry Levinson. Other early films included Full Circle, Return to Oz playing beautiful princess mombi II, Little Dorrit and A Summer Story, and she also portrayed the dancing love object in Roxy Music's music video "Avalon".
During the 1990s she turned her acting energies to stagework, with considerable acclaim and success. She has appeared in several Glasgow Citizens' Theatre productions including Private Lives (as Amanda), Don Carlos (as Queen Elizabeth) and most strikingly in Hamlet as Ophelia. In 2006 she produced and starred in Henry Green's Nothing which had its US premier at the 59E59 Theatre in New York for the Brits Off Broadway Festival.
Her most recent films are Out of Bounds (2003), in which she co-stars with Sophia Myles and Celia Imrie, and Book of Blood (2008), co-starring Jonas Armstrong and Reg Fuller. She also recently appeared in Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre (2011). She has worked with such film greats as Susan Sarandon in The Hunger directed by Tony Scott, Liv Ullmann in A Time of Indifference directed by Mauro Bolognini and Elizabeth Taylor in Young Toscanini directed by Franco Zefferili.
Her television work includes the acclaimed mini-series A Dark Adapted Eye with Helena Bonham Carter as the perfectly poised yet ultimately doomed Eden and the sweeping fantasy, Dinotopia. More recently, Sophie had the recurring role of Dr Helen Trent in long-running ITV drama Heartbeat. In 2008, Ward joined the cast of Holby City in a recurring role as Sophia Byrne, sister of surgeon Joseph Byrne.
Personal life
Ward has a first degree in Literature and Philosophy from the Open University.
She married veterinary surgeon Paul Hobson in 1988, and the couple have two sons, Nathanial (b.1989) and Joshua (b. 1993). They divorced in 1996 after Ward became involved with Korean-American writer, Rena Brannan, and came out as a lesbian.[2] Ward and Brannan made their first public commitment at the Groucho Club in 2000, then had a civil partnership ceremony in 2005, followed by marriage after it was legalised in 2014.[3][4]
Ward had long been considered a 'Face of the 1980s' as a Vogue model.[5]
Ward's sister, Kitty, is married to stand-up comedian Michael McIntyre.[6]
Filmography
Film
- Full Circle - 1977
- Return to Oz - 1985
- Young Sherlock Holmes - 1985
- A Summer Story - 1986
- Aria - 1987
- Little Dorrit - 1988
- Young Toscanini - 1988
- A Demon In My View - 1989
- Una vita scellerata (film on Benevenuto Cellini) - 1989
- Seduction of a Priest - 1990
- Wuthering Heights - 1992
- Waxwork II: Lost in Time - 1992
- Crime & Punishment - 1993
- The Big Fall - 1996
- Bella Donna - 1998
- Crime and Punishment - 2002
- Out of Bounds - 2003
- Book of Blood - 2008
- Jane Eyre - 2011
- The Moonstone - 2016
Television
- Shadows: The Other Window (Jan) (Thames Television Short Plays) - 1975
- Too Old To Fight - 1981
- A Time Of Indifference - 1987
- Casanova - 1987
- Miss Marple: A Caribbean Mystery - 1989
- The Shell Seekers - 1989
- The Strauss Dynasty - 1990
- Class of '61 - 1991
- Events At Drimaghleen - 1991
- A Dark Adapted Eye - 1992
- Taking Liberty - 1993
- A Village Affair - 1994
- Chillers: Prophecy - 1994
- MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis - 1994
- Legacy - 1999
- The Inspector Lynley Mysteries - 2001
- Dinotopia - 2002
- Heartbeat - 2004
- Holby City - 2008
- Land Girls *- 2009 Series 1
- Lewis - 2010
- Land Girls - 2010 Series 2
- New Tricks 2010 - Series 7
- Hustle - 2012
* Winner Best Actor (Female)
Guest appearances
- Waxwork II - 1992
- The Nanny ("The Wedding Episode", "The Fran in the Mirror", "The Hanukkah Episode") - 1999
- Crusade ("The Path Of Sorrows") - 1999
- Rhona ("The Fridge") - 2000
- Peak Practice ("Blind spot") - 2001
Short films
- "Avalon" - 1982, music video for Roxy Music
- A Shocking Accident* - 1982
- Rock-a-bye Baby - 1983
- A Prayer for the Dying - 1984
- The Malady - 1985
- Chinese Whispers - 1998
- Extras - 2002
- Bubblegum - 2004
- Missing Link - 2009
- David Rose - 2011
* Oscar Best Short Film
Child performances
- The Chester Mysteries - 1974
- Shadows (The Other Window) - 1975
- Full Circle (The Haunting of Julia US) - 1975
- The Copter Kids - 1976
- Ibsen: The Wild Duck - 1977
- The Brensham People - 1977
- Too Old to Fight - 1980
- The Lords of Discipline - 1983
- The Hunger - 1983
References
- ↑ "Actress Sophie Ward on Go Back for Murder at Oxford Playhouse". www.oxfordtimes.co.uk. Oxford Times. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
- ↑ "Sophie Ward: Our kids have two mums". The Guardian. 5 June 2017.
- ↑ BBC News online article - "In The Pink", dated 18 September 2000
- ↑ "Sophie Ward: How I raised my children with my wife".
- ↑ Pogorzelski, Janina (1 September 2009), "Sophie Ward on mind-expanding sci-fi, adventure travel and why it's fabulous being in your 40s" (PDF), The Lady, p. 82, retrieved 1 April 2012
- ↑ McIntyre speaks of his devastation at the death of his dad, mirror.co.uk; accessed 9 March 2015.