Phoebe Nicholls

Last updated

Phoebe Nicholls
Born
Phoebe Sarah Nicholls

(1957-04-07) 7 April 1957 (age 66)
London, England
Alma mater Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
OccupationActress
Years active1964–present
Spouse
(m. 1985)
Children3; including Tom and Matilda
Parent
Relatives Horace Nicholls (grandfather)

Phoebe Sarah Nicholls (born 7 April 1957) is an English film, television, and stage actress. She is known for her roles as Cordelia Flyte in Brideshead Revisited and as the mother of John Merrick in The Elephant Man .

Contents

Personal life

Nicholls is the daughter of actors Anthony Nicholls and Faith Kent. [1] She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. [2] Nicholls married director Charles Sturridge on 6 July 1985; [3] they have two sons, Tom and Arthur, and a daughter Matilda. [3] [4] Her grandfather is photojournalist Horace Nicholls. [5]

Career

As a child actress in several films she was billed as Sarah Nicholls. [6] In her early 20s, she appeared in David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980), Richard Loncraine's The Missionary (1982) and as Cordelia Flyte in Brideshead Revisited (1981). Since then, she has worked almost exclusively in television and theatre. Cast in Michael Lindsay-Hogg's original staging of Whose Life Is It Anyway? in 1978, she later performed in Robert Strura's revival of Three Sisters with Vanessa Redgrave. At the National Theatre she appeared in Stephen Daldry's acclaimed version of J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls [2] and in David Hare's Pravda (starring Sir Anthony Hopkins). At the Royal Court Theatre she appeared the Olivier Award-winning production of Terry Johnson's Hysteria . [7] Her supporting performances in the 2008 West End revivals of Noël Coward's The Vortex and Harley Granville Barker's Waste earned her the 2009 Clarence Derwent Award from Equity. She also played the conniving art critic Rivera in the National Theatre production of the Howard Barker drama, Scenes from an Execution .

Nicholls appeared in the BBC film Persuasion (1995), an adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. She has made guest appearances on several television mystery series, including Kavanagh QC , Prime Suspect , Midsomer Murders , Lewis , The Ruth Rendell Mysteries ("May and June", 1997), Foyle's War , Second Sight starring Clive Owen, and the 2012 Christmas episode of Downton Abbey , a role she reprised for the 2014 season. She has also appeared in several works directed by her husband, Charles Sturridge, including his 1995 television adaptation of Gulliver's Travels , where she portrayed the Liliputian Empress, the 1997 film Fairy Tale: A True Story and Shackleton in 2002.

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
1964 The Pumpkin Eater Elizabeth
1965 Dr. Terror's House of Horrors Carol RogersSegment: "Creeping Vine"
1967 Our Mother's House Gerty
1969 Women in Love Winifred Crichbilled as Sarah Nicholls
1980 The Elephant Man Merrick's Mother
1982 The Missionary Deborah Fitzbanks
1983 Party Party Rebecca
1984 Ordeal by Innocence Tina Argyle
1987 Maurice Anne Durham
1987GentrySusannah
1997 FairyTale: A True Story Polly Wright
2012 The Scapegoat Charlotte
2016Three Women Wait for DeathMirandaShort
2016 Starfish Tom's Mother
2016 Chubby Funny Aunty Jane
2017 Transformers: The Last Knight Aunt Helen
2017 Finding Your Feet Janet
2020 The Empty Man Nurse Allerton
2021 The Electrical Life of Louis Wain Mrs. Wain
2023 Widow Clicquot

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
1975Prometheus: The Life of BalzacAugustine de Berny"Apprenticeship of a Genius"
1977 Van der Valk Treesje"Gold Plated Delinquents"
1979 Telford's Change Jean"1.8"
1979 Bless Me, Father Nurse Owen"Father Neil's First Miracle", "The Heart of a Curate"
1979 Secret Orchards StellaTV film
1980 BBC2 Playhouse Geraldine"Hesther for Example"
1980 Blade on the Feather Christabel CavendishTV film
1981 Brideshead Revisited Cordelia FlyteTV miniseries
1982 Tales of the Unexpected Carol"A Harmless Vanity"
1983PicturesBabs"1.3"
1983 All for Love Christine"To the Camp and Back"
1984 Hay Fever Sorel BlissTV film
1985 Screen Two Louie Jermy"Poppyland"
1990 Screen Two Sarah"Drowning in the Shallow End"
19914 PlayAnnabel"Seduction"
1993 Heart of Darkness The IntendedTV film
1995 Kavanagh QC Jackie Jarvis"Heartland"
1995 Screen Two Elizabeth Elliot"Persuasion"
1996 Gulliver's Travels Empress of Lilliput"1.1"
1997 The Ruth Rendell Mysteries May Thrace"May and June: Parts 1 & 2"
1999Second SightJudith BendrixTV film
2002 Shackleton Emily ShackletonTV miniseries
2002 I'm Alan Partridge Karen Colman"Bravealan"
2003 Midsomer Murders Laura Smythe-Webster"A Tale of Two Hamlets"
2003 Prime Suspect 6: The Last WitnessShaw"Part 2"
2003 Foyle's War Amanda Reece"The Funk Hole"
2004 Hawking Isobel HawkingTV film
2004 The Brief Sally Graydon"Children"
2006 Spooks Janet Wheeler"5.10"
2007 The Trial of Tony Blair Cherie Blair TV film
2007 Lewis Caroline Croft"Expiation"
2007 All About Me Helen ConroyTV film
2007 Clapham Junction NatashaTV film
2010 The Road to Coronation Street Mrs. SimpsonTV film
2012 Loving Miss Hatto Mrs. HattoTV film
2012-2014 Downton Abbey Susan MacClare"A Journey to the Highlands", "5.8"
2013 New Tricks Annie Banks"The One That Got Away"
2015 Fortitude Dr. Allerdyce9
2015 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Mrs. Wintertowne"The Friends of English Magic", "How Is Lady Pole?"
2016 Doctor Thorne Countess de Courcy"1.1", "1.2", "1.3"
2017 Endeavour Caroline Bryce-Morgan"Lazaretto"
2021 A Very British Scandal Helen Whigham
2022 Anatomy of a Scandal Tuppence Whitehouse"1.4"
2024 Eric TBA [8]

Stage

Related Research Articles

<i>Brideshead Revisited</i> 1945 novel by Evelyn Waugh

Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is a novel by the English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of Charles Ryder, especially his friendship with the Flytes, a family of wealthy English Catholics who live in a palatial mansion, Brideshead Castle. Ryder has relationships with two of the Flytes: Lord Sebastian and Lady Julia. The novel explores themes including Catholicism and nostalgia for the age of English aristocracy. A well-received television adaptation of the novel was produced in an 11-part miniseries by Granada Television in 1981. In 2008, it was adapted as a film.

Charles B. G. Sturridge is an English director and screenwriter. He is the recipient of a BAFTA Children's Award and four BAFTA TV Awards. He has also been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cordelia</span> Name list

Cordelia is a feminine given name. It was borne by the tragic heroine of Shakespeare's King Lear (1606), a character based on the legendary queen Cordelia. The name is of uncertain origin. It is popularly associated with Latin cor "heart", and has also been linked with the Welsh name Creiddylad, allegedly meaning "jewel of the sea", but it may derive from the French coeur de lion "heart of a lion".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juliet Mills</span> British-American actress (born 1941)

Juliet Maryon Mills is a British-American actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Andrews</span> British actor (born 1948)

Anthony Colin Gerald Andrews is an English actor. He played Lord Sebastian Flyte in the ITV miniseries Brideshead Revisited (1981), for which he won Golden Globe and BAFTA television awards, and was nominated for an Emmy. His other lead roles include Operation Daybreak (1975), Danger UXB (1979), Ivanhoe (1982) and The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982), and he played UK Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in The King's Speech (2010).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Sturridge</span> English actor (born 1985)

Thomas Sidney Jerome Sturridge is an English actor. His early films include Being Julia (2004), Like Minds (2006), and The Boat That Rocked (2009). He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performances in Orphans (2013) and Sea Wall/A Life (2020). He was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in American Buffalo (2016). Since 2022, Sturridge has starred as Dream in the Netflix fantasy series The Sandman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diana Quick</span> English actress

Diana Marilyn Quick is an English actress.

<i>FairyTale: A True Story</i> 1997 American film

FairyTale: A True Story is a 1997 fantasy drama film directed by Charles Sturridge and produced by Bruce Davey and Wendy Finerman. It is loosely based on the story of the Cottingley Fairies, and follows two children in 1917 England who take a photograph soon believed to be the first scientific evidence of the existence of fairies. The film was produced by Icon Productions.

Jonathan Cake is an English actor who has worked on various TV programmes and films. His notable screen roles include Jack Favell in Rebecca (1997), Oswald Mosley in Mosley (1997), Japheth in the NBC television film Noah's Ark (1999), Tyrannus in the ABC miniseries Empire (2005) and Det. Chuck Vance on the ABC drama series Desperate Housewives (2011–2012).

Benjamin Charles Miles is an English actor, best known for his starring role as Patrick Maitland in the television comedy Coupling, from 2000 to 2004, as Montague Dartie in The Forsyte Saga, from 2002 to 2003, as propagandist and television executive Roger Dascombe in 2005 film V for Vendetta, as Peter Townsend in the Netflix drama The Crown (2016–2017) and George in episode 8 "The One That Holds Everything" in the TV drama The Romanoffs (2018).

Maria Zena Schneider, known professionally as Maria Charles, was an English film, television and stage actress, director and comedienne. She was probably best known for her performance as the overbearing mother Bea Fisher in the ITV sitcom Agony. Charles also appeared on the stage in original West End productions including musicals by Stephen Sondheim, Charles Strouse and Sandy Wilson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hayley Atwell</span> British and American actress (born 1982)

Hayley Elizabeth Atwell is a British and American actress. After appearing on various West End productions, Atwell gained popularity for her roles in period-drama films, appearing in the films Brideshead Revisited (2008), The Duchess (2008) and the miniseries The Pillars of the Earth (2010); for the latter two, she was nominated for a British Independent Film Award and a Golden Globe Award respectively.

<i>Brideshead Revisited</i> (TV series) 1981 British television serial

Brideshead Revisited is a 1981 British television serial starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews. It was produced by Granada Television for broadcast by the ITV network. Significant elements of it were directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who handled the initial phases of the production, before Charles Sturridge carried on with the series. The first episode is credited to both men equally.

<i>Brideshead Revisited</i> (film) 2008 British film

Brideshead Revisited is a 2008 British drama film directed by Julian Jarrold. The screenplay by Jeremy Brock and Andrew Davies is based on the 1945 novel of the same name by Evelyn Waugh, which previously had been adapted in 1981 as the television serial Brideshead Revisited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Nicholls (actor)</span> English actor

Anthony Nicholls was an English actor.

<i>Hysteria</i> (play) 1993 comedy play by Terry Johnson

Hysteria: Or Fragments of an Analysis of an Obsessional Neurosis is a two-hour comedy play, by British dramatist Terry Johnson, fictionalising a real-life 1938 meeting between Salvador Dalí and Sigmund Freud a year before the latter's death. It is named after the Freudian psychological term "hysteria".

Matilda Alyson Faith Rosenblatt is an English actress.

Horace Walter Nicholls was an English photographer, notable as a war photographer during World War I.

Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh is an Irish costume designer. Much of her career has been in Irish and British-Irish productions, such as Michael Collins (1996), The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), Brideshead Revisited (2008), Ondine (2009), The Guard (2011), Calvary (2014), The Rhythm Section (2020), Foundation (2021), and The Banshees of Inisherin (2022). She has been nominated eleven times for Best Costume Design from the Irish Film & Television Academy, winning for The Rhythm Section. Other nominations include Emmy, Critics Choice, and Satellite Awards. Eimer was elected to AMPAS in 2020.

Kiran Sonia Sawar is a Scottish actress best known for her role in the one-off drama Murdered by My Father. In 2017, Sawar appeared in "Crocodile", an episode of the fourth season of anthology series Black Mirror.

References

  1. McFarlane, Brian, ed. (2016). "Nicholls, Anthony". The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition. UK: Manchester University Press. p. 1,975. ISBN   9781526111968.
  2. 1 2 "SonyPictures.com". Sony Pictures Classic: Phoebe Nicholls. Archived from the original on 1 April 2007. Retrieved 1 May 2007.
  3. 1 2 "Charles Sturridge Biography (1951-)". FilmReference.com. Archived from the original on 12 January 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2007.
  4. Ellen, Barbara (3 July 2016). "Tom Sturridge: 'If I'd been a parent to myself, I would have been scared'". The Guardian . UK. Archived from the original on 3 September 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  5. Buckland, Gail; Horace Walter Nicholls (1989). The golden summer: the Edwardian photographs of Horace W. Nicholls. Pavilion. p. 114.
  6. "Phoebe Nicholls". AllMovie.com. Archived from the original on 16 January 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2007.
  7. "[Untitled cast biography page]". FairyTale: A True Story official site (Paramount Pictures). Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 1 May 2007.
  8. Otterson, Joe (3 February 2023). "Benedict Cumberbatch-Led Netflix Limited Series 'Eric' Rounds Out Main Cast". Variety. Retrieved 3 April 2023.