- Born
- Died
- Birth nameMavis Chin
- Mona Hammond was born Mavis Chin to a Chinese father and Jamaican mother. She came to Britain in 1959 on a scholarship to work with an architects firm but was soon involved in black theatre productions with contemporaries such as Lloyd and Barry Reckord and Charles Hyatt, under the name Mona Chin. In 1959 she won a scholarship to RADA. Initially known as a stage actress - she played Lady Macbeth in an all-black version of the Shakespeare play at London's Roundhouse in 1970 - she went to co-found the Talawa Theatre Group with fellow actresses Yvonne Brewster and Carmen Munroe. The group performs black versions of plays written for whites as well as staging original Afro-Caribbean productions. In 2005 she was awarded an O.B.E. for services to drama. Having played in the TV soap 'Eastenders' for some years she has a recurring occasional role as a white vicar's outspoken ex-mother-in-law in radio soap 'The Archers.'- IMDb mini biography by: don @ minifie-1
- SpouseMichael Saunders(1965 - 1987) (divorced, 1 child)
- ChildrenMatthew Paul Saunders
- Moved to Britain in 1959 at the age of 24 after winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
- She is an actress and co-founder of the Talawa Theatre Company in England.
- She was awarded the O.B.E.(Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to drama.
- Despite playing his grandmother on EastEnders (1985), Hammond is only 28 years older than Howard Antony.
- She starred in many plays by an array of up-and-coming black writers: Sweet Talk by Michael Abbensetts, 11 Josephine House by Alfred Fagon and several plays written by Mustapha Matura including As Time Goes By, Play Mas and Playboy of the West Indies.
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