- Born
- Height1.68 m
- Susan Hampshire, the English actress who has won three Emmy Awards, was born in Kensington, London on May 12, 1937. Her original ambition was to be a nurse, but she could not pass her O-Level exam in Latin. (She found out when she was 30 years old that she was dyslexic, and her work on dyslexia subsequently brought her the Officer of the British Empire award.) She decided to become an actress and gained training in the theater. She made her movie debut, at 10 years old, in La double vie de Lorna Blake (1947) but her proper debut was in the Laurence Harvey picture, Expresso Bongo (1959), in 1958. Her career has never faltered.
Hampshire made a name for herself in her native Britain, appearing in Katy (1962) on TV in 1962 for the BBC. Walt Disney signed her to star in the 1964 family picture, Les trois vies de Thomasina (1963), but it was her role in the 1967 BBC mini-series, La dynastie des Forsyte (1967), that made her famous and won her the first of her three Emmy Awards. Shown in the United States on the precursor to PBS, the great popularity of the series led the new PBS to create Masterpiece Theatre (1971). The First Churchills (1969), in which Hampshire played "Sarah Churchill", was the first series offered on "Masterpiece Theater" and brought her her second Emmy. In 1973, she won her third, playing "Becky Sharp" in Vanity Fair (1967), for a mini-series that had been released in the UK in 1967.
Susan Hampshire has continued to be active on television and in the theater. She has been married to her second husband, the theatrical impresario, Sir Eddie Kulukundis, since 1981.- IMDb mini biography by: Jon C. Hopwood
- SpousesEddie Kulukundis(April 4, 1981 - February 17, 2021) (his death)Pierre Granier-Deferre(1967 - 1974) (divorced, 2 children)
- ChildrenVictoria Granier-Deferre
- ParentsGeorge HampshireJune Pavey
- Gorgeous brown eyes, high cheekbones, West End accent, demure manner
- Upturned Nose
- Wearing an extremely low-cut dress, she was presented to the Prince of Wales at a show-business function in 1973. The Prince told her, "My father told me that if I ever met a lady in a dress like yours, I must look her straight in the eyes."
- She was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1995 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to dyslexic people.
- She was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2018 Queen's New Years Honours List for her services to drama and charity.
- She wrote her memoir "Susan's Story" about dealing with her dyslexia. Prominent spokeswoman for dyslexia causes in Britain.
- On her own volition, she visited Albert Schweitzer in Africa for two weeks.
- ... there's no better part than a nasty person. After Fleur, I played a whole series of them: Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, was in her own way a monster, Becky Sharp was also a monster, and in the theatre I've played a lot of monsters, but for some reason people only ever remember me playing these sweet simpering girls who wouldn't say boo to a goose. It must be something about my personality which is deceiving people!
- 'Colour TV was incredible. You would turn it on just to look at a tree. It was so exciting to see it not in black and white.' - recalling the 1970s.
- I can't think it's satisfying for a woman to be a ballbreaker, and it must be dreadful for the man.
- I went to do a fete the other day and all the under tens called me Molly [from Monarch of the Glen (2000)]. And sometimes children call me 'Susan Hamster' which I love - it's so sweet isn't it? - 2004
- Describing Hollywood: All the men have crocodile wives and ulcers and gold-and-diamond rings they twist around their hairy fingers. The big shots also had arms they kept putting around me that managed to be long enough to reach my left breast. I told them, 'I don't have to do that. I can act.'
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