Zoë Wanamaker

Zoë Wanamaker CBE (born 13 May 1949) is a British-American actor, known for her role as Susan Harper in the sitcom My Family.

Biography

Early life

Wanamaker was born in New York City, the daughter of actress and radio performer Charlotte Holland (died 1997), and actor, film director, and radio producer Sam Wanamaker, who decided not to return to the United States after being blacklisted in 1952.^[1]

Wanamaker is of Jewish origin on her father's side,^[2] whose family originated in Russia.^[3] The BBC documentary Who Do You Think You Are? broadcast on 24 February 2009, revealed that Wanamaker's paternal grandfather Morris Wanamaker (originally Manus Watmacher) was a tailor (born 1895) in Nikolaev in what is now Ukraine.

According to Who's Who on Television (1982 edition), Wanamaker was educated at the independent King Alfred School in Hampstead, London and at Sidcot School, a Quaker boarding school in Somerset. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Career

She played Madame Hooch in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

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

She has also appeared in a variety of films, programmes, and plays. Successful television series have included Love Hurts (1992-94) with Adam Faith.

Her stage performance in Sophocles' Electra, for which she won an Olivier Award, was widely acclaimed. She had previously won an Olivier Award in 1979, for her performance in Once In a Lifetime. Wanamaker 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".

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.

Each of her appearances on Broadway has led to her nomination for a Tony award, including in 2008 her performance in Awake and Sing!.

My Family

Wanamaker portrayed Susan Harper in UK Tv sitcom My Family since 2000. Although she has said that she enjoys playing Susan Harper, she thinks that the quality of writing in series 6 hadn't been as good as it had been in previous series'. Wanamaker and her co-star, Robert Lindsay who plays Ben Harper refused to perform one episode in series 6 as the writing was so poor.

Private life and honours

Wanamaker holds both American and British nationalities, having become a British citizen in 2000, specifically so that she could receive a CBE from the Queen at Buckingham Palace rather than an honorary decoration from the British Foreign Secretary.^[4]. In November 1994, she married the Scottish actor and dramatist Gawn Grainger. She is a Patron of Dignity in Dying, Youth Music Theatre: UK and of the Young Actors Theatre, Islington.

She has two sisters - Abby^[5] and Jessica.

Filmography

• Inside the Third Reich (1982) (TV)
• Edge of Darkness (1985) (TV)
• Paradise Postponed (1985) (TV)
• Othello (1989) (TV)
• Prime Suspect (1991) (TV)
• The Countess Alice (1992) (TV)
• Love Hurts (1992-94) (TV)
• Wilde (1997)
• Swept from the Sea (1997)
• A Dance to the Music of Time (1997)
• The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns (1998)
• David Copperfield (1999) (TV)
• Gormenghast (2000) (TV)
• My Family (2000–present) (TV)
• Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (2001) (TV)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
• Five Children and It (2004)
• Britain's Best Sitcom (2004) (TV) (narrator)
• Marple: A Murder is Announced (2005) (TV)
• Doctor Who: "The End of the World" (2005) and "New Earth" (2006)
• Agatha Christie's Poirot "Cards on the Table" (2005) (TV)
• Johnny and the Bomb (2006)
• Agatha Christie's Poirot "Mrs. McGinty's Dead" (2008) (TV) and "Third Girl" (2008) (TV)
• Fable 2 (2008) (video game)
• It's a Wonderful Afterlife (2010)

Theatreography

• The Devil's Disciple, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1976
• Wild Oats; or, The Strolling Gentleman, Royal Shakespeare Company,1976
• Ivanov, Royal Shakespeare Company, Aldwych Theatre, London, 1976
• The Taming of the Shrew, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1978
• Captain Swing, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1978
• Piaf, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1978
• Mary Daniels, Once in a Lifetime, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1979
• (Broadway debut) Toine, Piaf, Plymouth Theatre, 1981
• The Importance of Being Earnest, Royal National Theatre, London, England, 1982
• The Time of Your Life, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1983
• Twelfth Night, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1983
• Comedy of Errors, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1983
• Mother Courage, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1984
• Wrecked Eggs, Royal National Theatre, 1986
• The Bay at Nice, Royal National Theatre, 1986
• Fay, Loot, Manhattan Theatre Club Stage I, then Music Box Theatre,both New York City, 1986
• Mrs. Klein, Royal National Theatre, London, 1988, then Apollo Theatre, London, 1989
• Othello, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1989
• The Crucible, Royal National Theatre, 1990
• The Last Yankee, Young Vic Theatre, London, then New York City production, 1993
• Dead Funny, New York City, 1994
• The Glass Menagerie, Donmar Warehouse Theatre, London, then ComedyTheatre, London, 1995
• Sylvia, Apollo Theatre, 1996
• The Old Neighborhood, Royal Court Theatre, London, 1997
• Title role, Electra, Donmar Warehouse Theatre, 1997, then McCarterTheatre, Princeton, NJ, then Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York City, 1998-1999
• Battle Royal, National Theatre, London, 1999
• Boston Marriage, Donmar Warehouse, London, 2001
• The Women, Old Vic, London, 2001
• His Girl Friday, National Theatre, London, 2003
• One Knight Only, Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, 2005
• Awake and Sing!, Belasco Theatre, New York, 2006
• The Rose Tattoo, National Theatre, London, 2007
• Much Ado About Nothing, National Theatre, London, 2007
• All My Sons, Apollo Theatre, London, 2010

Also appeared in Henry V, Globe Theatre; and Made in Bangkok, Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles.

Awards And Nominations

• Nominated for a 1981 New York City Drama Desk Award for featured actress for her performance in Piaf
• Won the 1984 London Critics Circle Award (Drama Theatre Award) for best supporting actress in Mother Courage
• Nominated for a 1986 New York City Drama Desk Award for featured actress for her performance in a revival of Joe Orton's Loot
• Won the 1998 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress of the 1997 season for her performance in Electra at the Donmar Warehouse
• Nominated for a 1999 New York City Drama Desk Award for outstanding actress for her performance in Electra
• Nominated for a 2002 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress of 2001 for her performance in Boston Marriage performed at the Donmar Warehouse and at the New Ambassador's Theatres, London
• Nominated for a Tony Award in 2006 for best performance by a featured actress in a play for Awake and Sing!
• Won the 2006 New York City Drama Desk Award for outstanding ensemble performance for the Belasco Theatre production of Awake and Sing!

References

External links

• 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
• Zoe Wanamaker interviewed by Beth Stevens about Awake and Sing! on Broadway.com
• Zoe Wanamaker demands equal pay for actresses - Telegraph