Susan Fleetwood

British actress (1944–1995)

Susan Fleetwood
Fleetwood as Athena in Clash of the Titans (1981)
Born	Susan Maureen Fleetwood (1944-09-21)21 September 1944 St Andrews, Fife, Scotland
Died	29 September 1995(1995-09-29) (aged 51) Salisbury, Wiltshire, England
Alma mater	Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1969–1995
Partner	Sebastian Graham-Jones
Relatives	Mick Fleetwood (brother)

Susan Maureen Fleetwood (21 September 1944 – 29 September 1995) was a British stage, film, and television actress, who specialized in classical theatre. She received popular attention in the television series Chandler & Co and The Buddha of Suburbia.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Early life

Fleetwood was born in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, the daughter of Bridget Maureen (née Brereton) and John Joseph Kells Fleetwood,^[4] an RAF officer.^[1] She was the elder sister of musician and actor Mick Fleetwood, drummer of rock band Fleetwood Mac. The service family was stationed in Egypt in the years before the Suez crisis and, afterwards, in Norway where John Fleetwood received a NATO appointment and where Susan received her first role as the Old Testament Joseph in a school play. On her return to the UK, she was encouraged to take up drama by a nun at a convent school, winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the age of sixteen.

Stage

After training with RADA, where a student production won Fleetwood the Bancroft gold medal, in 1964 she joined the company of the Liverpool Everyman theatre, where her fellow student Terry Hands had been appointed director. When Hands moved to the RSC in 1967, she followed. In 1968 at Stratford she gave two commanding performances: in the relatively unpromising part of Cassandra in Troilus and Cressida and as Regan in Lear. In 1969, under the direction of Hands, she movingly doubled the parts Thaisa and Marina in Pericles.

In 1974, she played Imogen in John Barton's production of Cymbeline. Many principal roles followed, until in 1977 the former RSC director Peter Hall persuaded her to join him in the National Theatre company where, in addition to playing Ophelia to Albert Finney's Hamlet, she was offered parts from a wider repertory of plays. In the early 1980s she appeared in seasons with both companies, including a memorable Rosalind in As You Like It.^[3] Her last season with the RSC was 1990–91.^[5]

Personal life

Fleetwood's partner at the time of her death was theatre director Sebastian Graham Jones.^[6]

Death

After suffering from ovarian cancer for a decade, Fleetwood died in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England on 29 September 1995, aged 51.^[1]

Select TV and filmography

Hamlet (BBC television recording of a Prospect Theatre Company stage performance, 1972), Ophelia, opposite Ian McKellen^[7]
The Watercress Girl (Granada's Country Matters series, 1972) title role^[8]
Don't Be Silly (BBC Television Play for Today, 1979) as Pamela Redman
The Good Soldier (Granada Television, 1981) as Leonora
Clash of the Titans (1981) as Athena
Heat and Dust (1983) as Mrs. Crawford, the Burra Memsahib (The Nineteen Twenties in the Civil Lines at Satipur)
Minder (1983) Series 4 Episode 2 "Senior Citizen Caine" as Sonia Caine
Strangers and Brothers (1984) as Lady Caroline Quaife (2 episodes)
Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) as Mrs. Dribb
The Sacrifice (1986) as Adelaide
White Mischief (1987) as Gwladys, Lady Delamere
Dream Demon (1988) as Deborah
Summer's Lease (1989) as Molly Pargeter
The Krays (1990) as Rose
Six Characters in Search of an Author (TV drama, 1992) as The Mother
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales: Hamlet (series, 1992) as Queen Gertrude (voice)
The Buddha of Suburbia (TV drama 1993) as Eva Kay
Lovejoy (TV drama, Series 5, Episode 8, 1993) as Mary Gladden
Under the Hammer (TV, 1994) as Calpurnia Beacon
Wycliffe (TV, 1994) as Lady Cynthia Bottrell
Chandler & Co (BBC Television, 1995) as Kate Phillips
Persuasion (1995) as Lady Russell

References

^ ^a ^b ^c 'Susan Fleetwood; Obituary,' The Times (2 October 1995), p. 23
^ "Obituary: SUSAN FLEETWOOD". Variety. 16 October 1995.
^ ^a ^b "Obituary: Susan Fleetwood". The Independent: 18. 4 October 1995.
^ Susan Fleetwood Film Reference biography
^ Trowbridge, Simon (2008). "Susan Fleetwood". Stratfordians, a dictionary of the RSC. Oxford, England: Editions Albert Creed. pp. 202–204. ISBN 978-0-9559830-1-6.
^ Coveney, Michael (23 August 2004). "Obituary: Sebastian Graham-Jones". the Guardian. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
^ "Hamlet (1972)". BFI. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 31 July 2021.
^ "The Watercress Girl (1972)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 30 December 2018.