Samantha Eggar
| Samantha Eggar | ||
 | ||
| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar | |
| Born | Mar 5, 1939 Hampstead, London, England, United Kingdom | |
| Occupation | Actress | |
| Spouse(s) | Tom Stern (1964 - 1971) div. | |
| Children | Nicolas Stern Jenna Stern | |
Samantha Eggar (born 5 March 1939) is an English film, television and voice actress.
Early life
Samantha Eggar was born Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar on 5 March 1939 in Hampstead, London, to Ralph Alfred James Eggar (a brigadier in the British Army) and a mother (Muriel Olga Palache-Bouma) of Dutch and Portuguese descent. Soon after her birth her family relocated to rural Bledlow, Buckinghamshire, during World War II, where she spent her childhood.
Eggar was brought up as a Catholic and educated at St Mary's Providence Convent in Woking, Surrey. Reflecting on her time in a convent school, Eggar said: "The nuns didn't have too much success with me – I've always had a violent temper. In fact, once I almost killed one of the nuns." At age 16, she began to go by the name Samantha. Although Eggar expressed interest in acting at a young age, she was urged against a career in the theatre by her parents. She was offered a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, but instead studied fashion for two years at the Thanet School of Art. After completing her studies, she enrolled at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
Career
She began her acting career in several Shakespearean companies, and debuted on film in 1962 in The Wild and the Willing. Also in 1962, she played Ethel Le Neve in the film Dr. Crippen, alongside Donald Pleasence. Eggar starred in the comedy "Walk, Don't Run" (1966) with Cary Grant (his last picture) and Jim Hutton. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for "The Collector" (1965), directed by William Wyler. She won a Golden Globe award for this performance and was also named Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival.
On her role as Miranda in "The Collector", Eggar has said: "My biggest relationship on set was with William Wyler. The tension on set was real. And if the tension wasn't there – if I didn’t exude precisely what he wanted – well, Willie just poured cold water over me."
In 1963, she played the title character in "Marcia", a second-season episode of The Saint. After her appearance in "The Saint", Eggar did not appear in television for 10 years, instead focusing exclusively on feature films. Although she co-starred with Yul Brynner in the 1972 television series "Anna and the King", she did not make another television guest appearance until 1973, when she starred in the episode "The Cardboard House" of the romantic anthology series "Love Story". From the late 1970s to the 2000s, the bulk of Eggar's screen work would be on the small screen.
Eggar appeared in the films Curtains, "Doctor Dolittle", "The Molly Maguires", "Dark Horse", "The Brood," and "The Light at the Edge of the World." In 1976, she co-starred with Peter Falk and Theodore Bikel in the Columbo episode "The Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case". She appeared as Maggie Gioberti in "The Vintage Years", the pilot for the drama Falcon Crest", but was replaced by Susan Sullivan when the series went into production. " In 1997, she provided the voice of Hera in Disney's animated film Hercules. Eggar also had a role in a 1999 picture, "The Astronaut's Wife", which starred Johnny Depp.
She has appeared as the wife of Captain Jean-Luc Picard's brother Robert in the television series "Star Trek: The Next Generation", and as Sarah Templeton, the wife of Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton (Donald Sutherland), on the short-lived television series "Commander in Chief", which starred Geena Davis. In 2000, she had a brief run in the American soap opera "All My Children". In 2003, she appeared in the first season of "Cold Case", episode 14 ("The Boy In The Box") as Sister Vivian. In 2009, she played the mother of Jack and Becky Gallagher in season 1, episode 11 ("Lines in the Sand") of the FOX television series "Mental".
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