Lindsay Duncan is a wonderful actress from Scotland who has achieved great success primarily on the stage. She is the recipient of the Laurence Olivier Theater Award and the Tony Award. At the same time, Duncan also starred in several good English TV series - Black Mirror, Doctor Who, Sherlock.
Date of birth and school years
Lindsay Duncan was born on November 7, 1950 in the Scottish capital - Edinburgh. However, quite soon after birth, she moved to Birmingham with her father and mother. Here Lindsey began to attend the prestigious King Edward VI School for Girls.
It is known that the theater has been Lindsay's passion since childhood - she eagerly took part in various school productions. And Lindsay's parents supported her in this hobby, although they were not associated with theatrical art or show business.
It is also worth adding that during her school years she met the future famous playwright Kevin Eliot.
Lindsay Duncan's acting career in the 20th century
At the age of 21, Lindsay entered the London School of Stage Speech and Dramatic Art. And after graduation, she began working at the Southwold Theater, a small town on the east coast of Great Britain.
In 1976, Lindsay played a cameo role in Don Juan, a production based on a classic by Moliere.
Two years later, in 1978, the girl got the opportunity to perform at the London National Theater.
Also in the second half of the seventies and early eighties, Lindsay Duncan began to flicker on television from time to time - she starred in shampoo commercials, and also played small roles in such British series as New Avengers, Dick Turpin, The End of Pompeii! and Rayleigh: King of Spies.
And Lindsay Duncan got her first leading role in a big movie in 1985. In the comedy film Sloppy Liaisons (directed by Richard Eyre), she played Sally, a girl who wants to go to a feminist convention in Germany. The heroine Lindsay Duncan, according to the script, does not smoke or eat meat, and wants to find a fellow traveler with similar views. But in the end, due to certain circumstances, she has to go there with a man (played by Stephen Rea), who, in his convictions and habits, is the complete opposite of Sally.
In 1985, Lindsay joined the Royal Shakespeare Company to take part in the classic production of Troilus and Cressida. Here she played the role of the beautiful Helen of Troyan (because of whom, strictly speaking, the legendary Trojan War began).
After that, Lindsey Duncan appeared as the Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons, a stage adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' novel of the same name. And this work became a real breakthrough for the actress - for her Lindsay was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theater Award for Best Actress.
In 1987 she played a secondary role in the film "Perk Up Your Ears", and in 1988 she took part in the film "Manifesto".
And, for example, from the pictures of the second half of the nineties, in which Lindsay Duncan starred, one should single out "City Hall" (1996), "Mansfield Park" (1999) and "Ideal Husband" (1999). In addition, in the late nineties, Duncan auditioned for the role of Shmi, Anakin Skywalker's mother, in the first episode of Star Wars. Alas, she was not approved for this role, but she was offered to voice the TC-14 robot in the same film (and she accepted this offer).
Further work of the actress
In 2001 and 2002, she (along with another English star - actor Alan Rickman) was engaged in the play "Private Lives" based on the play of the same name by Noel Pierce Coward. And here she got the central role - the role of Amanda Prynne. Lindsay's performance in this production was highly appreciated by professionals - the actress was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award, the Evening Standard Award and even the American Tony Award.
Lindsay Duncan also played one of the female characters in the 2003 melodrama Under the Tuscan Sun. This melodrama tells the story of a writer who, in an attempt to overcome depression and survive a divorce from her husband, comes to Italy.
From 2005 to 2007, Duncan took part in the high-budget historical series Rome, which was filmed simultaneously for the BBC and HBO. Here she appeared in the form of Servilia - the former mistress of Caesar and mother of Brutus.
In 2009, Lindsay became a participant in the special issue of the legendary science fiction series Doctor Who. The episode was called Waters of Mars, and, in fact, here she played Adelaide Brook - an intelligent and strong woman, the leader of the first colony of people on Mars.
In the same 2009, Lindsay Duncan was awarded the Order of the British Empire for her services in the theater.
In 2011, Lindsay appeared in National Anthem, the controversial first episode of the science fiction anthology Black Mirror.
Became significant for the actress and 2013. This year, Lindsay Duncan was presented with the British Independent Film Awards (an award specializing in independent films) for her role in the comedy melodrama A Weekend in Paris.
A year later, in 2014, she starred in the famous film by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu "Birdman". In this tape, which won, by the way, as many as four Oscars, Lindsay played theatrical critic Tabitha Dickinson (although the role is secondary, but still quite bright).
In 2017, Lindsay starred in Mark Webb's drama Gifted, where she plays Evelyn's formidable grandmother. The drama received good criticism from professionals and paid off at the box office - with a budget of 7 million dollars, it grossed 43 in theaters around the world.
It is also worth noting that in 2017 season 4 of the BBC series "Sherlock" was released. And in two episodes of this season ("Sherlock is Dying" and "Thatcher Six") Lindsay Duncan appeared in the form of Lady Elizabeth Smallwood, an influential widow who at some point had to turn to the great detective for help.
Personal life facts and insights
In 1985, while working on the already mentioned production of Troilus and Cressida, Lindsay Duncan met the actor Hilton McRae. An affair began between them, and soon they got married.
In September 1991, Lindsay gave birth to a boy from Hilton, who was named Calvin. And by the way, in many ways her participation in the first episode of "Star Wars" was dictated by the fact that she wanted to please her son, who was then a big fan of this MCU.
Lindsay Duncan's mom suffered from Alzheimer's and died in 1994. The actress lost her father at the age of fifteen - he died in a car accident.
At the moment, Lindsay Duncan lives with her husband in North London.
