Samantha Eggar

Samantha Eggar
Born	Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar (1939-03-05) 5 March 1939 Hampstead, London, England, United Kingdom
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1960–present
Spouse(s)	Tom Stern (1964–71; divorced); 2 children
Children	Nicolas Stern Jenna Stern

Samantha Eggar (born Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar; 5 March 1939) is an English film, television and voice actress.

Early life and education

She was born Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar in Hampstead, London, to Ralph (a brigadier in the British Army) and a mother (Muriel) of Dutch and Portuguese descent.

Eggar was brought up as a Roman Catholic and educated at St Mary's Providence Convent, Woking, Surrey.

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 costarred 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 such films as Curtains, Doctor Dolittle, The Molly Maguires, Dark Horse, The Brood, and The Light at the Edge of the World. In 1976, she costarred 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.

Personal life

In 1964, she married actor Tom Stern, with whom she has a son, Nicholas Stern, and a daughter, Jenna Stern. Eggar and Stern divorced in 1971.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1962	Dr. Crippen	Ethel Le Neve
	The Wild and the Willing	Josie
1963	Doctor in Distress	Delia Mallory
1963	The Saint	Claire Avery	Episode: "Marcia"
1964	Psyche 59	Robin
1965	Return from the Ashes	Fabienne 'Fabi' Wolf
	The Collector	Miranda Grey	aka The Butterfly Collector Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Sant Jordi Award for Best Performance in a Foreign Film Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress
1966	Walk, Don't Run	Christine Easton
1967	Doctor Dolittle	Emma Fairfax
1970	The Molly Maguires	Miss Mary Raines
	The Walking Stick	Deborah Dainton
	The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun	Danielle Lang ("Dany")
1971	The Light at the Edge of the World	Arabella
1972	The Dead Are Alive	Myra Shelton
1973	A Name for Evil	Joanna Blake
1973	Love Story	Ruth Wilson	Episode: "The Cardboard House"
1976	The Seven-Per-Cent Solution	Mary Morstan Watson
1977	The Uncanny	Edina Hamilton
	Welcome to Blood City	Katherine	aka Blood City
	Why Shoot the Teacher?	Alice Field
	Columbo: The Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case	Vivian Brandt
1978	The Greatest Battle	Annelise Ackermann
1979	The Brood	Nola Carveth	Nominated — Genie Award for Best Performance by a Foreign Actress
1980	The Exterminator	Dr. Megan Stewart
1981	The Hot Touch	Samantha O'Brien
	Demonoid Messenger of Death	Jennifer Baines
1983	Curtains	Samantha Sherwood
1983	For the Term of His Natural Life	Julie Vickers	TV movie
1983	Hart to Hart	Gillian Rawlings
1984	Murder, She Wrote	Marta Quintessa	Episode "Hooray for Homicide"
1984	Magnum, P.I.	Laura Bennett	Episode "Fragments"
1990	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Marie Picard	Episode "Family"
1990	A Ghost in Monte Carlo	Jeanne
1991	Ragin' Cajun	Dr. May
1992	Dark Horse	Mrs. Curtis
	Round Numbers	Anne
1993	L.A. Law	Camille Bancroft	Episode "Where There's a Will"
1994	Inevitable Grace	Britt
1996	The Phantom	Lily Palmer
1996	Everything to Gain	Diana Keswick
1997	Hercules	Hera, Hercules' Mother	(voice)
1999	The Astronaut's Wife	Dr. Patraba
2012	Metalocalypse	Whale	(voice) Recurring

External links

• Samantha Eggar at the Internet Movie Database
• Samantha Eggar biography and credits at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Official website
• Collecting Life: An Interview with Samantha Eggar - July 2014