Tara Fitzgerald

Tara Fitzgerald
Born Anne Tara G.F. Callaby
(1967-09-18) 18 September 1967
Cuckfield, Sussex, England, UK
Residence Shepherd's Bush, London, United Kingdom [1] and Barnes, London[2]
Occupation Actress
Years active 1991–present
Height 5' 5" (1.65 m)
Spouse(s) John Sharian (m. 2001–2003)
Parent(s) Sarah Callaby, Michael Callaby
Relatives Bianca Rodway, Arabella Fitzgerald

Tara Fitzgerald (born 18 September 1967) is an English actress who has appeared in feature films, television, radio and the stage.[3] She won the New York Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play in 1995 as Ophelia opposite Ralph Fiennes in Hamlet. She won the Best Actress Award at The Reims International Television Festival in 1999 for her role of Lady Dona St Columb in Frenchman's Creek. Fitzgerald's most recent role has been in the West End production of The Misanthrope at the Comedy Theatre[4] with Damian Lewis and Keira Knightley, and in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Donmar Warehouse. Since 2007, Fitzgerald has appeared in more than 30 episodes of the BBC television series Waking the Dead. She is best known for her role as Selyse Baratheon in HBO series Game of Thrones.

Early life

Anne Tara G.F. Callaby was born in Cuckfield, Sussex, to Irish portrait photographer Sarah Geraldine Fitzgerald and English artist Michael Callaby. She has one sister, Arabella, and one half-sister, Bianca, both younger. The sisters are great-nieces of the late Irish-American stage and film actress Geraldine Fitzgerald. When she was still a child her family moved to Freeport, Bahamas, where her maternal grandfather, David Fitzgerald, practised law. Returning to England, her parents divorced when Tara was three years old. Three years later, her mother married English-born Irish-based actor Norman Rodway and the family began several years of journeying across Britain and Ireland.

Education and acting

Because of her stepfather's acting career, Fitzgerald attended primary schools in London, Glasgow, Dublin and Stratford-upon-Avon. When she was in her teens she and her family returned to South London. She was a pupil at Walsingham Girls' School in Clapham (now Thomas's Preparatory School, Clapham), but left at age 16 after passing her "O" level examinations to pursue acting. At 17 she left a course at Richmond College, Middlesex to audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, but she was not accepted. She spent two years as a waitress before entering drama school. She graduated from Drama Centre London in July 1990.

Film

Only months after graduation from drama school, Tara Fitzgerald appeared as the daughter of a beauty queen in the comedy Hear My Song. She came to international attention in 1993 when she starred with Hugh Grant in the Australian comedy Sirens. The film landed Fitzgerald an Australian Film Institute nomination for Best Actress in a Lead Role. Two years later she again appeared with Grant in the comedy The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain. Fitzgerald appeared in a steady stream of independent feature films through the 1990s and 2000s, among them the all-star cast in A Man of No Importance (1994), Brassed Off (1996), the Czech World War II fighter pilot drama Dark Blue World (2001), and the 2004 drama, Secret Passage, set during the Spanish Inquisition, (UK title: The Lion's Mouth).[5] In 2006 she appeared in In a Dark Place, and in 2014 she played Miriam in Ridley Scott's Exodus: Gods and Kings.

Fitzgerald has been exploring directing opportunities.[6]

Stage

Fitzgerald's first major stage role came in 1992 when she appeared opposite Peter O'Toole in Our Song at the Apollo Theatre. She has alternated between stage and screen for almost two decades, with frequent theatre roles. In 1995, she starred as Ophelia opposite Ralph Fiennes in Hamlet at London's Almeida Theatre, which led to her American stage debut. The production transferred across the Atlantic and played more than 90 performances on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre.

Since then she has played Antigone in a national UK tour and Blanche Du Bois in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire at the Bristol Old Vic[7] and appeared with Gillian Anderson in A Doll's House at the Donmar Warehouse. Fitzgerald has also appeared in Molière's The Misanthrope in 2009 with Keira Knightly and Damian Lewis at the Comedy Theatre (now the Pinter). She appeared alongside Jo Stone-Fewings in The Winters Tale at the RSC in 2013 and appeared in Gaslight at the Royal and Derngate Theatre in 2015. Fitzgerald is currently performing as Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's Globe theatre. [8]

Television

A veteran of more than twenty television programmes and mini-series, Fitzgerald has portrayed Victorian heroines and modern police detectives. Her first TV role was in the 1991 BBC production The Black Candle, set in Yorkshire in the 1880s.[5] In 1992, she was featured in The Camomile Lawn. After her feature film success, she landed her first starring role in a television film, The Vacillations of Poppy Carew.[5] She won Best Actress at the 1999 Reims International Television Festival for the costumes-and-pirates love story Frenchman's Creek. In 2006 she was featured in The Virgin Queen, before taking on the role of Dr. Eve Lockhart on Waking The Dead; she joined the cast in 2007.[5] She also had a recurring role on Game of Thrones, playing Selyse Baratheon.[9]

Personal life

In 2001, Fitzgerald married the American actor-director John Sharian, who directed her in The Snatching of Bookie Bob. The couple separated in May 2003 and later divorced.[10]

List of credits

Theatre

Year Title Role Director Playwright Theatre
1992 Our Song Angela Caxton Keith Waterhouse Apollo Theatre (London) and UK tour
1995 Hamlet Ophelia Jonathan Kent William Shakespeare Almeida Theatre (London) Belasco Theatre (New York)
1999 Antigone Antigone Sophocles Old Vic, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Oxford Playhouse
2000 A Streetcar Named Desire Blanche Du Bois Tennessee Williams Bristol Old Vic
2004 A Doll's House Nora Helmer Ibsen & Zinnie Harris UK tour
Clouds Mara Hill Jennie Darnell Michael Frayn National UK tour
2005 And Then There Were None Vera Claythorne Steven Pimlott Agatha Christie Gielgud Theatre[11]
2009 A Doll's House Christine Lyle Kfir Yefet Ibsen & Zinnie Harris Donmar Warehouse
The Misanthrope Marcia Thea Sharrock Molière & Martin Crimp Comedy Theatre
2011 Broken Glass Sylvia Gellburg Iqbal Khan Arthur Miller Vaudeville Theatre[12]
2013 The Winter's Tale Hermione Lucy Bailey William Shakespeare Globe Theatre London and UK tour

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1991 Hear My Song Nancy Doyle Film won Best Comedy from the British Comedy Awards
1993 Sirens Estella Campion Australian Film Institute nomination Best Actress in a Lead Role
Galleria Marie First sci-fi role
1994 A Man of No Importance Adele Rice
1995 The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain Elizabeth aka Betty from Cardiff
1996 Brassed Off Gloria Mullins
1998 Conquest Daisy MacDonald Shot on location in Saskatchewan
The Snatching of Bookie Bob Silk 19-minute short directed by John Sharian, whom Fitzgerald married in 2001
1999 New World Disorder Kris Paddock Filmed in Luxembourg
Childhood Ange Shot on location in Moscow
2000 Rancid Aluminium Masha Plays opposite Sadie Frost
2001 Dark Blue World Susan Whitmore Czech title: Tmavomodrý svět
2003 I Capture the Castle Topaz Mortmain Film won the Audience Award at the Film by the Sea International Film Festival
2004 Five Children and It Mother Film won Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival
The Lion's Mouth Clara US title: Secret Passage
2006 In a Dark Place Mrs. Grose Based on the Henry James novella The Turn of the Screw; Sapphic scene with Leelee Sobieski
2014 Exodus: Gods and Kings Miriam
2015 Child 44 Inessa Nesterov
Legend Mrs. Shea

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1991 The Black Candle Victoria Mordaunt Based on a novel by Catherine Cookson
1992 Six Characters in Search of an Author Emily BBC adaptation directed by Bill Bryden
The Camomile Lawn Young Polly Based on a novel by Mary Wesley
Anglo-Saxon Attitudes Young Dollie Stokesay BAFTA TV Award Best Drama Serial
1994 Fall from Grace Catherine Pradier Second World War drama based on the book by Larry Collins
Cadfael: The Leper of St. Giles Iveta de Massard Episode 103, Book 5 of Cadfael
1995 The Vacillations of Poppy Carew Poppy Carew Based on the novel The Vacillations of Poppy Carew by Mary Wesley
1996 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Helen Graham Based on the novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
1997 The Woman in White Marian Fairlie Nominated for BAFTA TV Award Best Drama Serial
The Student Prince Grace US title: The Prince of Hearts
1998 Frenchman's Creek Dona, Lady St. Columb Won Best Actress at the 1999 Reims International Television Festival
Little White Lies Beth Marsh Produced by the BBC; has early Gerard Butler role
1999 In the Name of Love Zoe Walters Thriller directed by Ferdinand Fairfax
2003 Love Again Monica Jones Directed by Susanna White
Murder in Mind Liz Morton Season 3, Episode 1, Echoes
2004 Agatha Christie's Marple: The Body in the Library Adelaide Jefferson
2005 Rose and Maloney Annie Sorensen-Johnson Season 2, Episode 2 (No.2.2)
Like Father Like Son D.I. Harkness
2006 Jane Eyre Mrs. Reed Distributed by BBC One
The Virgin Queen Kat Ashley US title: Elizabeth I: The Virgin Queen
2007 Waking the Dead Dr. Eve Lockhart 32 episodes, seasons 6 to 9, 2007–2011
2009 U Be Dead Debra Pemberton ITV drama based on Maria Marchese stalker case
2011 The Body Farm Eve Lockhart BBC drama
2013–2015 Game of Thrones Selyse Baratheon Based on A Song of Ice and Fire novel series by George R. R. Martin
2014 In the Club Susie BBC drama
The Musketeers Marie de Medici Episode: "The Exiles"
2016 Death in Paradise Anouk Laban Episode 5,6

References

  1. Roger, Sylvia (10 July 2009). "My Perfect Weekend: Tara Fitzgerald". The Telegraph. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  2. "Tara Fitzgerald". Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  3. "Tara Fitzgerald Biography". Film Reference. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
  4. "Keira_Knightley, Damian_Lewis and Tara Fitzgerald to star in West End production of The Misanthrope", playbill.com; accessed 22 October 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Tara Fitzgerald at the Internet Movie Database
  6. Razaq, Rashid (30 November 2015). "Game of Thrones star Tara Fitzgerald 'driven to direct by lack of roles for older women'". Evening Standard. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  7. Logan, Brian (25 September 2000). "Tara Fitzgerald, the fantastic flirt, A Streetcar Named Desire". The Guardian. London.
  8. Bassett, Kate (24 May 2009). "The Donmar's new Ibsen isn't so much a clever interpretation as a bit of questionable rewriting". The Independent. London. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  9. "'Game of Thrones': Meet New Arrivals for Season 3". ew.com. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  10. Roger, Sylvia (10 July 2009). "My Perfect Weekend: Tara Fitzgerald". The Telegraph. London.
  11. And Then There Were None (2005 production); accessed 20 October 2014.
  12. Antony Sher and Tara Fitzgerald lead Broken Glass, westend.broadwayworld.com; accessed 20 October 2014.
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