Jenny Agutter
Jennifer Ann Agutter (born
December 20,
1952) is an
English actress.
Agutter was born in
Taunton,
Somerset. The daughter of Catherine Kit Lynam and Derek Brodie Agutter, a
British Army officer, she travelled the world as a child. She was discovered while at ballet school when a casting agent was looking for a young English speaking girl for a film. She didn't get the part but he recommended her to the producers of
East of Sudan(1964).
She first came to the attention of television audiences as Roberta in a
BBC dramatisation of
The Railway Children, and went on to play the same part in
Lionel Jeffries'
1970 film of the book. Her quality of ingenuousness had led to an earlier more serious role in what is now regarded as something of a horror cult film
I Start Counting (
1969).
Agutter continued a transition to adult roles in
Walkabout (1971), playing a teenaged schoolgirl who was lost in the
Australian
outback with her younger brother. She first auditioned for the role in 1967 but funding problems delayed filming until 1969. The delay in production meant Agutter was 16 at the time of filming, and the director took advantage of her new legal status by including many nude scenes in the film. She has since commented that she was shocked by the film's explicitness when she first viewed it, but is still on good terms with director
Nicolas Roeg.
Agutter moved to Hollywood at 21 and appeared in a number of films over the next decade, including:
The Eagle Has Landed (1976),
Logan's Run (1976),
Equus (1977),
Sweet William (1980), and
An American Werewolf in London (1981).
Since 1990, Agutter has deliberately focused on the upbringing of her son and much of her work focused away from film and television work and rather involved
audio recordings and supporting various
charities particularly the
Cystic Fibrosis Fund. Nonetheless she had a guest role in Series 6 of
Red Dwarf, and appeared in the TV series
TECX,
The All New Alexei Sayle Show, and
And the Beat Goes On. In 2000, she made her third appearance in a production
The Railway Children, produced by Carlton TV and this time playing the role of the mother. In 2002 Agutter featured in the
BBC television series
Spooks.
She remained resolutely single during her many years resident in
Los Angeles, to the point it has been reported she claims to have never lived with a man until she was married. In 1989 whilst attending an Arts Festival in
Bath she met Johan Tham, a
Swedish hotelier who at the time was a [Director] of
Cliveden Hotel in
Berkshire. In 1990, she fell pregnant by Tham and they subsequently married on
August 4, that same year. Their son, Jonathan, was born on
December 26 1990. The family lives in
Camberwell,
London and
Cornwall,
England.
The Railway Children (
1970)
Walkabout (
1971)
Shelley (BBC,
1972)
Logan's Run (
1976)
Equus (1977)
The Riddle of the Sands (1978)
Othello (1981)
An American Werewolf in London (
1981)
Love's Labour's Lost (BBC,
1985)
Child's Play 2 (
1990)
Red Dwarf (BBC,
1993)
The Parole Officer, (
2001)
At Dawning (
2002)
Spooks (BBC,
2002)
*''
The Alan Clark Diaries (BBC,
2004)
*
1978 -
BAFTA (Best Supporting Actress) for
Equus.
*
1972 -
Emmy (Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Drama) for
The Snow Goose.
*
BBC - Spooks - Jenny Agutter Biography*
BBC Drama Faces - Jenny Agutter*[
1] - British Film Institute - Jenny Agutter Page
