Gemma Craven
Encyclopedia
Gemma Craven is an award-winning Irish
actress.
She is possibly best known for her role in the Irish
TV drama
The Clinic
(2006–08) as Dr. Julia Brady.
, St Bernard's Convent High School for Girls in Westcliff-on-Sea
in Essex
.
She appeared as Cinderella in the film The Slipper and the Rose
(1976) opposite Richard Chamberlain
. Cast as an unknown, she was spotted by one of the producers while doing a stage play. The local press touted the event as her own "Cinderella" story. The musical gave Craven an opportunity to shine with her impressive singing talents.
In London
's West End
, she starred opposite Tom Conti
in the musical They're Playing Our Song
for which she who won a Laurence Olivier Award for her performance, the lead role in South Pacific
and in Noël Coward
's Private Lives
opposite Marc Sinden
, Tony Anholt
and his wife Tracey Childs
which toured throughout 1991 and into 1992. She also played Josie in Boy George
's Taboo and features on the OCR singing Independent Woman.
She appeared as Joan Parker, the frigid wife of Arthur (Bob Hoskins
), in the original television version of Dennis Potter
's Pennies From Heaven (1978) and has made guest appearances on Robin of Sherwood
(1985), The Bill
, The Morecambe and Wise Show
, The Two Ronnies
and Father Ted
(episode "And God Created Woman
"). in the popular English drama Midsomer Murders
episode, "Shot at Dawn" as Judy Hicks, the wife of Dave Hicks (Brian Capron
).
Her most substantial film role was as Minna Wagner
opposite Richard Burton
's Richard Wagner
, in the 1983 film Wagner. She also made an appearance in The Mystery of Edwin Drood
(1993).
On radio, she played the part of Helen in the BBC Radio 4
comedy Clare in the Community
.
She appeared on Irish television in the popular medical drama
series The Clinic
which runs weekly on RTÉ One
.
In November/December 2008 Craven appeared in Hollyoaks Later as Erin "Ma" Fisher - Mother to Malachy
, Kris
and Bernadette.
Gemma Craven now lives in Blackpool with "Lord Odin" who changed his name, by deed poll, from his birth name of Gary Womack. Previously, Gary had his name changed to Mickey Mouse.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
actress.
She is possibly best known for her role in the Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
TV drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
The Clinic
The Clinic (TV series)
The Clinic is an award-winning Irish primetime television medical drama series produced by Parallel Film Productions for RTÉ. It debuted on RTÉ One in 2003 to positive reviews and proved to be one of the network's most popular shows. The show ran for seven seasons between September 2003 to November...
(2006–08) as Dr. Julia Brady.
Biography
Gemma Craven's family moved from Dublin to England in 1960, and she attended the same school as Helen MirrenHelen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
, St Bernard's Convent High School for Girls in Westcliff-on-Sea
Westcliff-on-Sea
Westcliff-on-Sea is a suburb of Southend-on-Sea, a seaside resort in the East of England and unitary authority in Essex. It is situated on the northern bank of the Thames Estuary and about 34 miles east of London.-Geography:...
in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
.
She appeared as Cinderella in the film The Slipper and the Rose
The Slipper and the Rose
The Slipper and the Rose is a 1976 British musical film retelling the classic fairy tale of Cinderella. This film was chosen as the Royal Command Performance motion picture selection for 1976....
(1976) opposite Richard Chamberlain
Richard Chamberlain
George Richard Chamberlain is an American actor of stage and screen who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show Dr. Kildare .-Early life:...
. Cast as an unknown, she was spotted by one of the producers while doing a stage play. The local press touted the event as her own "Cinderella" story. The musical gave Craven an opportunity to shine with her impressive singing talents.
In London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's West End
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, she starred opposite Tom Conti
Tom Conti
Thomas "Tom" Conti is a Scottish actor, theatre director and novelist.-Early life:Born Thomas Conti in Paisley, Renfrewshire, he was brought up Roman Catholic, but he considers himself anti-religious...
in the musical They're Playing Our Song
They're Playing Our Song
They're Playing Our Song is a musical with a book by Neil Simon, lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager, and music by Marvin Hamlisch.In a story based on the real-life relationship of Hamlisch and Sager, a wisecracking composer finds a new, offbeat lyricist, but initially the match is not one made in heaven...
for which she who won a Laurence Olivier Award for her performance, the lead role in South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
and in Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's Private Lives
Private Lives
Private Lives is a 1930 comedy of manners in three acts by Noël Coward. It focuses on a divorced couple who discover that they are honeymooning with their new spouses in neighbouring rooms at the same hotel. Despite a perpetually stormy relationship, they realise that they still have feelings for...
opposite Marc Sinden
Marc Sinden
Marc Sinden is an English theatre producer, documentary director and actor. His father is the actor Sir Donald Sinden.-Theatre:...
, Tony Anholt
Tony Anholt
Anthony "Tony" Anholt was a British actor best known for his roles as Security Chief Tony Verdeschi in the second season of Gerry Anderson's television series Space: 1999 , Paul Buchet in The Protectors and as Charles Frere in the highly-successful BBC drama series Howards' Way .Anholt was...
and his wife Tracey Childs
Tracey Childs
Tracey Childs is an English actress, best known for playing Lynne Howard in the 1980s drama series Howards' Way. More recently, she has appeared in Born and Bred as Linda Cosgrove and as Patty Cornwell in Hollyoaks....
which toured throughout 1991 and into 1992. She also played Josie in Boy George
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
's Taboo and features on the OCR singing Independent Woman.
She appeared as Joan Parker, the frigid wife of Arthur (Bob Hoskins
Bob Hoskins
Robert William "Bob" Hoskins, Jr. is an English actor known for playing Cockney rough diamonds, psychopaths and gangsters, in films such as The Long Good Friday , and Mona Lisa , and lighter roles in family films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Hook .- Early life :Hoskins was born in Bury St...
), in the original television version of Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
's Pennies From Heaven (1978) and has made guest appearances on Robin of Sherwood
Robin of Sherwood
Robin of Sherwood , was a British television series, based on the legend of Robin Hood. Created by Richard Carpenter, it was produced by HTV in association with Goldcrest, and ran from 1984 to 1986 on the ITV network. In America it was retitled Robin Hood and shown on the premium cable TV channel...
(1985), The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
, The Morecambe and Wise Show
Morecambe and Wise
Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, usually referred to as Morecambe and Wise, or Eric and Ernie, were a British comic double act, working in variety, radio, film and most successfully in television. Their partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's death in 1984...
, The Two Ronnies
The Two Ronnies
The Two Ronnies is a British sketch show that aired on BBC1 from 1971 to 1987. It featured the double act of Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, the "Two Ronnies" of the title.-Origins:...
and Father Ted
Father Ted
Father Ted is a comedy series set in Ireland that was produced by Hat Trick Productions for British broadcaster Channel 4. Written jointly by Irish writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan and starring a predominantly Irish cast, it originally aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until 1 May...
(episode "And God Created Woman
And God Created Woman (Father Ted)
"And God Created Woman" is the 5th episode of the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted. It is named after the 1956 film And God Created Woman.-Synopsis:...
"). in the popular English drama Midsomer Murders
Midsomer Murders
Midsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on the books by Caroline Graham, as originally adapted by Anthony Horowitz. The lead character is DCI Tom Barnaby who works for Causton CID. When Nettles left the show in 2011 he was...
episode, "Shot at Dawn" as Judy Hicks, the wife of Dave Hicks (Brian Capron
Brian Capron
Brian Capron, born 11 February 1947 at Eye in Suffolk, is a British actor, who trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art . His father was an Algerian pilot, of French descent, who died in a plane crash before Brian was born....
).
Her most substantial film role was as Minna Wagner
Minna Planer
Christine Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer was a German actress and the first wife of composer Richard Wagner to whom she was married for 30 years, although for the last 10 years they often lived apart. Seduced at an early age by an Army officer, she had an illegitimate daughter, who was brought up as...
opposite Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
's Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
, in the 1983 film Wagner. She also made an appearance in The Mystery of Edwin Drood
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1993 film)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a 1993 film, the fourth film adaptation of the Charles Dickens unfinished novel of the same title.-Cast:* Robert Powell as John Jasper* Jonathan Phillips as Edwin Drood* Peter Pacey as Septimus Crisparkle...
(1993).
On radio, she played the part of Helen in the BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
comedy Clare in the Community
Clare in the Community
Clare in the Community is a British comic strip in The Guardian newspaper, written by Harry Venning. The title is a pun on care in the community. The strip has been successfully adapted for radio on BBC Radio 4....
.
She appeared on Irish television in the popular medical drama
Medical drama
A medical drama is a television program, in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment.In the United States, most medical episodes are one hour long and, more often than not, are set in a hospital. Most current medical Dramatic programming go beyond the...
series The Clinic
The Clinic (TV series)
The Clinic is an award-winning Irish primetime television medical drama series produced by Parallel Film Productions for RTÉ. It debuted on RTÉ One in 2003 to positive reviews and proved to be one of the network's most popular shows. The show ran for seven seasons between September 2003 to November...
which runs weekly on RTÉ One
RTÉ One
RTÉ One is the flagship television channel of Raidió Teilifís Éireann , and it is the most popular and most watched television channel in Ireland. It was launched as Telefís Éireann on 31 December 1961, it was renamed RTÉ Television in 1966, and it was renamed as RTÉ One upon the launch of RTÉ...
.
In November/December 2008 Craven appeared in Hollyoaks Later as Erin "Ma" Fisher - Mother to Malachy
Malachy Fisher
Malachy "Mal" Fisher is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Glen Wallace. Malachy first appeared in 2007 on a recurring basis and became a permanent character in 2008. The character has been noted for being at the centre of a HIV plot...
, Kris
Kris Fisher
Francis "Kris" Fisher is a fictional character from the long-running Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Gerard McCarthy. The character first appeared on-screen in September 2006 and left in August 2010 after McCarthy quit the show...
and Bernadette.
Gemma Craven now lives in Blackpool with "Lord Odin" who changed his name, by deed poll, from his birth name of Gary Womack. Previously, Gary had his name changed to Mickey Mouse.