Wikipedia

Tara Fitzgerald

Tara Anne Cassandra Fitzgerald (born 18 September 1967)[1][failed verification] is an English actress who has appeared in feature films, television, radio and the stage. She won the New York Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play in 1995 as Ophelia 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 has appeared in the West End production of The Misanthrope at the Comedy Theatre, 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 and played the role of Selyse Baratheon in the HBO series Game of Thrones.

Tara Fitzgerald
Tara Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald in June 2012
Born
Tara Anne Cassandra Fitzgerald Callaby

(1967-09-18) 18 September 1967 (age 57)
Cuckfield, Sussex, England
OccupationActress
Years active1991–present
Spouse
​
​
(m. 2001; div. 2003)​

Early life

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Fitzgerald is the daughter of artist Michael Callaby[2][3] and Irish portrait photographer Sarah Geraldine Fitzgerald.[2][4][5] She spent part of her childhood in the Bahamas, where her maternal grandfather ran a law firm. Her sister, Arabella, was born there. Following the family's return to England when she was three, Fitzgerald's parents separated, and her mother then married the Irish actor Norman Rodway. She has a half-sister from this marriage, Bianca Rodway.[6][7] Her father, Callaby, died when she was 11.[2] Her great-aunt was actress Geraldine Fitzgerald;[8][9] other cousins through the Fitzgerald family are the Irish novelist Jennifer Johnston[5] and Irish actress Susan Fitzgerald.[10]

Career

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Film

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Following her graduation from Drama Centre London, Fitzgerald appeared as the daughter of a beauty queen in the comedy Hear My Song (1991). 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 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 (UK title: The Lion's Mouth), set during the Spanish Inquisition. In 2006, she appeared in In a Dark Place, and, in 2014, she played Miriam in Exodus: Gods and Kings.

Fitzgerald decided to expand her career into directing after becoming frustrated with what she saw as a lack of interesting roles for older actresses. She was one of 12 filmmakers selected for Film London's 2015 Microwave scheme, which provides training and mentoring to filmmakers who then pitch their ideas to a panel that selects the two best ideas for production, with budgets of £150,000 each.[11]

Stage

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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 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[12][13] in a national UK tour and Blanche Du Bois in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire at the Bristol Old Vic[14] and appeared in A Doll's House at the Donmar Warehouse. Fitzgerald has also appeared in Molière's The Misanthrope in 2009 at the Comedy Theatre (now the Pinter).[15] She appeared in The Winters Tale at the RSC in 2013, performed as Lady Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe theatre and appeared in Gaslight at the Royal and Derngate Theatre in 2015.[16]

Television

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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. 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. 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 Eve Lockhart on Waking The Dead, joining that cast in 2007. She also had a recurring role on Game of Thrones, playing Selyse Baratheon.[17] In 2020 Tara Fitzgerald played a role as Lady Templemore in the ITV-series Belgravia, a historical drama based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Julian Fellowes.

Personal life

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In 2001, Fitzgerald married the English actor-director John Sharian, who directed her in the short film The Snatching of Bookie Bob. They separated in May 2003 and later divorced.[18]

Fitzgerald lives in London.[19]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role Notes
1991 Hear My Song Nancy Doyle
1993 Sirens Estella Campion
1993 Galleria Marie
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
1998 The Snatching of Bookie Bob Silk
1999 New World Disorder Kris Paddock
1999 Childhood Ange
2000 Rancid Aluminium Masha
2001 Dark Blue World Susan Whitmore Czech title: Tmavomodrý svět
2003 I Capture the Castle Topaz Mortmain
2004 Five Children and It Mother
2004 The Lion's Mouth Clara
2006 In a Dark Place Mrs. Grose
2014 Exodus: Gods and Kings Miriam
2015 Child 44 Inessa Nesterov
2015 Legend Mrs Shea
2015 We Are Happy Rachel
2016 Una Andrea
2019 The Runaways Maggie
2019 The King Hooper
2020 The Call Centre Helen (Voice)
2021 Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop Diana Branson
2023 The Undertaker Vic
Luther: The Fallen Sun Georgette Uncredited

Television

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Year Title Role Notes
1991 The Black Candle Victoria Mordaunt Television film
1992 The Camomile Lawn Young Polly 4 episodes
1992 Anglo-Saxon Attitudes Young Dollie Stokesay 3 episodes
1992 Performance Emily Episode: "Six Characters in Search of an Author"
1994 Fall from Grace Catherine Pradier Television film
1994 Cadfael Iveta de Massard Episode: "The Leper of Saint Giles"
1995 The Vacillations of Poppy Carew Poppy Carew Television film
1996 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Helen Graham 3 episodes
1997 The Student Prince Grace Television film
1997 The Woman in White Marian Fairlie Television film
1998 Little White Lies Beth Marsh Television film
1998 Frenchman's Creek Dona, Lady St. Columb Television film
1999 In the Name of Love Zoe Walters 2 episodes
2003 Murder in Mind Liz Morton Episode: "Echoes"
2003 Love Again Monica Jones Television film
2004 Agatha Christie's Marple: The Body in the Library Adelaide Jefferson Episode: #1.1
2005 Like Father Like Son D.I. Harkness Television film
2005 Rose and Maloney Annie Sorensen-Johnson Episode: "Annie Johnson"
2006 The Virgin Queen Kat Ashley 3 episodes
2006 Jane Eyre Mrs. Reed 4 episodes
2009 U Be Dead Debra Pemberton Television film
2007–2011 Waking the Dead Eve Lockhart 42 episodes
2011 The Body Farm Eve Lockhart 6 episodes
2014 The Musketeers Marie de Medici Episode: "The Exiles"
2013–2015 Game of Thrones Selyse Baratheon 10 episodes
2016 Death in Paradise Anouk Laban Episode: "Dishing Up Murder"
2014–2016 In the Club Susie 7 episodes
2017 Strike Tansy Bestigui 3 episodes
2018 Requiem Sylvia Walsh 6 episodes
2018 Origin Xavia Grey Episode: "The Road Not Taken"
2018 The ABC Murders Lady Hermione Clarke 3 episodes
2020 Tangled: The Series Zhan Tiri (voice) 2 episodes
2020 Belgravia Lady Templemore 5 episodes
2022 Signora Volpe Isabel Vitale 4 episodes

Theatre

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Year Title Role Theatre
1992 Our Song Angela Caxton Apollo Theatre (London) and UK tour
1995 Hamlet Ophelia Almeida Theatre (London) Belasco Theatre (New York)
1999 Antigone Antigone Old Vic, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Oxford Playhouse
2000 A Streetcar Named Desire Blanche Du Bois Bristol Old Vic
2004 A Doll's House Nora Helmer UK tour
2004 Clouds Mara Hill National UK tour
2005 And Then There Were None Vera Claythorne Gielgud Theatre[20]
2009 A Doll's House Christine Lyle Donmar Warehouse
2009 The Misanthrope Marcia Comedy Theatre
2011 Broken Glass Sylvia Gellburg Vaudeville Theatre[21]
2013 The Winter's Tale Hermione Globe Theatre London and UK tour
2019 Shipwreck Almeida Theatre, London
2019 Prism Nicola/Katie UK tour
2020 Women Beware women Livia Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London
2021 Hamlet Gertrude Young Vic, London
2023 Duet for One Stephanie Abrahams Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond
2024 Suite in Three Keys Linda Savignac, Maud Caragnani, Carlotta Gray Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond

Video games

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Year Title Role Notes
2018 World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth Queen Mia Greymane (voice)
2019 Anthem Renda, The Argentum, Aruna’s Mother (voices)

References

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  1. ^ "Tara Anne Cassandra Fitzgerald". National Portrait Gallery.
  2. ^ a b c Cerio, Gregory (12 June 1995). "Tara! Tara! Tara!". People.
  3. ^ The Traumas of Tara. HighBeam.com. 29 October 2005.
  4. ^ The International Who's Who 2004, Europa Publications, 2003, pg 542
  5. ^ a b Paton, Maureen (2 May 2003). "Tara Fitzgerald: Naked ambition". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022.
  6. ^ "From 'Reilly Ace of Spies' to Shakespeare". The Irish Times. 17 March 2001.
  7. ^ Barker, Dennis (17 March 2001). "Obituary: Norman Rodway". The Guardian.
  8. ^ Venning, Nicola (10 July 2016). "GOT star Tara Fitzgerald: I am a gold star worrier". The Express.
  9. ^ Rees, Jasper (14 December 1997). "Arts: Sheer naked talent". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022.
  10. ^ Coveney, Michael (13 September 2013). "Susan FitzGerald obituary". The Guardian.
  11. ^ Razaq, Rashid (30 November 2015). "Game of Thrones star Tara Fitzgerald 'driven to direct by lack of roles for older women'". Evening Standard. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  12. ^ Butler, Robert (18 September 1999). "... and it still goes down a treat". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022.
  13. ^ Billington, Michael (14 October 1999). "Shaken and stirred". The Guardian.
  14. ^ Logan, Brian (25 September 2000). "Tara Fitzgerald, the fantastic flirt, A Streetcar Named Desire". The Guardian. London.
  15. ^ "Keira_Knightley, Damian_Lewis and Tara Fitzgerald to star in West End production of The Misanthrope" Archived 16 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine, playbill.com; accessed 22 October 2014.
  16. ^ 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. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  17. ^ "'Game of Thrones': Meet New Arrivals for Season 3". ew.com. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  18. ^ Roger, Sylvia (10 July 2009). "My Perfect Weekend: Tara Fitzgerald". The Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 14 July 2009.
  19. ^ Roger, Sylvia (10 July 2009). "My Perfect Weekend: Tara Fitzgerald". The Telegraph. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  20. ^ And Then There Were None (2005 production); accessed 20 October 2014.
  21. ^ Antony Sher and Tara Fitzgerald lead Broken Glass, westend.broadwayworld.com; accessed 20 October 2014.
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