Prunella Gee

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Prunella Gee bigraphy, stories - Film

Prunella Gee : biography

17 February 1950 –

Prunella Gee (born 17 February 1950) is an English actress, best known for her work in the 1970s and 1980s.

Early Years

Gee was privately educated at Benenden School, and was in the year below Princess Anne.

Wanting to become an actress, she studied at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where she won the Spotlight Award for Best Actress in 1972; she then spent six months in repertory playing Priestly, Shaw, Shakespeare, Feydeau and Orton.

Her first television role was as Anna Fitzgerald in Granada’s 1930s drama serial Shabby Tiger in 1974, in which she rose to overnight notoriety by becoming the first model to show full frontal nudity on British television. She was quickly hailed as Britain’s answer to Brigitte Bardot or Sophia Loren. In a 2002 interview, Gee recalled: "I was working in serious theatre, but got a reputation of being a sex symbol. I was too young to know any better so I tended to go with the flow." http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Corrie%27s+Doreen%3a+I+spent+2+days+in+bed+with+Sean%3b+%28And+two+seconds…-a090477248

Private life and later career

Gee was once a girlfriend of the film director and producer Michael Winner.http://mailpictures.newsprints.co.uk/view/19238823/elib_asscmmglpict000003048642_jpg

She married the actor and director Ken Campbell in 1978 with whom she had a daughter, Daisy; the couple divorced after five years but remained on good terms.

Since 2006 she has worked as a counsellor and therapist in Camden, London.http://www.camdentherapy.com/index.html

In April 2013, in her capacity as a counsellor, Gee was interviewed on Jo Good’s BBC London 94.9 radio show, talking about addiction. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016y4tm On the programme, Gee revealed that she had given up acting because she had started her training as a counsellor whilst she was by then playing "mums and grannies". She had tried to do the two together but realised that she could not give her full attention too both. Gee said that she "bravely" said to her agent: "that’s it", and that she wanted to be taken out of The Spotlight directory. She added: "It was the most liberating thing I’ve ever done".

Career in film, television and stage

Gee made her film debut in 1975, alongside Sidney Poitier, Michael Caine and Nichol Williamson in The Wilby Conspiracy, for which she was nominated Best Newcomer in the Evening News Film Awards. The same year she starred as journalist Sandy Williams in episode 8 of the popular police drama series The Sweeney.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Gee had guest roles in many classic television shows including Return of the Saint, The Glittering Prizes, Hammer House of Horror, The Professionals and Alas Smith & Jones. She also made regular appearances on such shows as Call My Bluff and Give Us A Clue.

In 1976, Gee starred as Sheila in Waris Hussein’s production of Waiting For Sheila for the ITV Sunday Night Drama slot.

From 1978-1979, she had a regular television role as Del Henney’s girlfriend Rebecca Westgate in the ITV drama series Fallen Hero.

In 1981, she starred as Miss Griffin in Nigel Kneale’s short-lived LWT sci-fi comedy series Kinvig.

In 1983, she appeared opposite Sean Connery in the unofficial James Bond film Never Say Never Again .

In 1985, she appeared as Penelope Keith’s disruptive actress sister in the ITV sitcom Moving, and the following year co-starred with Pat Phoenix in the less successful Constant Hot Water.

In 1989, she made a guest appearance in another short-lived comedy series, Split Ends, in a part specially created for her.

In 1998, she played Catherine McKay, a fading adult film star in the romantic comedy movie Merchants of Venus, filmed in Los Angeles, in which she starred with Michael York, Beverly D’Angelo and Brian Cox. It was Gee’s first film appearance since she had played Sting’s wife in the British nourish classic Stormy Monday in 1988.