The absolutely foxy Joanna Lumley had her first forays in front of the camera as a swinging sixties model, but it wasn't too long before she moved from the still image to the motion picture in 1969. She's played roles ranging from Bond Girl, to action icon, to a Van Helsing, to science fiction elemental being, to the infamous Eurydice Colette Clytemnestra Dido Bathsheba Rabelais Patricia Cocteau Stone, and her career shows little sign of slowing down anytime soon.
Before becoming a television star in the late 1970s, Joanna Lumley appeared in several fantasy, science fiction and horror films. After playing The English Girl in On Her Majesy's Secret Service (1969), Lumley appeared in a fantasy-horror feature based on the Scottish folk tale of Tam Lin. Released originally as The Ballad of Tam Lin (1970), this film is also known as The Devil's Widow, The Devil's Woman and Games and Toys. Starring Ava Gardner, Tam Lin retells the famous legend with a group of young and beautiful jet-setters under the power of Gardner's Black Magic Woman. Lumley only puts in so much screen time as one of the PYTs frolicking on the huge country estate but she is just as immediately striking and instantly recognizable as she is in any of her starring roles. A couple of years later, Lumley appeared as Jessica Van Helsing in what would be the eighth Dracula feature for Hammer studios, and the final starring Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, a film called The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973). While this film is largely considered to be the worst of the Hammer Dracula series, her turn as a scream-queen was well received. Interestingly enough, in this film Lumley was replacing Stephanie Beacham, co-star of the aforementioned Tam Lin, who had played Jessica Van Helsing in Hammer's previous Dracula picture Dracula AD 1972 (1972), this film is largely considered to be the second worst Dracula film in the Hammer catalog.
Though the comely Miss Lumley may now be best known for her comedic talents as Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous, she was an action heroine first. Just like fellow foxy ladies Diana Rigg and Honor Blackman, Joanna Lumley has been both a Bond Girl and an Avenger. From 1976 - 1977 she thrilled ITV audiences as the sharp-shooting secret agent Purdy. Credited with helping to name the character, Lumley high-kicked her way to becoming a television icon that combined a cool charm with an athletic sex appeal.
Later that decade she starred in the cult science fiction series, Sapphire and Steel. Though made on a tight budget, the series made good use of staging and special effects. With its tense, sometimes slow pacing and eerie atmosphere, Sapphire and Steel often combined science fiction with the supernatural, adding an extra element of mystery to this striking and strange series. Curiously enough, despite the immense popularity of other similar science-fiction fantasies such as Dr Who, Sapphire and Steel has never been re-broadcast on terrestrial television. Even after solidfying her image as a comedy star in the mid-nineties with Ab Fab, Joanna Lumley never abandoned the Horror and Fantasy genres. In 1997 she appeared as Morgan Le Fay in Prince Valiant, an incarnation of the Arthurian legend that starred Stephen Moyer. That same year she co-starred alongside Ben Kingsley as Mrs. Lovett in a television movie version of Sweeney Todd. Lumley has also done quite a bit of voice work, lending that gorgeous cut-glass voice to Tim Burton's 2005 animated feature The Corpse Bride, recording audio books including several of the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, and to informing users of AOL's UK service that they've got mail.
These days Lumley is likely just as well known for her activism and charity work as her acting roles. In 2008, she became the public face for the Gurkha Justice Campaign, advocating for the right of all Gurkha soldiers who had served in the British Army to be granted the same right of abode as their commonwealth counterparts. Impressed with her passionate campaigning, some called for her to run Parliament, but she dismissed the suggestion stating that she had no desire to run for election.
Despite becoming a household name as a comedy star and a celebrated charity organizer, Joanna Lumley has never tried to distance herself from her genre work. In her interviews and appearances she's just as proud of her roles as a Bond Girl and as the action icon Purdy, as she is of her acclaimed performance in the monolog series Up in Town. With several books, dozens of television and film roles and countless media appearances to her credit, this silver fox is not stopping anytime soon. Having just finished a turn on the stage as the iconic Eleanor of Aquatine in The Lion in Winter at the Theater Royal Haymarket, she's scheduled to reprise her most famous role as Patsy in a special episode of Absolutely Fabulous later this year.
-Trailer for The Satanic Rites of Dracula
-Brief documentary on Sapphire and Steel
-Joanna Lumley and Gareth Hunt promoting the 1994 video release of The New Avengers
