Imogen Stubbs
{{short description|British actress (b. 1961)}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Imogen Stubbs
| image =
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_name =
|education= St Paul's Girls' School
Westminster School
Exeter College, Oxford
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1961|2|20|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Rothbury, Northumberland, England
| occupation = Actress
| children = 2
| years_active = 1982–present
| spouse = {{marriage|Trevor Nunn|1994|2011|end=separated}}
}}
Imogen Stubbs (born 20 February 1961) is an English actress and writer.
Her first leading part was in Privileged (1982), followed by A Summer Story (1988).
Her first play, We Happy Few, was produced in 2004. In 2008 she joined Reader's Digest as a contributing editor and writer of fiction.
Early life
Imogen Stubbs was born in Rothbury,{{Citation
| last = Edmonds
| first = Mark
| title = The world's fastest interview
| newspaper = The Sunday Times Magazine
| pages = 7
| date = 31 March 2013
}} Northumberland, lived briefly in Portsmouth, Hampshire, where her father was a naval officer, and then moved with her parents to London, where they lived on a vintage river barge on the Thames. She was educated at Cavendish Primary School, then at two independent schools: St Paul's Girls' School and Westminster School, and then Exeter College, Oxford,{{cite news|newspaper=The Guardian|date=20 April 2018|first=Sally|last=Weale|title=Imogen Stubbs laments 'awful treadmill' of UK education system|url= https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/apr/20/imogen-stubbs-uk-education-system-treadmill-be-all-and-end-all}} gaining a First Class degree.
Her acting career started at Oxford, where she played Irina in a student production of Three Sisters at the Oxford Playhouse. She also appeared in a student review called Dinosaur Can-can at the same theatre. After graduating, she enrolled at RADA, and while there had her first professional work, playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret at the Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich.{{cite news|title=Imogen Stubbs, actor|last=Barnett|first=Laura|date=9 March 2010|work=The Guardian|page=G2-23|location=London}} In 1982
she also appeared in her first film, Privileged.
Stubbs graduated from RADA in the same class as Jane Horrocks{{cite news|newspaper=The Guardian|date=30 November 2023|first=Rich|last=Pelley|title=Jane Horrocks: 'I'd love to be a baddie in a Tarantino movie'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/nov/30/jane-horrocks-tarantino-mike-leigh-new-order}} and Iain Glen, and later became an Associate Member of RADA.
Career
In the 1980s Stubbs achieved success on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company, including playing Desdemona in Othello, directed by Trevor Nunn.{{cite web|url= https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/dvd-othello-rev.htm|title=Film/Video review: Othello|website=British Theatre Guide|orig-date=2006|date=3 August 2020|first=Philip|last=Fisher|accessdate=11 December 2024}} Other stage work includes Saint Joan at the Strand Theatre and Heartbreak House at the Haymarket, and in 1997 she played in a London production of A Streetcar Named Desire.
In 1988, Stubbs was a notable Ursula Brangwen in a BBC serialization of The Rainbow, and in 1993 and 1994 had the title role in Anna Lee. She played Lucy Steele in Sense and Sensibility (1995).
In July 2004, Stubbs's play We Happy Few, directed by Trevor Nunn and starring Juliet Stevenson and Marcia Warren, opened at the Gielgud Theatre, London, after a try-out in Malvern.{{cite journal|last=Taylor|first=Paul|date=6 July 2004|title=We Happy Few|journal=The Independent|location=London|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre/reviews/we-happy-few-gielgud-theatre-london-755894.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20090603231438/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre/reviews/we-happy-few-gielgud-theatre-london-755894.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 June 2009|access-date=15 September 2008}} In September 2008 Reader's Digest announced that she had joined the magazine as a contributing editor and writer of adventure stories.{{cite news|title=Digest revamped|last=Carter|first=Meg|date=15 September 2008|work=The Guardian|location=London|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/sep/15/pressandpublishing.facebook|access-date=15 September 2008}}
Personal life
In 1994, Stubbs married Trevor Nunn.{{cite book|last=Montague-Smith|first=Patrick|title=Debrett's Correct Form|year=1970|isbn=0-7472-0658-9|pages=76–77|publisher=Headline }} The couple have two children:{{cite book|title=Who's Who|year=2011|publisher=A & C Black|location=Oxford, England|chapter=Nunn, Sir Trevor (Robert)}} a son and a daughter, Ellie Nunn, who is also an actress.{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/relative-values-the-actress-imogen-stubbs-and-her-daughter-ellie-nunn-nq2h7bgpk66|title=Relative Values: the actress Imogen Stubbs, and her daughter, Ellie Nunn|first=Interviews by Jeremy|last=Taylor|date=10 January 2018|access-date=10 January 2018|work=The Times|location=London}} In April 2011, Stubbs announced that she and her husband were separating.{{cite web|title=Imogen Stubbs and Sir Trevor Nunn separate after 21 years|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/8471249/Imogen-Stubbs-and-Sir-Trevor-Nunn-separate-after-21-years.html|work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London|date=25 April 2011|access-date=2011-04-25}} Her partner is Jonathan Guy Lewis.{{cite news|newspaper=Daily Telegraph|date=25 February 2023|first1=Chris|last1=Harvey|first2=Imogen|last2=Stubbs|title='It's become less and less acceptable to age' – The Saturday Interview: The actress tells Chris Harvey about her bohemian childhood on a boat, marriage to her former husband director Trevor Nunn and her distaste for plastic surgery.|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/imogen-stubbs-become-less-less-acceptable-age/}}
Filmography
=Film=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |
|---|
| 1982
|Imogen | |
| 1986
|Nanou | |
| 1988
|{{sortname|A|Summer Story}} |Megan David | |
| 1989
|Princess Aud | |
| 1991
|Diana Stiles | |
| 1991
|{{sortname|The|Wanderer|nolink=1}} |Narrator |Voice |
| 1994
|{{sortname|A|Pin for the Butterfly}} |Mother | |
| 1995
|Sarah | |
| 1995
|Lucy Steele | |
| 1996
|Viola | |
| 2003
|Collusion |Mary Dolphin | |
| 2004
|Henny | |
| 2011
|Babysitting |Mrs. Wollenberg |Short |
| 2014
|Insomniacs |Alice |Short |
| 2016
|Stake Out |Sally |Short |
| 2017
|Kew Gardens |Isabella |Short, post-production |
| 2018
| Isabella |
=Television=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |
|---|
| 1985
|{{sortname|The|Browning Version|nolink=1}} |Mrs. Gilbert |TV film |
| 1988
|{{sortname|The|Rainbow|The Rainbow (BBC miniseries)}} |Ursula Brangwen |TV miniseries |
| 1988
|Lady Romy Burton |TV film |
| 1990
|Fellow Traveller |Sarah Atchison |In the Screen Two series |
| 1990
|Relatively Speaking |Ginny Whittaker |TV film |
| 1990
|Pasternak |Lara / Olga (voice) |TV film |
| 1990
|Desdemona |"Othello" |
| 1992
|Sandra, c'est la vie |Marie |TV film |
| 1992
|Helen Banner |"After the Dance" |
| 1993
|Anna Lee: Headcase |Anna Lee |TV film |
| 1994
|Anna Lee |Main role |
| 1996
|1914–1918 |(voice) |"Total War" |
| 1997
|Suzie |"Mothertime" |
| 2000
|Blind Ambition |Annie Thomas |TV film |
| 2000
|Sarah Spiller |Main role |
| 2001
|Lee Evans: So What Now? |Chloe |"Sofa So Good" |
| 2002
|Township Opera |Narrator |TV film |
| 2005
|Chloe Greer |"Running out of Kisses" |
| 2006
|Mona Symmington |"The Moving Finger" |
| 2006
|Sonia |"Semi-Detached" |
| 2009
|Lotte Davenport |"Shadow Show" |
| 2010
|{{sortname|The|Adventures of Daniel|nolink=1}} |Mrs. Wallace |TV film |
| 2011
|Gemma Lawrence |"1.4", "1.5" |
| 2012
|Miranda Payne |"High-Flyer" |
| 2012
|Isabelle Hopkins |"1.3" |
| 2012
|Esme |"1.6" |
| 2017
|Evelyn Chapman |"It Has to be Now" |
| 2018
|Valerie O'Toole |"7.3" |
| 2021
|Tamara Deddington |
| 2023
|Anne Tennant, Baroness Glenconner |Season 6, episode 8: "Ritz" |
Theatre
Other projects and contributions
- When Love Speaks (2002, EMI Classics) – Shakespeare's "Sonnet 21" ("So it is not with me as with that Muse")
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stubbs, Imogen}}
Category:Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford
Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Category:English dramatists and playwrights
Category:English film actresses
Category:English stage actresses
Category:English television actresses
Category:Actresses from London
Category:People educated at St Paul's Girls' School
Category:Actors educated at Westminster School, London
Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members
Category:English Shakespearean actresses
Category:English women dramatists and playwrights
Category:20th-century English actresses
Category:21st-century English actresses
Category:Actresses from Northumberland