Jenny Agutter Biography

Jennifer Ann Agutter (born 20 December 1952) is a British actress. She began her career as a child actress in 1964's East of Sudan and went on to appear in Star! and two adaptations of The Railway Children"?the BBC's 1968 television adaptation and the 1970 film version. She also starred in the critically acclaimed 1971 film Walkabout, before moving to Hollywood in 1974. Her Hollywood film roles included parts in Logan's Run (1976), An American Werewolf in London (1981) and Child's Play 2 (1990). Agutter won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama for the 1971 TV film The Snow Goose, and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for playing Jill Mason in the 1977 film Equus.

After returning to Britain in the early 1990s to pursue family life Agutter's focus shifted to television, and in 2000 she appeared in a new television adaptation of The Railway Children, this time taking on the role of the mother. Since then she has worked steadily in several British television dramas, including Spooks (2002-03), and Call the Midwife (2012-present).

Early life

Agutter was born in Taunton, Somerset, England. She is the daughter of Catherine (ne Lynam) and Derek Brodie Agutter, a former British Army officer and entertainment organiser. As a child, she lived in Singapore, Dhekelia (Cyprus) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaya). She was discovered at Elmhurst Ballet School, a boarding school she attended aged 8-16, when a casting agent looked for a young English-speaking girl for a film. She did not get the part but he recommended her to the producers of East of Sudan (1964).

Career

Television and film

Agutter came to television audiences as Kirsty in the twice-weekly BBC series The Newcomers. The character Kirsty was the daughter of the new managing director of Eden Brothers, the fictional firm that was at the centre of the series. Agutter could appear only during school holidays. At this stage of her career she was listed in credits as Jennifer. In 1968, she was featured in the lavish big-budget 20th Century Fox film musical Star! with Julie Andrews as Gertrude Lawrence. In that motion picture, Agutter played Lawrence's neglected daughter Pamela.

Later she played Roberta in a BBC adaptation of The Railway Children (1968) and played the same part in Lionel Jeffries's 1970 film of the book. She followed this with a more serious role in the thriller I Start Counting (1969). She also won an Emmy as supporting actress for her television role as Fritha, in a British television adaptation of The Snow Goose (1971).

Agutter moved into adult roles, beginning with Walkabout (1971), playing a teenage schoolgirl lost with her younger brother in the Australian outback. She auditioned for the role in 1967 but funding problems delayed filming until 1969. The delay meant Agutter was 16 at the time of filming, which allowed the director to include nude scenes. Among them was a five-minute skinny-dipping scene, which was cut from the original US release. She said at the 2005 Bradford Film Festival at the National Media Museum that she was shocked by the film's explicitness but remains on good terms with director Nicolas Roeg.

Agutter moved to Hollywood at 21 and appeared in a number of films over the next decade, including The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Logan's Run (1976), Equus (1977, for which she won a BAFTA as Best Supporting Actress), Sweet William (1980) and An American Werewolf in London (1981).

Since 1990, Agutter has brought up her son and her work has been largely in sound recordings. She has also worked in support of charities, in particular the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, of which she is a patron (she is also a carrier of the genetic mutation). She was a guest in series 6 of Red Dwarf and appeared in the TV series TECX, The All New Alexei Sayle Show and And the Beat Goes On. In 1995, she played the scandalous Idina Hatton in the BBC miniseries The Buccaneers inspired by Edith Wharton's unfinished 1938 book. In 2000, she made her third appearance in The Railway Children, produced by Carlton TV, this time playing the mother. In 2002, Agutter featured in the BBC television series Spooks and in 2007, she starred in the first episode of the new series of David Jason's ITV television series Diamond Geezer. In 2008 she also guest-starred in the Doctor Who audio drama The Bride of Peladon. She appears as Sister Julienne in the 2012 television series Call the Midwife. Also in 2012, Agutter appeared as a member of the World Security Council in the hit film The Avengers and reprised her role in 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Agutter has stated that the innocence of the characters she played in early films, combined with the costumes and nudity in later adult roles such as Logan's Run (1976), Equus (1977) and An American Werewolf in London (1981), are "perfect fantasy fodder".

Theatre

Agutter has appeared in numerous theatre productions since her stage debut in 1970, including stints at the National Theatre in 1972-73, the title role in a derivation of Hedda Gabler at the Roundhouse in 1980 and with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982-83. In 1987-88, Agutter played the role of Pat Green in the Broadway production of the Hugh Whitemore play Breaking the Code, about computer pioneer Alan Turing. In 1995 she was in an RSC production of Love's Labour's Lost staged in Tokyo. She is also a patron of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, a charity that enables school children in the UK to perform Shakespeare in professional theatres.

Radio

She has appeared as a guest star character ("Fiona Templeton") in the Radio 4 comedy Ed Reardon's Week and played an outlawed scientist in The Minister of Chance.

Music

Agutter appears on the 1990 Prefab Sprout song "Wild Horses", speaking the words "I want to have you".

Personal life

At an arts festival in Bath, Somerset, Agutter met Johan Tham, a Swedish hotelier who was a director of Cliveden Hotel in Buckinghamshire. They married on 4 August 1990. Their son Jonathan was born on 25 December 1990. They live in London. Agutter has a keen interest in Cornwall and once owned a second home in the county at The Lizard.

She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for charitable services. Agutter has been involved in raising awareness of the illness cystic fibrosis, which she believes was responsible for the deaths of two of her siblings. Her niece has the disease. At Agutter's suggestion, an episode of Call the Midwife focused on cystic fibrosis.

In August 2014, Agutter was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Roles	Notes
1964	East of Sudan	Asua
1966	'	Linda Frazier
1968	Gates to Paradise	Maud
	Star!	Pamela Roper
1969	I Start Counting	Wynne
1970	'	Roberta "Bobbie" Waterbury
1971	Walkabout	Girl
1976	Logan's Run	Jessica 6
	'	Molly Prior
1977	Equus	Jill Mason	BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
	The Man in the Iron Mask	Louise de la Vallire
1978	China 9, Liberty 37	Catherine Sebanek
	Dominique	Ann Ballard	Minor role, a.k.a. "Dominique Is Dead"
1979	'	Clara
1980	Sweet William	Ann Walton
1981	Amy	Amy Medford
	'	Hobbs	Nominated"?Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
	'	Nurse Alex Price	Nominated"?Saturn Award for Best Actress
1984	Secret Places	Miss Lowrie
1989	Dark Tower	Carolyn Page
1990	King of the Wind	Hannah Coke
	Child's Play 2	Joanne Simpson
	Darkman	Burn Doctor	uncredited cameo
1992	Freddie as F.R.O.7	Daffers
1995	Blue Juice	Mary Fenton
2001	'	Victor's Wife
2002	At Dawning	Escaping woman	Short film
2004	Number One Longing, Number Two Regret	Kenosha
2007	Irina Palm	Jane
2009	Glorious 39	Maud Keyes
2010	Burke and Hare	Lucy
2011	Outside Bet	Shirley Baxter
2012	The Avengers	Councilwoman Hawley
2014	Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2015	Queen of the Desert	Florence Bell
	Tin	Marjorie Dawson

Television

Year	Title	Roles	Notes
1968	'	Roberta "Bobbie" Waterbury	BBC series
1970	'	Young Maria Beadnall / Mary Hogarth / Ellen Ternan	TV film
1971	'	Fritha	Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama
1972	'	Hedvig	BBC TV "Play of the Month" broadcast on BBC1, Sunday 19/3/72 from 8.10 pm to 9.55 pm
	'	Maureen Tomelty	American (CBS) TV film set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles
	Shelley	Mary Shelley	BBC series
1977	'	Dr. Leah Russell	("Deadly Countdown" episode, Parts 1 & 2)
1980	Beulah Land	Lizzie Corlay	TV mini-series
1985	Love's Labour's Lost	Rosaline	Television
	Magnum, P.I.	Krista Villeroch	"Little Games" Season 5, Episode #96 TV Series
	Silas Marner	Nancy Lammeter	BBC TV film
1986	Murder, She Wrote	Margo Claymore	"One White Rose For Death" Season 3, Episode #4 TV Series
1990	Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less	Jill Albery	TV mini-series
1992	Dream On	Ellen	"No Deposit, No Return" Season 3, Episode #22 TV Series
1993	Red Dwarf ("Psirens" episode)	Professor Mamet	Television
1995	'	Idina Hatton	Television
2000	'	Mother	ITV
2002	Spooks	Tessa Phillips	Television
2004	'	Jane Clark	BBC TV series
	' (Series 3, episode 3)	Jemma Sanderson	BBC TV Series
	Agatha Christie's Marple	Agnes Crackenthorpe	Series 1 Episode 3 - 4.50 from Paddington
2005	New Tricks (Series 2, episode 1)	Yvonne Barrie	BBC TV Series
2006	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Adela Marchmont	Season 10, Episode 4 - Taken at the Flood
	Heroes and Villains	June
2007	Diamond Geezer	Vanessa	ITV series
2008	'	Barbara Riley	BBC TV series
2009	Monday Monday	Jenny Mountfield	ITV1 TV series
2010	Midsomer Murders	Isobel Chettham	episode No. 72, 'The Creeper', ITV1 TV series
2012-present	Call the Midwife	Sister Julienne	BBC TV series