Early life Anderson was born in the parish of
St. Mary on the north coast of Jamaica. Her father Randolph Wymess Anderson was an architect and planter. Her mother, Ivy Mae Mahon, belonged to a well-established Indian community in St Mary. Esther studied at Highgate High School in
Highgate, Jamaica, and at the
Quaker Finishing School, where she joined the
St. John Ambulance Brigade. At the age of 14, she moved to Kingston to live with her paternal grandmother at the family home in
Half Way Tree. Organisers of a 1960 Miss Jamaica beauty contest invited her to participate as "Miss Four Aces". At this time she met former Governor of Jamaica
Hugh Foot, his aide-de-camp
Chris Blackwell, Premier
Norman Manley and Jamaica's first Prime Minister
Alexander Bustamante. The jury awarded her the first prize, but changed it to third prize while Anderson was still on stage after realizing she was underage. Anderson's father was angry she had entered the contest. This and the excessive public attention following the contest led Anderson to use the prize proceeds to travel to England. In July 1961, Anderson arrived in London, where she began modelling for the artist Aubrix Rix, an illustrator for ''
Woman's Own'' magazine whom she had met in Kingston with Dr
Ken McNeill. She studied drama at the
Actor's Workshop in London. She combined her studies with a modelling career, doing photo shoots and commercials for Africa and Asia. She was tested and won the contract for a series of commercials as the dancing girl advertising
Kent's Doncella Cigars. She was offered a role in a documentary film by Jo Menell, who was a producer journalist for the television programme
Panorama. The film was directed by Riccardo Aragno. They filmed part of the scenes at the Crazy Elephant club, where Anderson worked as a DJ at nights. As a dancer, she had trained with Trinidadian
Boscoe Holder, brother of
Geoffrey Holder, while going to drama school. Anderson and her sister Thelma (later Tiffany Anderson) auditioned for the producer
Elkan Allan and director
Michael Lindsay-Hogg, and they teamed up as dancers and choreographers for
Ready Steady Go!, the number-one pop show on British television at the time. They appeared as the Anderson Sisters, with
The Rolling Stones,
The Animals,
The Walker Brothers,
Sonny and Cher,
Cathy McGowan and
Donovan. Anderson was offered a part in a film that Marty Ransohoff was making in Europe called
The Sandpiper (1965).
Island Records Anderson helped to develop the Jamaican music label
Island Records from the early 1960s, selling Jamaican records with
Chris Blackwell from a
Mini Cooper, writing lyrics, taking stock, and promoting and managing all the Jamaican artists that went through Island Records, including
Millie Small,
Jimmy Cliff, and
Bob Marley and the Wailers. Anderson took iconic photographs of
Marley,
Peter Tosh, and
Bunny Wailer and contributed lyrics to the albums
Catch a Fire, ''
Burnin', and Natty Dread''.
Acting career In parallel with her photography and work with Island Records, Anderson steadily developed a career as an actress. She secured roles in a number of early 1960s British television shows, including
Dixon of Dock Green and
The Avengers. She played roles in movies such as
Henry Levin's
Genghis Khan for
Columbia Pictures,
Robert Freeman's
The Touchables for Twentieth Century Fox,
Ted Kotcheff's
Two Gentlemen Sharing,
Jerry Lewis's
One More Time for
United Artists, and
Sidney Poitier's
A Warm December for
First Artists. In this latter film, her role of an African princess won her an
NAACP Image Award for Best Actress in 1973. She helped to launch the film industry in Jamaica, acting as co-producer of the film
The Harder They Come (1972), urging director
Perry Henzell to give the lead to local
Jimmy Cliff rather than to American
Johnny Nash. She coached Cliff for the partly autobiographical role and organised financing for the soundtrack, bringing in Chris Blackwell to put up the US$5,000 needed to complete the film as well as releasing the soundtrack on Island Records (1973).
Photography Her photographic collection was exhibited at
The Photographers' Gallery in London. She is also represented by
Bill Gates' agency
Corbis and the Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto. Anderson continues to develop her work as a photographer and documentary maker. She has been exhibited by La Tete Gallery in Paris, curated by Galaad Milinaire, The Photographers' Gallery in London, the Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto, Canada, and in the Caribbean by Niki Michelin in Antigua. Her portraits include as subjects:
Louise Bennett,
Marlon Brando,
Bob Marley,
Amanda Lear,
Catherine Deneuve, Prince
Charles, Prince of Wales,
Denzel Washington,
Jacques Chirac.
Filmmaking career As a filmmaker, Anderson's first film
Short Ends was an official selection at the 1976
Edinburgh Film Festival. She researched the lives of people of colour at the
Library of Congress, Washington, DC, developing the idea of making films on positive role models. The first of these films,
The Three Dumas (the story behind
The Count of Monte Cristo), was produced in collaboration with architect
Gian Godoy under the banner of Trenhorne Films (UK), and is a dramatised documentary about novelist
Alexandre Dumas and his ancestors: the grandson of the French Marquis de la Pailleterie and an enslaved African, Dumas overcame all the obstacles of prejudice to become a role model of contemporary literature. Anderson herself portrays General
Toussaint L'Ouverture, leader of the Haitian Revolution. The avant-premiere of
The Three Dumas took place in 2005 in France at
Villers-Cotterets, birthplace of Dumas, to coincide with the inauguration of a statue of him in the presence of the French Minister of Culture. The UK premiere took place in 2007 at the
Museum of London Docklands, coinciding with the inauguration of the new Sugar and Slavery Gallery during the bicentenary commemorations of the 1807
Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. Other screenings around the world include the
British Film Institute,
Canadian Museum of Civilization,
McCord Museum,
Massachusetts Historical Society,
McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum,
University of Leeds,
University of Nottingham,
University of Birmingham,
Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda,
V&A, and an official selection at the
Portobello Film Festival.
Bob Marley: The Making of a Legend The second film of her trilogy,
Bob Marley: The Making of a Legend (in collaboration with Gian Godoy), was screened as work-in-progress at the
British Film Institute NFT1 on March 19, 2011. It is based on footage Anderson shot in the early 1970s that was lost for more than 30 years. In a 2013 interview Anderson said: "Twelve years ago I got my footage back. One day a man came to interview me from
Channel 4, and I saw the footage and said, that’s mine. He said he’d found [the film reels] in a garage in Canada. They were completely destroyed and had to be baked to bring the images back." This musical documentary was chosen to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Marley's passing in film festivals around the world, including: official selection at the
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011; official selection at Jamaica's
Reggae Film Festival 2011, winning a
UNESCO Honor Award; official selection at the
Rhode Island International Film Festival 2011; official selection at the DocMiami International Film Festival 2011; official selection at the Festival de Cine Documental de la Ciudad de Mexico 2011; official selection at the
Buffalo International Film Festival 2011; official selection at the
Hawaii International Film Festival 2011; Bob Marley Charity Gala New York Premiere at the Tribeca Cinemas in Manhattan sponsored by Caribbean Education Foundation CEO Nikiki Bogle; official selection at the Festival Internacional de Cine de Valdivia 2011; official selection at the
Hollywood Black Film Festival 2011; official selection at the Maryland International Film Festival 2011; official selection at the Rototom Sunsplash European Reggae Festival 2011; official selection at the
Chagrin Documentary Film Festival 2011; nomination for Best Feature; official selection at the Silicon Valley Film Festival 2011; official selection at the
Hawaii International Film Festival 2011. == Awards and honours ==