Harriet Walter

Harriet Walter was born in London, England in 1950. She is the niece of British actor Sir Christopher Lee, being the daughter of his elder sister Xandra Lee and so she has Italian origins. On her father's side, Walter is a great-great-great-great-granddaughter of John Walter, founder of The Times. She was educated at Cranborne Chase School. After turning down a university education, she was rejected by five drama schools before being admitted to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. == Career ==

Walter appeared in the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) productions Nicholas Nickleby (1980), ''A Midsummer Night's Dream (1981), All's Well That Ends Well (1981), The Castle (1985), A Question of Geography (1988), Twelfth Night (1988), Three Sisters (1988), The Duchess of Malfi (1989), Macbeth (1999), Much Ado about Nothing (2002) and Death of a Salesman (2015).'' In 1987, Walter was made an associate artist of the RSC. Additional theatre work includes Three Birds Alighting on a Field (1991), Arcadia (1993), Hedda Gabler (1996), Ivanov (1997) and Mary Stuart (2005). Walter made her Broadway debut in 1983, when the RSC production of ''All's Well That Ends Well transferred there. In 1993, she starred as Biddy in the off-Broadway production of Three Birds Alighting on a Field, for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination. She returned to the Broadway stage in 2009, when she reprised her role in Mary Stuart. In 2014, Walter starred as Brutus in an all-female off-Broadway production of Julius Caesar'' and received her second Drama Desk nomination. Walter's films include Sense and Sensibility (1995), Bedrooms and Hallways (1998), The Governess (1998), Onegin (1999), Villa des Roses (2002) and Bright Young Things (2003). In 1987, she portrayed Harriet Vane in three instalments of the BBC's A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery, and played Detective Inspector Natalie Chandler from 2009 to 2012 in the ITV drama series Law & Order: UK. Other television roles include Waking the Dead (2001), Little Dorrit (2008), A Short Stay in Switzerland (2009) and Lady Shackleton in four episodes of the series Downton Abbey (2013–15). In 2016, Walter played Clementine Churchill on the Netflix series The Crown, appeared in two episodes in 2017 in Call the Midwife and had a recurring role on the HBO series Succession (2018⁠–23). She portrayed the Tudor matriarch Margaret Beaufort in the series "The Spanish Princess". In 2020, Walter joined the series Killing Eve. Walter played Brutus in Julius Caesar in 2012, and the title role in Henry IV in 2014, in all-female productions at the Donmar Warehouse. Both productions transferred to Brooklyn's St. Ann's Warehouse in New York. She was set to reprise both roles, as well as playing Prospero in an all-female production of The Tempest, as part of director Phyllida Lloyd's Shakespeare trilogy at the Donmar's temporary, in-the-round, 420-seat theatre next to King's Cross station in 2016. On 14 January 2025 Walter announced that filming was underway for Paramount+ series Playing Gracie Darling, in the role of Pattie. == Personal life ==

Walter was in a relationship with actor Peter Blythe from 1996 until his death in 2004. She married actor Guy Paul in 2011. At the age of 20, Walter became a feminist and went "into political theatre; to try and put as much feminism into the interpretation of parts I was playing". She was conflicted on her damehood and nearly turned it down, but eventually decided to accept because "there are many fewer women [than men] who can sustain a career to the point where they can be named a dame, and that's not through lack of talent. It was a slightly political gesture". She supported the UK remaining in the European Union in the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum. Walter, who speaks Russian, gave a reading at the 2022 Poets for Ukraine event alongside Juliet Stevenson, Meera Syal, and others. Shortly after the beginning of the 2023 Gaza war, Walter was one of over 2,000 to sign an Artists for Palestine letter calling for a ceasefire and accusing western governments of "not only tolerating war crimes but aiding and abetting them". She condemned the decision to rescind Caryl Churchill's 2022 European Drama Lifetime Achievement Award over Churchill's support of Palestine and alleged anti-semitism. Walter is a patron of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, a charity that enables school children across the UK to perform Shakespeare in professional theatres; Prisoners Abroad, a charity that supports Britons imprisoned overseas and their families; and Clean Break, a charity and theatre company dedicated to sharing the stories of imprisoned women and transforming the lives of female offenders through theatre education. == Acting credits ==

Film Television Theatre • 1979, Royal Shakespeare Company, ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' • 1981/82, Royal Shakespeare Company, Helena in ''All's Well That Ends Well'' • 1981/82, Royal Shakespeare Company, Winnifrede in The Witch of Edmonton • 1983, Martin Beck Theatre (Broadway transfer), Helena in ''All's Well That Ends Well'' • 1985, Royal Shakespeare Company, Skinner in The Castle • 1987/88, Royal Shakespeare Company, Imogen in Cymbeline • 1987/88, Royal Shakespeare Company, Viola in Twelfth Night • 1987/88, Royal Shakespeare Company, Dacha in A Question of Geography • 1988, Royal Shakespeare Company, Masha in Chekhov's Three Sisters • 1989/90, Royal Shakespeare Company, Duchess in John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi • 1991, Royal Court Theatre (and off-Broadway transfer), Biddy in Timberlake Wertenbaker's Three Birds Alighting on a Field • 1993, Royal National Theatre, Lady Croom in Arcadia by Tom Stoppard • 1999, Royal Shakespeare Company, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth • 2000, Royal National Theatre and The Old Vic, Sonia in Life x 3 • 2002 Royal National Theatre, Paige in Dinner by Moira Buffini, co-starring Nicholas Farrell and Catherine McCormack • 2005, Donmar Warehouse and Apollo Theatre (West End), Elizabeth I in Mary Stuart by Schiller'' • 2014, Donmar Warehouse (and off-Broadway transfer), King Henry IV in Henry IV • 2015, Royal Shakespeare Company and the Noël Coward Theatre, Linda Loman in Death of a Salesman • 2016, Donmar Warehouse, Prospero in The Tempest Audio • Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation • The Vortex by Noël Coward as Florence Lancaster, BBC Radio 3, 2 January 2000 • Scenes of Seduction as Catherine, radio play written by Timberlake Wertenbaker and directed by Ned Chaillet, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 7 March 2005 • Desmond Olivier Dingle as herself, broadcast on BBC7 on 28 February 2007, episode 2 of 6, duration 30 minutes • The Arts and How they was done as herself, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 4 April and 9 May 2007, episodes 1 and 6 out of 6, duration 30 minutes • I, Claudius as Livia, wife of Augustus, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 December 2010 • Desert Island Discs as herself on BBC Radio 4, guested on 26 June 2011 • Time and the Conways as Mrs. Conway in BBC Radio 3's adaptation of J.B. Priestley's play, broadcast on 14 September 2014 • The Mysterious Affair at Styles as Emily Inglethorp, a 2024 Audible original == Honours ==

She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2000 New Year Honours In 2001 she and Kenneth Branagh were both given honorary doctorates and honorary fellowships at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford. Her performance in Mary Stuart at the Donmar Warehouse transferred to Broadway, where it was nominated for numerous Tony Awards, including Best Actress nods for her and her co-star Janet McTeer. == Bibliography ==