Joanna Lumley

PHOTO GALLERY
Date of Birth : May 1st 1946

Best known for her roles in The New Avengers, Absolutely Fabulous, Sapphire and Steel and Sensitive Skin.

Joanna Lamond Lumley was born on 1 May 1946 in Srinagar, Kashmir, India. Her parents were Major James Rutherford Lumley, who served in the 6th Gurkha Rifles, a regiment of the British Indian Army, and Thya Rose Weir; they married in 1941. After the independence of India in 1949, the Lumleys settled in Kent, England. Joanna was educated at St Mary’s School in Sussex, England, and afterwards attended the Lucie Clayton finishing school. Tall, leggy, slim and blonde, she spent three years as a photographic model, and is said to have made her TV debut in a well-known UK advert for Nimble bread first screened in 1969. She also worked as a house model for Jean Muir.

Lumley’s acting career began with the role of a Bond girl in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969). She went on to have a brief but memorable role in Coronation Street in which she turned down Ken Barlow’s offer of marriage.

In the Are You Being Served? episode entitled “His and Hers” broadcast on BBC1 on 11 April 1973 (season 1; episode 4), she was guest star as perfume representative Miss French.

In the 3 April 1975 episode entitled “German Week” (season 3; episode 6), she was again guest star, on that occasion as “German Lady.”

Lumley went on to find fame with a new generation for her portrayal of the chain smoking, boozing, cocaine-sniffing and other drug-taking sexpot fashion director Patsy Stone on the British comedy television show Absolutely Fabulous (1992 – 2004)