JENNY AGUTTER Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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JENNY AGUTTER

Name: Jennifer Ann Agutter                                                           
Born: 20 December 1952 Taunton, Somerset, England                                     
                                                                                     
Jennifer Ann Agutter (born 20 December 1952) is an English actress.                   
                                                                                     
Agutter was born in Taunton, Somerset, the daughter of Catherine "Kit" (née         
Lynam) and Derek Brodie Agutter, a former British Army officer and live               
entertainment organizer. As a child, she lived in Dhekelia, Cyprus and Kuala         
Lumpur, Malaysia. She was discovered while at ballet school when a casting agent     
was looking 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).                 
                                                                                     
Agutter first came to the attention of television audiences as Roberta in a BBC       
dramatisation of The Railway Children, and went on to play the same part in           
Lionel Jeffries's 1970 film of the book. Her quality of ingenuousness had led to     
an earlier more serious role in what is now regarded as something of a horror         
cult film I Start Counting (1969). She also won an Emmy for her television role       
as Fritha in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of The Snow Goose (1971).           
Agutter continued a transition to adult roles in Walkabout (1971), playing a         
teenage schoolgirl who was lost in the Australian outback with her younger           
brother. She first auditioned for the role in 1967 but funding problems delayed       
filming until 1969. The delay in production meant Agutter was 16 at the time of       
filming, and the director took advantage of her new legal status by including         
many nude scenes in the film. She commented during an interview at the 2005           
Bradford Film Festival at the National Media Museum that she was shocked by the       
film's explicitness when she first viewed it, but is still 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),     
Sweet William (1980), and An American Werewolf in London (1981). In Equus she         
appeared nude, prompting controversy. Since 1990, Agutter has deliberately           
focused on the upbringing of her son and much of her work focused away from film     
and television work and rather involved audio recordings and supporting various       
charities, notably the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, of which she is a patron (she is       
also a carrier of the disease). Nonetheless, she had a guest role 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 2000, she made her third appearance in a production     
of The Railway Children, produced by Carlton TV and this time playing the role       
of 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 2007 she also guest-starred in the Doctor       
Who audio drama The Bride of Peladon.