Actress
Fenella was born in 1927 in London, and she grew up in Lower Clapton and then later in Edgware where she attended North London Collegiate School.
Fenella began her acting career in 1954, concentrating on stage theatrical productions. She was given her first break by the actor Ron Moody, who had met her in an amateur production at the London School of Economics. Her performance in Sandy Winter’s musical version of Valmouth made her a star in the late 1950s. By 1959 Fenella was appearing with Kenneth Williams in the comedy revue Pieces of Eight, written by Harold Pinter and Peter Cook.
Fenella appeared in two of the Carry On Films – Carry On Regardless and Carry On Screaming where she played the husky voice vamp, Valeria. Other films include Drop Dead Darling with Tony Curtis, Berinthia in Lock Up Your Daughters with Christopher Plummer, & Maid Marian in Robin Hood with George Segal
Fenella had occasional guest appearances in television programmes such as The Avengers (after being passed over as Patrick MacNee’s regular partner in favour of Honor Blackman) and in Danger Man. Other programmes include the Feydeau farce series Ooh-La-La, Cleopatra in The Ides of March, Marcella in The Autograph, The Vixen in the Uncle Jack series, three guest star appearances on The Morecambe & Wise Show , The Good Old Days, That Was The Week, amongst many others.Fenella returned to our screens this year as Grandmother Miriam in Channel 4’s teen drama Skins.
Fenella has recorded several talking books, including T.S. Elliott’s The Four Quartets, and innumerable radio credits, which includes Mrs. Skewton in Dickens’s Dombey & Son for Radio 4.
It is her much loved appearance in Carry On Screaming that has brought Fenella to Misty Moon.
Contact
- Website: www.fenellafielding.com/