Actress
Kate is one of the UK’s best-known and loved starts of stage and screen. Her works in the
theatre includes co-starring with Juliet Stevenson in Imogen Stubbs’ play We Happy Few,
directed by Trevor Nunn, in the West End. She also played opposite Martin Shaw in An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde at the Haymarket, London, directed by Peter Hall and was in the premiere of Melvyn Bragg’s play King Lear in New York at the Chichester Festival, where she was also in a revival of Christopher Fry’s Venus Observed and Cain by Lord Byron.
Kate was nominated for a Best Actress Award for My Cousin Rachel (in Vienna and on tour) and was in the critically acclaimed Colombe at the Salisbury Playhouse. She was in the first London productions of Bernard Shaw’s The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles and David Pinner’s The Last Englishman at the Orange Tree and Moss Hart’s Light Up the Sky at the Old Vic.
In seasons with the New Shakespeare Company at Regent’s Park, she played Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew and doubled Titania and Hippolyta in A Midsummer night’s dream. At the Nottingham Playhouse, she played Cleopatra in Anthony and Cleopatra and Millamant in The Way of the World. She was Goneril to Sir Anthony Quayle’s King Lear for Compass and played Lady Fancyfull in The Provok’d Wife in a promenade performance at The National Theatre. Kate also played Elvira in Blithe Spirit at the Bristol Old Vic and was in Shaw’s Misalliance and T S Eliot’s The Elder Statesman for the Birmingham Rep. Favourite roles include Gertrude Lawrence in Noel and Gertie and Lilli Vanessi / Kate in the RSC’s production of Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate.
Kate has toured extensively and roles include Stephanie in the two-hander Duet for One; in Stoppard’s Night and Day; Anouilh’s The Rehearsal, directed by Gillian Lynne; On Approval for the Peter Hall Company; Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance; the eponymous role in Noel Coward’s The Marquise; as Lady Windermere in a new adaptation of Wilde’s Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, and previously for the Agatha Christie Theatre Company in the inaugural production, The Hollow and recently with Murder on Air, The Agatha Christie Radio Plays.
Earlier roles in the West End include; The Italian Girl at Wyndhams; Suddenly at Home at the Fortune; The Crucifer of Blood at the Haymarket; Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime at Sadler’s Wells; The Spoils of Poynton at the Mayfair; The Avengers at the Prince of Wales and The Relapse at the Mermaid.
In 1967, Peter O’Toole cast her in a cinematic adaptation of Shaw’s Great Catherine and she has since made numerous films, including a couple of Westerns, two Horror movies, a minor Biblical epic and a Spy thriller, The Limbo Line.
Her early television career includes such classics as The Saint, The avengers, The Persuaders, Jason King Department S, Danger Man, No Hiding Place and Z Cars, and subsequently Weaver’s Green, The Main Chance, Spy Trap, The Brothers, Doctor Who, Triangle, Dynasty, Howard’s Way, Absolutely Fabulous, Bad Girls, Family Affairs and she considered herself fortunate to have worked with the Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise.
In 1987, Kate co-founded the British Actors Theatre Company, which has mounted over 20 productions. She has had four books published and written six shows for the theatre, all of which have been seen. Kate also starred as Marlene Dietrich in Lunch With Marlene and Noel, which started life at the New End Theatre, Hampstead.
Most recently, Kate filmed a guest lead role in the new series of the hit ITV comedy, Benidorm and appeared on stage for Bill Kenwright and the Agatha Christie Theatre Company in Murder on the Nile.
Contact
- Twitter: @kateOmara_
Misty Moon Event
- An Evening With Kate O’Mara