Cindy O'Callaghan
Encyclopedia
Cindy O'Callaghan is an Irish
-born British
actress. Her acting career began in her adolescence, when she was chosen to play the part of Carrie Rawlins in the Disney feature film, Bedknobs and Broomsticks
in 1971. She has appeared in a wide range of television programmes and films since, including BBC's EastEnders
, where she played Andrea Price for several stints in the 1990s. Her last credited role was in 2001, and she has since given up acting to become a child psychologist.
classic
movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks
(1971), where she starred opposite Angela Lansbury
and David Tomlinson
. She has commented "filming Bedknobs was an incredible adventure. There I was, a working class girl from West London suddenly living on a film set in LA. My mum, who came with me, would race to the studio canteen every morning and then shake with excitement when celebrities like Rock Hudson
came in to get their breakfast. I was just as star struck. I had to go to school for two hours every morning before filming, and would often be sitting in class next to Donny Osmond
, whom I had a big crush on. We lived in a council house in London
, but in Hollywood we had a plush apartment with its own pool. I got the role after casting directors trawled schools looking for children with London accents. I was asked to attend an audition at Pinewood
, where I had to stand up and tell a funny story. I talked about how horrible my older brothers were to me. I was a big fan of Mary Poppins
and couldn't believe I was going to be in a Disney film. When I returned to England, my school friends were massively jealous and stopped talking to me. It marred the premiere for me. After a few unhappy months, I decided to use my fee of [pounds sterling] £3,000 to attend a private school that specialised in drama."
O'Callaghan managed to maintain—in her own words—"an averagely successful career", doing lots of theatre as well as television work. She has appeared in numerous television programmes throughout the 70s, 80s, 90s and early 00s, including ITV
's The Bill
, Casualty
, Specials
, Boon
, Rumpole of the Bailey
, Woof!
and as Linda Kennedy in the BBC soap opera Triangle
, among others. She has also appeared in films, including Hanover Street and I.D.
More recently she is known for her role as Andrea Price—the "boozy" mother of Natalie Evans
(Lucy Speed
)—in the BBC
soap opera
EastEnders
(1994–1995; 1999). This was O'Callaghan's second role in the soap, having previously played Stella — the mistress of Ashraf Karim
— from 1989-1990.
O'Callaghan attended University in 2000, and in 2004 it was reported that she had given up acting to become a child psychologist. She commented "Four years ago, I decided to go to university and am now training to be a child psychologist. I just wanted to do something that was more fulfilling." However, O'Callaghan has appeared on television since this time, in the 2005 documentary The 100 Greatest Family Films, where she discussed the movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks, along with co-stars Angela Lansbury
and Ian Weighill
.
. She is separated from her husband and lives in Kingston upon Thames
. She has a son named Harry.
Television credits include:
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
-born British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
actress. Her acting career began in her adolescence, when she was chosen to play the part of Carrie Rawlins in the Disney feature film, Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a 1971 musical film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution Company which combines live action and animation and was released in North America on December 13, 1971...
in 1971. She has appeared in a wide range of television programmes and films since, including BBC's EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, where she played Andrea Price for several stints in the 1990s. Her last credited role was in 2001, and she has since given up acting to become a child psychologist.
Career
O'Callaghan is probably most famous for her childhood role of 'Carrie Rawlins' in the DisneyThe Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
classic
Walt Disney Classics
Walt Disney Classics was a brand name used by Walt Disney Home Video on their American, Japanese, European and Australian home video releases of Disney animated features. The first title arrived in stores on December 6, 1984...
movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a 1971 musical film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution Company which combines live action and animation and was released in North America on December 13, 1971...
(1971), where she starred opposite Angela Lansbury
Angela Lansbury
Angela Brigid Lansbury CBE is an English actress and singer in theatre, television and motion pictures, whose career has spanned eight decades and earned her more performance Tony Awards than any other individual , with five wins...
and David Tomlinson
David Tomlinson
David Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson was an English film actor. He is primarily remembered for his roles as authority figure George Banks in Mary Poppins, fraudulent magician Professor Emelius Browne in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and as hapless antagonist Peter Thorndyke in The Love Bug.-Early life:Born...
. She has commented "filming Bedknobs was an incredible adventure. There I was, a working class girl from West London suddenly living on a film set in LA. My mum, who came with me, would race to the studio canteen every morning and then shake with excitement when celebrities like Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson
Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...
came in to get their breakfast. I was just as star struck. I had to go to school for two hours every morning before filming, and would often be sitting in class next to Donny Osmond
Donny Osmond
Donald Clark "Donny" Osmond is an American singer, musician, actor, dancer, radio personality, and former teen idol. Osmond has also been a talk and game show host, record producer and author. In the mid 1960s, he and four of his elder brothers gained fame as the Osmond Brothers on the long...
, whom I had a big crush on. We lived in a council house in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, but in Hollywood we had a plush apartment with its own pool. I got the role after casting directors trawled schools looking for children with London accents. I was asked to attend an audition at Pinewood
Pinewood
Pinewood may refer to:* Pine, a species of tree* Pinewood Studios, a major British film studio in Buckinghamshire-Places:in England* Pinewood, Suffolkin the United States* Pinewood, Florida* Pinewood, Minnesota...
, where I had to stand up and tell a funny story. I talked about how horrible my older brothers were to me. I was a big fan of Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins is a series of children's books written by P. L. Travers and originally illustrated by Mary Shepard. The books centre on a magical English nanny, Mary Poppins. She is blown by the East wind to Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane, London and into the Banks' household to care for their...
and couldn't believe I was going to be in a Disney film. When I returned to England, my school friends were massively jealous and stopped talking to me. It marred the premiere for me. After a few unhappy months, I decided to use my fee of [pounds sterling] £3,000 to attend a private school that specialised in drama."
O'Callaghan managed to maintain—in her own words—"an averagely successful career", doing lots of theatre as well as television work. She has appeared in numerous television programmes throughout the 70s, 80s, 90s and early 00s, including ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
's The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
, Casualty
Casualty (TV series)
Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...
, Specials
Specials (TV series)
Specials was a 1991 BBC series about Special Constables in a fictional Midlands town.Twelve 50 minute episodes were made.The series was shot on videotape, in the studio and using locations around West Bromwich and Birmingham, England.-Cast:...
, Boon
Boon (TV series)
Boon is a British television drama and modern-day western series starring Michael Elphick, David Daker, and later Neil Morrissey. It was created by Jim Hill and Bill Stair and filmed by Central Television for ITV...
, Rumpole of the Bailey
Rumpole of the Bailey
Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer which starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an ageing London barrister who defends any and all clients...
, Woof!
Woof!
Woof! is a Children's ITV television series produced by Central Independent Television about the adventures of a boy who turns into a dog. It was based on the book by Allan Ahlberg. It was directed by David Cobham. It was written by Richard Fegen and Andrew Norriss.-History:The show was first...
and as Linda Kennedy in the BBC soap opera Triangle
Triangle (TV series)
Triangle was a BBC television soap opera in the early 1980s, set aboard a North Sea ferry which sailed between Felixstowe & Gothenburg and Gothenburg & Amsterdam. A third imaginary leg existed between Amsterdam & Felixstowe to make up the program title, but this was not operated by the ferry company...
, among others. She has also appeared in films, including Hanover Street and I.D.
ID (film)
I.D. is a 1994 British film made by BBC Films about football hooliganism, directed by Philip Davis and starring Reece Dinsdale, Sean Pertwee and Warren Clarke. It is set in the 1980s, in England, mainly London, and also shot at Millmoor and Valley Parade football grounds in Rotherham and Bradford...
More recently she is known for her role as Andrea Price—the "boozy" mother of Natalie Evans
Natalie Evans
Natalie Evans is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Lucy Speed between 1994 and 2004. Natalie first appeared in January 1994, depicted initially as an unhappy, insecure teenager; she was among various regular characters brought in to increase the cast following the...
(Lucy Speed
Lucy Speed
Lucy Renee Speed is an English actress known for her television roles as Natalie Evans in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders, and DS Stevie Moss in the ITV1 police drama series The Bill.-Early life:...
)—in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
(1994–1995; 1999). This was O'Callaghan's second role in the soap, having previously played Stella — the mistress of Ashraf Karim
Ashraf Karim
The Karims are a fictional family that appeared in the BBC soap opera EastEnders between 1987 and 1990.-Creation and development:The Muslim Karim family were introduced as the owners of the soap's grocery store, the First til Last, following the departure of the character Naima Jeffery in 1987,...
— from 1989-1990.
O'Callaghan attended University in 2000, and in 2004 it was reported that she had given up acting to become a child psychologist. She commented "Four years ago, I decided to go to university and am now training to be a child psychologist. I just wanted to do something that was more fulfilling." However, O'Callaghan has appeared on television since this time, in the 2005 documentary The 100 Greatest Family Films, where she discussed the movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks, along with co-stars Angela Lansbury
Angela Lansbury
Angela Brigid Lansbury CBE is an English actress and singer in theatre, television and motion pictures, whose career has spanned eight decades and earned her more performance Tony Awards than any other individual , with five wins...
and Ian Weighill
Ian Weighill
Ian Weighill is a former child actor who played Charlie Rawlins in the 1971 film Bedknobs and Broomsticks. He also appeared in the TV documentary The 100 Greatest Family Films . He was a young actor at the time and partly faked his accent in the movie.-External links:...
.
Personal life
O'Callaghan grew up in west LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. She is separated from her husband and lives in Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames is the principal settlement of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London. It was the ancient market town where Saxon kings were crowned and is now a suburb situated south west of Charing Cross. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the...
. She has a son named Harry.
Selected filmography
Film credits include:- Bedknobs and BroomsticksBedknobs and BroomsticksBedknobs and Broomsticks is a 1971 musical film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution Company which combines live action and animation and was released in North America on December 13, 1971...
(1971) - Hanover Street (1979)
- Dangerous Davies: The Last DetectiveDangerous DaviesDetective Constable "Dangerous" Davies is the central character in a series of comic novels by Leslie Thomas and a TV series, The Last Detective made for ITV. The first novel in the series was also made into a film for television in 1981.- Profile :...
(1981) - The Hound of the BaskervillesThe Hound of the BaskervillesThe Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of four crime novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an...
(1983) - I.D.ID (film)I.D. is a 1994 British film made by BBC Films about football hooliganism, directed by Philip Davis and starring Reece Dinsdale, Sean Pertwee and Warren Clarke. It is set in the 1980s, in England, mainly London, and also shot at Millmoor and Valley Parade football grounds in Rotherham and Bradford...
(1995)
Television credits include:
- Target (1978)
- Play For TodayPlay for TodayPlay for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted...
(1979) - AngelsAngels (TV series)Angels was originally a British television seasonal drama series dealing with the subject of student nurses and was broadcast by the BBC between 1975 and 1978. The show's format then switched to a twice weekly soap opera format from 1979 to 1983. The show's title derived from the name of the...
(1980) - FoxFox (TV series)Fox is a British television drama series produced by Euston Films and Thames Television for the ITV network in 1980.The thirteen-part series was based around the lives of the titular Fox family, who lived in London and had gangland connections....
(1980) - TriangleTriangle (TV series)Triangle was a BBC television soap opera in the early 1980s, set aboard a North Sea ferry which sailed between Felixstowe & Gothenburg and Gothenburg & Amsterdam. A third imaginary leg existed between Amsterdam & Felixstowe to make up the program title, but this was not operated by the ferry company...
(1981) - No Place Like HomeNo Place Like Home (sitcom)No Place Like Home is a BBC situation comedy written by Jon Watkins and stars William Gaunt and Patricia Garwood as Arthur and Beryl Crabtree, a middle-aged couple who plan for a quiet life once their children have left home...
(1986) - Rockliffe's BabiesRockliffe's BabiesRockliffe's Babies was a British television drama produced by the BBC which ran for two series between 1987 and 1988. The series was devised by Richard O`Keeffe and produced by Leonard Lewis. Writers included Richard O`Keeffe, Don Webb, Charlie Humphreys and Nick Perry...
(1988) - Rumpole of the BaileyRumpole of the BaileyRumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer which starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an ageing London barrister who defends any and all clients...
(1988) - BoonBoon (TV series)Boon is a British television drama and modern-day western series starring Michael Elphick, David Daker, and later Neil Morrissey. It was created by Jim Hill and Bill Stair and filmed by Central Television for ITV...
(1989) - SpecialsSpecials (TV series)Specials was a 1991 BBC series about Special Constables in a fictional Midlands town.Twelve 50 minute episodes were made.The series was shot on videotape, in the studio and using locations around West Bromwich and Birmingham, England.-Cast:...
(1991) - BergeracBergerac (TV series)Bergerac was a British television show set on Jersey. Produced by the BBC in association with the Seven Network, and screened on BBC1, it starred John Nettles as the title character Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac, a detective in "Le Bureau des Étrangers" Bergerac was a British television show...
(1991) - Virtual MurderVirtual MurderVirtual Murder was an unusual investigative drama series shown on BBC television in 1992. It starred Nicholas Clay as Dr John Cornelius, a psychology lecturer at a provincial university, and Kim Thomson as his vivacious, red-headed partner, Samantha Valentine.- Subject matter and cast :Virtual...
(1992) - Love HurtsLove Hurts (UK TV series)Love Hurts is a British situation-comedy television series that was broadcast from 1992 to 1994 on the BBC. It was scripted by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran and starred Adam Faith, Zoë Wanamaker and Jane Lapotaire as Frank Carver, Tessa Piggott and Diane Warburg, respectively....
(1993) - Woof!Woof!Woof! is a Children's ITV television series produced by Central Independent Television about the adventures of a boy who turns into a dog. It was based on the book by Allan Ahlberg. It was directed by David Cobham. It was written by Richard Fegen and Andrew Norriss.-History:The show was first...
(1997) - CasualtyCasualty (TV series)Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...
(1993; 1995) - EastEndersEastEndersEastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
(1989–1990; 1994–1995; 1999) - The BillThe BillThe Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
(1992; 1999; 1997; 2001)