Kate O'Mara is an English film, stage and television actress. She is perhaps most widely known for her role as Caress Morell, the scheming sister of Alexis Colby

Alexis Colby

Alexis Colby is a fictional character and the primary antagonist on the American TV series Dynasty....

 in the 1980s American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 primetime soap opera Dynasty

Dynasty (TV series)

Dynasty is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981 to May 11, 1989. It was created by Richard & Esther Shapiro and produced by Aaron Spelling, and revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado...

, though is also known for playing other villains such as The Rani

Rani (Doctor Who)

The Rani is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. She was played by Kate O'Mara. The word "Rani" means "queen" in the Urdu and Hindi languages and "The Rani" follows the naming convention for other renegade timelords, "The Doctor," "The Monk," "The War...

 in Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

and Laura Wilde in Howards' Way

Howards' Way

Howards' Way is a television drama series produced by BBC Birmingham and transmitted on BBC One between 1 September 1985 and 25 November 1990. The series deals with the personal and professional lives of the yachting and business communities in the fictional town of Tarrant on the South Coast of...

.

Personal life

Born as Frances M. Carroll, the daughter of John F. Carroll and actress Hazel Bainbridge (b. 1909/1910 – d. 7 January 1998). Her younger sister is actress Belinda Carroll

Belinda Carroll

Belinda Carroll is a British stage and television actress.-Background and early career:Carroll's parents were John F. Carroll, a flying instructor with the Royal Air Force, and actress Hazel Bainbridge...

. After boarding school she attended Art school before becoming a full-time actress. She had an out of wedlock son, Chris Linde, whom she was forced to give up for adoption but was later reunited with him. She also had a second son, Dickon Young. She has been married and divorced three times. She is a strict vegetarian and animal rights activist.

Career

O'Mara made her stage debut in a production of The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...

in 1963. Her earliest television appearances included guest roles on Danger Man

Danger Man

Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the program and wrote many of the scripts...

, Adam Adamant Lives!

Adam Adamant Lives!

Adam Adamant Lives! is a British television series which ran from 1966 to 1967 on the BBC. Proposing that an adventurer born in 1867 had been revived from hibernation in 1966, the show was a comedy adventure that took a satirical look at life in the 1960s through the eyes of an Edwardian .- Character...

, The Saint

The Saint (TV series)

The Saint was an ITC mystery spy thriller television series that aired in the UK on ITV between 1962 and 1969. It centred on the Leslie Charteris literary character, Simon Templar, a Robin Hood-like adventurer with a penchant for disguise. The character may be nicknamed The Saint because the...

, Z-Cars

Z-Cars

Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...

and The Avengers

The Avengers (TV series)

The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...

in the 1960s. In 1970, she appeared in two Hammer Studio

Hammer Film Productions

Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...

 horror films; The Vampire Lovers

The Vampire Lovers

The Vampire Lovers is a 1970 British Hammer Horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Peter Cushing, Ingrid Pitt, Madeline Smith, Kate O'Mara, and Jon Finch. It is based on the J. Sheridan Le Fanu novella Carmilla and is part of the so-called Karnstein Trilogy of films. The other films in...

and The Horror of Frankenstein

The Horror of Frankenstein

The Horror of Frankenstein is a 1970 British horror film by Hammer Film Productions that is both a semi-parody and remake of the 1957 film The Curse of Frankenstein. It was produced and directed by Jimmy Sangster, starring Ralph Bates, Kate O'Mara, Veronica Carlson and David Prowse as the monster...

. In 1975, she had a regular role in the BBC drama series The Brothers.

In the early 1980s, O'Mara starred 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...

. In 1985, she played The Rani in the Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

adventure "The Mark of the Rani

The Mark of the Rani

The Mark of The Rani is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts from 2 February to 9 February 1985...

". In 1986, she was cast as Caress Morrell in the American primetime soap opera Dynasty. Playing the sister of Alexis Colby (Joan Collins

Joan Collins

Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...

), O'Mara appeared in 17 episodes of the sixth season and 4 episodes of the seventh. After returning to the UK, she appeared in her second Doctor Who story, "Time and the Rani

Time and the Rani

Time and the Rani is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 7 September to 28 September 1987. This story was the first to feature Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor. It also features the last appearance of the Sixth...

" in 1987. She was then later cast as another scheming villain, Laura Wilde, in the BBC soap Howards' Way

Howards' Way

Howards' Way is a television drama series produced by BBC Birmingham and transmitted on BBC One between 1 September 1985 and 25 November 1990. The series deals with the personal and professional lives of the yachting and business communities in the fictional town of Tarrant on the South Coast of...

in 1989.

O'Mara continued to make television appearances throughout the 1990s, including Cluedo and Absolutely Fabulous

Absolutely Fabulous

Absolutely Fabulous, also known as Ab Fab, is a British sitcom created by Jennifer Saunders, based on an original idea by her and Dawn French, and written by Saunders, who plays the leading character. It also stars Joanna Lumley and Julia Sawalha, along with June Whitfield and Jane Horrocks...

. In 2001, she had a recurring role in the 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...

 prison drama series Bad Girls

Bad Girls (TV series)

Bad Girls is an award-winning British television drama series that was broadcast on ITV from 1999 to 2006. It is produced by Shed Productions, the company which later produced Footballers' Wives and Waterloo Road...

before appearing in the short-lived revival of the soap opera Crossroads. She has continued to perform on stage and in March 2008 she played Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...

 in a stage play entitled Lunch with Marlene

Lunch with Marlene

Lunch with Marlene is a stage comedy written by Chris Burgess. It is based on the friendship of acting legends Marlene Dietrich and Noël Coward. The two were respectively portrayed by Kate O'Mara and Frank Barrie in the play's original London production, which ran at the New End Theatre from 28...

. From August to November 2008, she played Mrs Cheveley in Oscar Wilde's

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...

 stage play 'An Ideal Husband

An Ideal Husband

An Ideal Husband is an 1895 comedic stage play by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour...

' directed by Peter Hall and produced by Bill Kenwright

Bill Kenwright

Bill Kenwright CBE is a leading West End theatre producer and film producer.He is also the Chairman of Everton Football Club, an English professional football club from the city of Liverpool....

.

O'Mara has also performed in radio and audio plays. In 2000 she reprised her role as the Rani in the BBV

BBV

BBV is a video and audio production company specialising in science fiction drama, known for its links with the British science fiction television series Doctor Who...

 audio play The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind, and in 2006 she made a guest appearance in the radio comedy series Nebulous

Nebulous

Nebulous is a post apocalyptic science fiction comedy radio show written by Graham Duff and produced by Ted Dowd from Baby Cow Productions; it is directed by Nicholas Briggs. The series premiered in the United Kingdom on BBC Radio 4...

.

Writing

O'Mara has written four books, two fictional novels (When She Was Bad and Good Time Girl) and two autobiographical books, Vamp Until Ready and Game Plan: A Woman's Survival Kit.

Film and television credits

Film and television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1957	Emergency – Ward 10	Nurse	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,...
1964– 1966	No Hiding Place No Hiding Place No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967....	Jacqueline	2 episodes
1965	Danger Man Danger Man Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the program and wrote many of the scripts...	Annette	Episode: A Room in the Basement
1965	Gaslight Theatre	Patience	Episode: The Drunkard or, the Sins of the Parents Shall Be Visited...
1966	Court Martial Court Martial (TV series) Court Martial was an ITC Entertainment and Roncom Productions co-production crime drama TV series that premiered in 1966. Set during World War II, the series details the investigations of a Judge Advocate General's office....		Episode: Logistics of Survival
1966	Weavers Green Weavers Green Weavers Green was a British television soap opera, made in 1966 for ITV by Anglia Television. It was notable for being one of the first television programmes to be shot on location using videotape and outside broadcast equipment, rather than film, as had usually been the case for non-studio...	Mick Armstrong
1967	Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond	Miss Moneypenny's assistant	Uncredited
1967	Adam Adamant Lives! Adam Adamant Lives! Adam Adamant Lives! is a British television series which ran from 1966 to 1967 on the BBC. Proposing that an adventurer born in 1867 had been revived from hibernation in 1966, the show was a comedy adventure that took a satirical look at life in the 1960s through the eyes of an Edwardian .- Character...	Sonia Fawzi	Episode: The Basardi Affair
1967		Kim Hart	Episode: Mr. Know-How
1967– 1968		Annabelle/Nadine/Yvette	Episodes: Double Take, Counterfeit Countess, Fast Women
1967– 1969	Z-Cars Z-Cars Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...	Kate/Mae Astell	4 episodes
1968	Promenade	Laura	Short film
1968		Irina Tovskia
1968	Corruption	Val Nolan
1968		Jane Purcell	Episode: To Catch a Rat
1968	Great Catherine	Varinka	Gordon Flemyng Gordon Flemyng Gordon William Flemyng was a Scottish director of six theatrical features, several television films and numerous episodes of TV series, some of which he also wrote and produced. Flemyng directed both of the Dalek feature films of the 1960s, Dr...  film
1969		Lisa	Episode: Stay Tuned
1969		Adah (Jacob's girl)	Henry Levin Henry Levin Henry Levin began as a stage actor and director but was most notable as an American film director of over fifty feature films. He broke into film in 1943 as a dialogue director for the films Dangerous Blondes and Appointment in Berlin for Columbia Pictures...  film
1969		Julia Main	4 episodes
1969	Department S Department S Department S is a United Kingdom spy-fi adventure series produced by ITC Entertainment. The series consists of 28 episodes which originally aired in 1969–1970. It starred Peter Wyngarde as author Jason King , Joel Fabiani as Stewart Sullivan, and Rosemary Nicols as computer expert Annabelle Hurst...	Pietra	Episode: Who Plays the Dummy
1970	Never a Cross Word	Ellie	Episode: When is a Spy...
1970	Codename Codename (TV series) Codename was a short-lived British television series produced by the BBC in 1970.An espionage thriller series, Codename was based around a secret organisation, MI17, being run from a residential hall at Cambridge University...	Helen Lingard	Episode: Opening Gambit
1970	Paul Temple Paul Temple Paul Temple is a fictional character created by British writer Francis Durbridge for the BBC radio serial Send for Paul Temple in 1938. Temple is an amateur private detective and author of crime fiction...	Luciana Benedetti	Episode: Re-take
1970		The Governess (Mme. Perrodot)	Roy Ward Baker Roy Ward Baker Roy Ward Baker , born Roy Horace Baker, was an English film director, credited as Roy Baker for much of his career. His best known film is A Night to Remember which won a Golden Globe for Best English-Language Foreign Film in 1959...  film
1970		Peleen	Episode: People isn't Everything
1970		Alys	Jimmy Sangster Jimmy Sangster James Henry Kinmel Sangster was an English screenwriter and director, known for his work for horror film producers Hammer Film Productions, including scripts for The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula .Sangster originally worked as a production assistant at...  film
1972		Storm Riordan
1972	ITV Sunday Night Theatre	Storm Riordan
1972		Heidi Schulman	Episode: Read and Destroy
1972	Jason King Jason King (TV series) Jason King was a British television series produced from 1971 to 1972. Each episode was one hour in duration , and the series had a run of one season of 26 episodes. As well as its native UK, the series was also screened in countries as far afield as Australia, Norway, Argentina and Peru...	Delphi	Episode: A Kiss for a Beautiful Killer
1972	Clouds of Witness Clouds of Witness Clouds of Witness is a 1926 novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, the second in her series featuring Lord Peter Wimsey.It was adapted for television in 1972, as part of a series starring Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter.-Plot introduction:...	Cynthia Tarrant	Episode 1.3
1972	Pathfinders Pathfinders (TV series) Pathfinders is a 1970s ITV drama set in World War 2 and follows the story of the fictitious Royal Air Force 192 Pathfinder squadron. The Pathfinders were specialised RAF squadrons that marked targets for the RAF's heavy bombers....	Section Officer Anne Denby	Episode: Fog
1973	Spy Trap	Sharon Lunghi	3 episodes
1974	Feelings Feelings (film) Feelings is a 1974 British drama film directed by Gerry O'Hara and starring Kate O'Mara, Paul Freeman and Edward Judd. A couple who are unable to conceive a baby, attempt artificial insemination.-Cast:* Kate O'Mara ... Barbara Martin...	Barbara Martin	Gerry O'Hara Gerry O'Hara Gerry O'Hara is an English film and television director.O'Hara was an assistant director on Laurence Olivier's film,Richard III; the Carol Reed film, Our Man in Havana and the Academy Award-winning Tom Jones....  film
1974		Sarah Trent	Episode: A Pocketful of Posies
1974		Anna Skriabina	Blake Edwards Blake Edwards Blake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...  film
1975– 1976		Jane Maxwell	30 episodes
1976	Machinegunner	Pat Livingston
1977	The Two Ronnies The Two Ronnies The Two Ronnies is a British sketch show that aired on BBC1 from 1971 to 1987. It featured the double act of Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, the "Two Ronnies" of the title.-Origins:...	Lucy Lee	Series 6 Episode 3
1978	Tuntematon ystävä	Karen Lindén/Judith Russell/Berit Lindström
1978	Return of the Saint Return of the Saint Return of the Saint was a British action-adventure television series that aired for one season in 1978 and 1979 in Britain on ITV, and was also broadcast on CBS in the United States...	Jeanette	Episode: Assault Force
1978		Salome	TV movie
1979		'It's Paint' Woman
1981– 1982	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...	Katherine Laker	27 episodes
1985– 1987	Doctor Who Doctor Who Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...	The Rani Rani (Doctor Who) The Rani is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. She was played by Kate O'Mara. The word "Rani" means "queen" in the Urdu and Hindi languages and "The Rani" follows the naming convention for other renegade timelords, "The Doctor," "The Monk," "The War...	6 episodes
1986	Dempsey & Makepeace Dempsey & Makepeace Dempsey & Makepeace is a British television crime drama made by London Weekend Television for ITV, created and produced by Ranald Graham...	Joyce Hargreaves	Episode: Guardian Angels
1986	Dynasty Dynasty (TV series) Dynasty is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981 to May 11, 1989. It was created by Richard & Esther Shapiro and produced by Aaron Spelling, and revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado...	Cassandra 'Caress' Morrell	21 episodes
1989– 1990	Howards' Way Howards' Way Howards' Way is a television drama series produced by BBC Birmingham and transmitted on BBC One between 1 September 1985 and 25 November 1990. The series deals with the personal and professional lives of the yachting and business communities in the fictional town of Tarrant on the South Coast of...	Laura Wilde	26 episodes
1990	Cluedo Cluedo Cluedo is a popular murder/mystery-themed deduction board game originally published by Waddingtons in Leeds, England in 1949. It was devised by Anthony E. Pratt, a solicitor's clerk from Birmingham, England. It is now published by the United States game and toy company Hasbro, which acquired its U.S...	Mrs. Peacock	Episode: Christmas Past, Christmas Present
1992	Aladdin	Madam Roly Poly (voice)	Ron Clements Ron Clements Ronald Francis "Ron" Clements is an American animation director and producer. He is one half of America's leading contemporary animation team with John Musker.-Life and career:...  and John Musker John Musker John Musker is an American animation director. Along with Ron Clements, he makes up the duo of one of the Disney animation studio's leading director teams.-Life and career:...  film
1993	Comic Relief: The Invasion of the Comic Tomatoes Comic Relief Comic Relief is an operating British charity, founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Lenny Henry in response to famine in Ethiopia. The highlight of Comic Relief's appeal is Red Nose Day, a biennial telethon held in March, alternating with sister project Sport Relief...	Female Patient
1993	Doctor Who: Dimensions in Time Dimensions in Time Dimensions in Time is a charity special crossover between the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and the soap opera EastEnders that ran in two parts on 26 and 27 November 1993. It was filmed on the EastEnders Albert Square set, and features several of the stars of that programme...	The Rani Rani (Doctor Who) The Rani is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. She was played by Kate O'Mara. The word "Rani" means "queen" in the Urdu and Hindi languages and "The Rani" follows the naming convention for other renegade timelords, "The Doctor," "The Monk," "The War...
1995– 2003	Absolutely Fabulous Absolutely Fabulous Absolutely Fabulous, also known as Ab Fab, is a British sitcom created by Jennifer Saunders, based on an original idea by her and Dawn French, and written by Saunders, who plays the leading character. It also stars Joanna Lumley and Julia Sawalha, along with June Whitfield and Jane Horrocks...	Jackie Stone	2 episodes
1997		Lady Isabelle	Episode: Marion to the Rescue
1999		Despina
2001	Bad Girls Bad Girls (TV series) Bad Girls is an award-winning British television drama series that was broadcast on ITV from 1999 to 2006. It is produced by Shed Productions, the company which later produced Footballers' Wives and Waterloo Road...	Virginia O'Kane	4 episodes
2003	Crossroads	Lady Alice Fox	Soap opera
2005	Family Affairs Family Affairs Family Affairs was a British soap opera broadcast on Five, from 1997 to 2005. It was the second programme to be broadcast on the channel on 30 March 1997, the channel's launch night...	Jackie Lawrence	Soap opera
2008	Doctors	Rosetta Froom	Episode: Fears, Feats & the Frooms

External links