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Wanda Ventham Biography, Age, Family, Husband, Career, Movies & TV Shows

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BIOGRAPHY OF WANDA VENTHAM

Wanda Ventham is an English actress born August 5, 1935 in Brighton, United Kingdom. She is best known for her role as Colonel Virginia Lake on the 1970s science fiction television series UFO, and for her recurring role as Cassandra Trotter’s mother Pamela Parry on the sitcom Only Fools and Horses from 1989 to 1992. She also appeared in two episodes of The Saint alongside Roger Moore.

WANDA VENTHAM AGE

She was born on August 5, 1935. She is 83 years old in 2018.

WANDA VENTHAM FAMILY

Ventham was born in Brighton, to Gladys Frances and Frederick Howard Ventham. Her biggest dream being to become an artist, she attended art school for a year, while working as a scenic painter for the Connaught Theatre, Worthing, West Sussex, during her school holidays. Due to her exposure to professional theater, she decided to quit art school and pursue an acting career. She went to the Central School of Speech and Drama, alongside Judi Dench, who graduated in 1956.

HUSBAND OF WANDA VENTHAM

Ventham married her first husband James Tabernacle in 1957 and they had one daughter, Tracy. However, they divorced on November 12, 1974. She later met actor Timothy Carlton in 1970 while filming sequences for the drama series A Family at War and they have been married since April 1976.

CHILDREN OF WANDA VENTHAM

She has two children Benedict Cumberbatch and Tracy Peacock

WANDA VENTHAM’S CAREER

Ventham’s first film role was in 1956 in My Teenage Daughter, starring Anna Neagle and Sylvia Syms. In 1964, she appeared in Carry On Cleo and Carry On… Up the Khyber (1968). She starred in the mystery film, Death is a Woman in 1966, alongside Mark Burns. Her best known role was on television as Colonel Virginia Lake, second in command to Cmdr. Ed Straker (Ed Bishop) in the cult series UFO.

Her other numerous TV credits include regular roles on Heartbeat as Fiona Weston, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates as Margaret Balshaw and The Rag Trade as Shirley. She also played a love interest for Arthur Daley in Minder, Susan’s mother in Coupling, and Deborah’s mother in Men Behaving Badly. She played the lead in the 15-episode BBC series The Lotus Eaters (1972–73), opposite Ian Hendry, and had an appearance on Rutland Weekend Television. She appeared in an episode of Danger Man, and the Patrick McGoohan series was completed immediately after – the allegorical spy series The Prisoner – as well as the sitcoms Executive Stress and Next of Kin, and the sketch show The Two Ronnies .

She appeared three times in Doctor Who over three decades: as Jean Rock in The Faceless Ones (1967), as Thea Ransome in Image of the Fendahl (1977), and as Faroon in Time and the Rani (1987). She appeared in Image of the Fendahl opposite Denis Lill. The two went on to play Pamela and Alan Parry on the sitcom Only Fools and Horses.

She and her husband Timothy Carlton appeared in the 2014 BBC adaptation of Sherlock, as the parents of Sherlock Holmes, who is played by their son Benedict Cumberbatch. She also appeared in Holby City as Myrtle McKee, a hospital patient who leads a double life.

MOVIES AND TV SHOWS

Movies

  1. 1956 My Teenage Daughter
  2. 1959 The Navy Lark
  3. 1961 We joined the Navy
  4. 1962 Solo for Sparrow
  5. 1964 Carry On Cleo
  6. 1965 The Big Job
  7. 1965 Talent…and How to Get It
  8. 1966 Death is a Woman
  9. 1966 The Cold Nosed Spy
  10. 1967 Mr Ten Percent
  11. 1968 Terror of the Blood Beast
  12. 1968 Carry On Khyber
  13. 1974 Invasion: UFO
  14. 1974 Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter
  15. 2002 Mrs. Caldicot’s Cabbage War
  16. 2005 Asylum
  17. 2012 Run for your wife
  18. 2016 Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie

TV shows

  1. 1962-1963 The Rag Trade
  2. 1964-1965 Danger Man
  3. 1964-1966 The Saint
  4. 1965 The Likely Boys
  5. 1965 The Avengers
  6. 1967 The Prisoner
  7. 1967 The Caesars
  8. 1967–1971 The Convenience Stores
  9. 1967, 1977, 1987 Doctor Who
  10. 1969 The Gold Thieves
  11. 1969 Department S
  12. 1970 Z-Cars
  13. 1970-1971 A family at war
  14. 1970 Doctor on the loose
  15. 1970-1973 UFO
  16. 1971 Thirty Minute Theater
  17. 1972-1973 The Lotus Eaters
  18. 1975 The Sweeney
  19. 1975 Rutland Weekend Television
  20. 1976 Emmerdale Farm
  21. 1977 Crown Court
  22. 1978-1979 Fallen Hero
  23. 1980 The Two Ronnies
  24. 1982 Less
  25. 1986-1987 Management stress
  26. 1988 All Creatures Great and Small
  27. 1989 Capstick Madge Capstick’s Law
  28. 1989–1992 Only Fools and Horses
  29. 1995–1996 Next of Kin
  30. Heartbeat from 1996 to 1997
  31. Coupling 2001
  32. 2005 Midsomer murders
  33. 2007 Lewis
  34. 2014–2017 Sherlock
  35. 2018 Holby City
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