Felicity Kendal



Felicity Ann Kendal CBE (born September 251946 in Olton, Warwickshire) is an English actress, probably best known for her role as Barbara Good in The Good Life (known as Good Neighbors in the United States). She was made a CBE in 1995.

Family
She is the younger sister of Jennifer Kendal and the daughter of Geoffrey and Laura Kendal; her father was an English actor manager who made his living leading a repertory company on tours of India after the Second World War. They performed Shakespeare to audiences consisting mostly of schoolchildren. Her father had adopted his birthplace of Kendal, Westmorland as his stage name, his original surname being Bragg.

Kendal was educated at six convents in India.

Career
Kendal made her stage debut aged 9 months, when she was carried on stage as a changeling boy in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Later she started her career proper at the age of nineteen and starred in the Merchant Ivory film, Shakespeare Wallah (1965), loosely based on her family's real-life experience. On her return to Britain, she found that her film appearance was not a passport to success, and her struggle to build an acting career was long and difficult, partly because of her unusual upbringing.

In 1975, she got her big break with the situation comedy, The Good Life. At the time of the first series she was also to be seen in a very different dramatic role, that of Queen Victoria's eldest daughter 'Vicky' in Edward the Seventh.

After The Good Life ended in 1977, she starred in several other BBC sitcoms, including Solo, and Honey For Tea, none of which achieved the success of The Good Life. Despite this, she maintained her popularity.

Kendal's stage career blossomed during the 1980s and 1990s. She formed a close professional association with Sir Tom Stoppard, starring in the first productions of many of his plays, including The Real Thing (1982), Hapgood (1988), Arcadia (1993), and Indian Ink (1995).

Her most recent work is the ITV murder mystery series Rosemary & Thyme, in which she plays a gardener, Rosemary Boxer, who, together with friend, colleague and ex-policewoman Laura Thyme (Pam Ferris), solve mysteries near their various workplaces as landscape gardeners.

Awards

 * 1976 - Most Promising Newcomer - Variety Club
 * 1979 - Best Actress - Variety Club
 * 1980 - Clarence Derwent Award
 * 1984 - Woman of the Year - Best Actress - Variety Club
 * 1989 - Best Actress - Evening Standard

Publication

 * White Cargo (memoirs) - 1998

Male fanbase
Kendal is particularly popular with male viewers:


 * She was voted "Rear of the Year" for her appearances wearing wellington boots and tight jeans in The Good Life.
 * This compliment was later reiterated, in the distant future, in an episode of Red Dwarf.
 * Kendal was selected as one of the FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World 1995.
 * In one episode of The Young Ones, the only way that a launderette washing machine could be induced to take their revolting washing, was by being told that the load of washing contained a pair of Felicity Kendal's knickers!

Personal life
Kendal is 152 cm (5 ft) tall and has been married twice. Her first marriage was to Drewe Henley between 1968 and 1979 and the second was to Michael Rudman from 1983 to 1990. She converted to Judaism at the time of her second marriage. She has a child by each of her ex-husbands. In 1991 Tom Stoppard left his wife to start a relationship with Kendal. The two are no longer intimate.

Source

 * Who's Who - 2005

Felicity Kendal