Fiona Shaw

Infobox actor


name = Fiona Shaw
birthdate = birth date and age |1958|7|10
birthplace = County Cork, Ireland

Fiona Shaw, CBE (Hon) (born 10 July 1958) is a leading Irish actress who regularly appears in London theatre, although to international audiences she is probably most familiar for her minor role as Petunia Dursley in the "Harry Potter" films. She has been regarded as one of the finest classical actresses of her generation. [ [http://film.guardian.co.uk/Player/Player_Page/0,,506359,00.html Fiona Shaw | | guardian.co.uk Film ] ] [ [http://www.edgwaretimes.co.uk/archive/display.var.33777.0.famous_faces_air_their_views.php] .] Shaw was awarded an honorary CBE in 2001. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1092540.stm BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Honorary knighthood for Spike ] ]

Biography

Early life

Shaw was born Philomena Mary Wilson in County Cork, Republic of Ireland, to a mixed-religious couple and was raised Catholic. [ [http://www.didaskalia.net/issues/vol5no3/trans01.html DIDASKALIA: Ancient Theater Today ] ] [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20030727/ai_n12583855/pg_4 A Shaw Thing; Hot from playing Medea on Broadway, Fiona Shaw has just | Sunday Herald, The | Find Articles at BNET.com ] ] Her father was an eye surgeon [ [http://www.filmreference.com/film/46/Fiona-Shaw.html Fiona Shaw Biography (1960?-) ] ] and her mother was a physicist. [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20030809/ai_n12701933 PROFILE: FIONA SHAW: An actor who is determined to keep shouting | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com ] ] She liked to be called "Fe Fe" in her childhood years and attended secondary school at Scoil Mhuire In Cork City. She received her degree in University College Cork. After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, she received much acclaim as Julia in the National Theatre production of Richard Sheridan's "The Rivals" (1983), a role which demonstrated her gift for comedy. Despite her natural comic abilities, Shaw has opted more often than not for roles showcasing her extreme but unaffected emotional intensity. These performances have earned her numerous stage awards.

Career

Her notable theatrical roles include Young Woman in Machinal, (1931), Celia in "As You Like It" (1984), Madame de Volanges in "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" (1985), Katherine in "The Taming of the Shrew" (1987), Winnie in "Happy Days" (2007), and the title roles in "Electra" (1988), "The Good Person of Sechuan" (1989), "Hedda Gabler" (1991), "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1998) and "Medea" (2000). She performed T. S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land" as a one-person show at the Liberty Theatre in New York to great acclaim in 1996. [Ben Brantly, "Memory and Desire: Hearing Eliot's Passion," [http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9407E2DC123AF93BA25752C1A960958260 New York Times] November 18, 1996]

She controversially played the lead in "Richard II", directed by Deborah Warner in 1995. Shaw has collaborated with Warner on a number of occasions, on both stage and screen. Shaw has also worked in film and television, including "My Left Foot", "Jane Eyre", "Persuasion", "Gormenghast", and a number of the "Harry Potter" films in which she plays the insufferable Aunt Petunia.

Shaw had a brief but key role in Brian DePalma's "The Black Dahlia". She also made an appearance in Sherlock Holmes as a family friend of the widow in The Crooked Man

Personal life

For a number of years, Shaw has been romantically linked in the press with actress Saffron Burrows. [ [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/14/1084289875211.html?from=storyrhs "Mad About Saffron", Sydney Morning Herald, May 15 2004] ] [ [http://www.afterellen.com/People/saffronburrows.html "Saffron Burrows Embraces Lesbian Relationships On-screen and Off", AfterEllen.com, October 2003] ] [ [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,710122,00.html "A hint of Saffron", The Observer, May 5 2002] ] Neither actress has publicly confirmed or denied the relationship; however, they do live together in a house in the small Essex town of Thaxted. The two appeared together in the National Theatre's production of "The PowerBook", [ [http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?lid=1190 "The PowerBook" at the National Theatre] ] a play based on the novel of the same name by Jeanette Winterson in which they played lovers.

Filmography

* "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1985) (TV series)
* "My Left Foot" (1989)
* "Mountains of the Moon" (1990)
* "Three Men and a Little Lady" (1990)
* "Hedda Gabler" (1993) (TV)
* "Super Mario Bros." (1993)
* "Undercover Blues" (1993)
* "Persuasion" (1995)
* "Jane Eyre" (1996)
* "Anna Karenina" (1997)
* "The Butcher Boy" (1997)
* "The Avengers" (1998)
* "Gormenghast" (2000) (TV)
* "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (2001)
* "Doctor Sleep" (2002)
* "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (2002)
* "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004)
* "Midsummer Dream" (2005)
* "The Black Dahlia" (2006)
* "Catch and Release" (2007)
* "Fracture" (2007)
* "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (2007)
* "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (2009)
* "Tree of Life" (2009)
* "Dorian Gray" (2009)

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0789716|name=Fiona Shaw
*ibdb name|id=104639|name=Fiona Shaw
* [http://www.americantheatrewing.org/seminars/detail/world_theatre_01_02/ World Theatre] - "Working in the Theatre Seminar" video at American Theatre Wing.org, January 2002