Cherie Mary Lunghi (born 4 April 1952) is an English film, television, theatre actress and voice-over artist. She is known for her roles in many British dramas. Her international fame stems from her role as Guenevere in the 1981 film Excalibur. Lunghi's long list of screen, stage and TV credits includes football manager Gabriella Benson in the 1990s television series The Manageress and a series of advertisements for Kenco coffee. She also competed in the 2008 series of Strictly Come Dancing. She is the mother of the actress Nathalie Lunghi.
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Early life
Lunghi was born in Nottingham. Her father, Alessandro Lunghi, was Italian. She was raised by her mother, aunt and grandmother, seeing her father only occasionally. Lunghi has described herself as feeling "different" as she did not have a mother and father like other children.
Career
Educated at London's Arts Educational School, Lunghi played Hedvig in The Wild Duck and Alice in Alice in Wonderland on BBC radio while still at school. After graduating from Homerton College, Cambridge and London's Central School of Speech and Drama, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in the late 1970s, taking leading roles such as Perdita, Celia, and Viola. She had a starring role in the 1979 British short film Diversion (the prototype for the 1987 U.S. film Fatal Attraction). In 1981, she landed the role of Guenevere in the film Excalibur.
