Stephanie Beacham (born 28 February 1947) is an English actress. In a career spanning six decades, she has a wide number of credits to her name on film, television, stage and radio in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
Beacham began appearing on British television in 1967 and made her big screen debut in the 1970 film The Games following this with roles in Tam Lin with Ava Gardner, and The Nightcomers opposite Marlon Brando. She had become widely known for her roles in multiple British Hammer Horror films before garnering acclaim with successful starring roles in British television series Tenko and Connie, and American series Dynasty and The Colbys.
Following the cancellation of Dynasty, Beacham starred in the title role in Sister Kate, Iris McKay in the American teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Dr. Kristin Westphalen in Steven Spielberg's NBC science fiction series SeaQuest DSV.
Beacham returned to the UK to play Phyl Oswyn in the ITV prison-based drama series Bad Girls and Martha Fraser in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street. On reality television, she competed in Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother.
Beacham has appeared on stage on both the West End and Broadway, with roles including Mrs. Cheveley in An Ideal Husband, Elizabeth I in Elizabeth Rex and Maria Callas in Master Class. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1990 for her role in Sister Kate, and received several nominations for playing Sable Colby in The Colbys and Dynasty. In 2025, she was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Film Awards.
Contents
Early life
Beacham, one of four siblings, was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire, England, the daughter of Joan (née Wilkins), a housewife, and Alec, who was an insurance executive and later became the managing director of the Grosvenor estate. Beacham attended the Queen Elizabeth's Girls' Grammar School in Barnet. Aged 13, she hitch-hiked "all over Europe" with a group of friends.
Initially aspiring to become a ballerina, Beacham's dreams were cut short when her instructors told her that she would be unable to continue due to her partial deafness. Leaving school aged 17 in 1964, Beacham travelled to Boulogne-Billancourt in Paris, France, to study mime with Étienne Decroux with the goal of teaching dance movement to deaf children. While in Paris, Beacham got a job as an au-pair girl to help finance her mime school fees. After returning to the UK, Beacham visited a boyfriend who was acting at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. This sparked her interest in theatre and she became the wardrobe assistant before playing juvenile leads with the theatre. Beacham then attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.
Career
Beacham began a career in modelling before breaking into television. Her first screen role was in the BBC series The Queen's Traitor in 1967, in which she played Mary, Queen of Scots. During an interview, thinking Barnet sounded uninteresting, she told a reporter from the Northern Echo she was born in Casablanca, where her favourite Bogart/Bergman film was set. After many further guest appearances in television series such as The Saint with Roger Moore, Callan, and UFO, Beacham's first film roles were in The Games directed by Michael Winner, and Tam Lin directed by Roddy McDowall, both released in 1970. She would work with Winner again in 1971's The Nightcomers, in which she starred opposite Marlon Brando. Beacham appeared nude in one scene, during the filming of which Brando wore Y-fronts and Wellington boots under the bed clothes to ensure Winner did not film anything lower than was necessary. The Nightcomers would prove to be Beacham's breakout role.
Following the success of The Nightcomers, Beacham was promoting the film in New York City when she was approached by Joseph E. Levine who had bought the rights to the film. Levine attempted to pressure Beacham to pose nude for Playboy, saying that if she did, then he would guarantee her an Oscar nomination for her role in the film. Beacham refused saying that she only appeared nude in The Nightcomers as she "was in character"; this infuriated Levine and he blacklisted her from Hollywood. Beacham later revealed that she was approached by Sam Peckinpah for the main role in Straw Dogs (1971); Peckinpah told Beacham "You must have done something really bad because I'm a son of a bitch who can make anyone do anything and they won't let me use you" – the role subsequently went to Susan George.
Despite this, Beacham continued to appear in film, television and on stage in the UK. Horror would be a genre that Beacham appeared in often during this period, and she was subsequently cast as Jessica Van Helsing in Hammer's Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) alongside Peter Cushing. Her next role was as a repertory player with the Nottingham Playhouse, where she played several lead and feature roles, including the role of Nora Helmer in the Henrik Ibsen play A Doll's House. In 1973, she played Georgina Layton in Thames Television's daytime drama Marked Personal (1973–1974). The same year, she made a British-Italian film, Super Bitch (1973), which was originally released in the US as Mafia Junction and in the UK as Blue Movie Blackmail. Beacham also continued to work in horror films, including And Now the Screaming Starts (1973), House of Mortal Sin (1975), Schizo (1976) and Inseminoid (1981) – a film she admits taking for the fee.
Other ventures
Philanthropy and activism
In 2009, Beacham was involved in launching the Sense National Deafblind and Rubella Association Fill in the Gaps campaign which aims to give the elderly the support they need to maintain a good quality of life. She also attended the Parliamentary launch of the campaign in June 2006. Beacham is also a spokesperson for the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association, which supports those with communication disabilities, and is a member of the British Tinnitus Association, as well as being on the Board of Free Arts for Abused Children in Los Angeles which gives abused children access to the arts for therapeutic value.
In 2017, Beacham appeared in a promotional film for Unison, voicing her support for their Pay Up Now campaign, encouraging the British government to give public service workers a pay increase.
Business ventures
In 2009, Beacham launched her own range of skincare and beauty products, Glow by Stephanie Beacham. The range proved to be a bestseller, selling fifty thousand units within a month of launching.
Personal life
Beacham is partially deaf, having been born with no hearing in her right ear and 80% hearing in her left ear. She has said that this was partially caused by her mother having chicken pox while she was pregnant with her.
She married actor John McEnery in 1973, having met while both performing with the Everyman Theatre. Beacham became pregnant shortly after the wedding but had a bad fall on stage during a rehearsal and suffered a miscarriage when she was three months pregnant. She revealed in an interview her stillborn son was cremated. Beacham and McEnery divorced in 1979. They have two daughters.
She dated Marlon Brando after starring with him in The Nightcomers (1971) and later had relationships with Eric Clapton and Imran Khan in the 1980s, then a cricketer, later a politician who became Prime Minister of Pakistan. Beacham is in a relationship with Bernie Greenwood; the couple became engaged in 2013.
Beacham splits her time between homes in London, Malibu, Morocco and Spain.
Beacham was successfully treated for skin cancer in 2009. She had a recurrence of the disease in 2011 but again recovered.
In March 2016, Beacham told The Sunday Telegraph that she had been raped when she had been an up-and-coming actress in her twenties.
On 25 September 2022, Beacham was confronted by a burglar inside her London home who threatened her with a crowbar and stole items including her mobile phone, purse and jewellery before fleeing the property. The offender, who had sixty-four previous convictions, was subsequently sentenced to ten years and five months in prison.