Cleopatra Mary Palmer, known professionally as Cleo Sylvestre, was a British actress.
19 Facts About Cleo Sylvestre
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Cleo Sylvestre was the first black woman ever to play a leading role at the National Theatre in London, and the first woman to record with The Rolling Stones.
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Cleo Sylvestre always understood Owen to be her father; her daughter Zoe discovered many years later - whilst working in Sierra Leone - that her biological father was Ben Lewis, a lawyer from Sierra Leone whom the family called Uncle Ben, and that she had 15 half-siblings.
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Cleo Sylvestre was educated at Camden School for Girls and attended the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.
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In 1964 she released a single, "To Know Him Is to Love Him", under the name "Cleo Sylvestre", produced by Andrew Loog Oldham and backed by The Rolling Stones.
6.
Cleo Sylvestre was the first black actress in a leading role at the National Theatre in The National Health by Peter Nichols.
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Cleo Sylvestre did several seasons with the Young Vic Company, including Moliere's Les Fourberies de Scapin on Broadway and a tour of Mexico.
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Cleo Sylvestre subsequently worked in many regional theatres, including the Theatre Royal, Lincoln, the Theatre Royal, Brighton, the Theatre Royal, York, the Derby Playhouse and the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry.
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Cleo Sylvestre played Phaedre at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2007 and Rosa Parks, Josephine Baker and Wangari Maathai in Alison Mead's A Century of Women at Leicester Square Theatre.
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Cleo Sylvestre appeared with Antony Sher in his play ID at the Almeida Theatre, toured with English Touring Theatre in Far from the Madding Crowd and with Northern Broadsides in its 2010 production of Medea.
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Cleo Sylvestre appeared with Michael Sheen in Under Milk Wood at the Royal National Theatre.
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Cleo Sylvestre was a regular in Grange Hill, Happy Families and presented Play School and Merry-Go-Round.
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Cleo Sylvestre was an Ambassador for the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal.
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Cleo Sylvestre's acclaimed one-woman show, The Marvellous Adventure of Mary Seacole, was performed at numerous venues, including the House of Lords, the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, the Mill Studio at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, and the Edinburgh Festival.
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Cleo Sylvestre reviewed for The Listener magazine and the Times Educational Supplement and contributed a chapter to Theatre in a Cool Climate.
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Cleo Sylvestre was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to drama and charity.
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Cleo Sylvestre's godparents were composer Constant Lambert, Labour peer Tom Driberg and Daria Hambourg.
18.
Cleo Sylvestre was married to Ian Palmer from 1977 until his death in 1995.
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Cleo Sylvestre died on 20 September 2024, at the age of 79.