Dame Janet Suzman was born on 9 February 1939 and is a South African-born British actress who had a successful early career in the Royal Shakespeare Company, later replaying many Shakespearean roles on television.
15 Facts About Janet Suzman
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Janet Suzman appeared in A Dry White Season, a film that examined apartheid.
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Janet Suzman was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to a Jewish family, the daughter of Betty and Saul Suzman, a wealthy tobacco importer.
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Janet Suzman's grandfather, Max Sonnenberg, was a member of the South African parliament, and her aunt was the civil rights and anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman.
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Janet Suzman became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963 and started her career there as Joan of Arc in The Wars of The Roses.
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Janet Suzman appeared in many British television drama productions in the 1960s and early 1970s, including Saint Joan, The Three Sisters, Macbeth, Hedda Gabler, Twelfth Night, as Hilda Lessways in Clayhanger, as Lady Mountbatten in Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy and Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective.
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Janet Suzman has made few films since, including Don Siegel's The Black Windmill, Nijinsky, Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract, Federico Fellini's E la Nave Va, A Dry White Season with Marlon Brando and Nuns on the Run.
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In 2020 Janet Suzman appeared in the Netflix production of The Crown as the literary agent of Michael Shea, the queen's press secretary.
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Janet Suzman wrote, starred in and directed this piece with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
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Janet Suzman wrote Acting With Shakespeare: Three Comedies, a book based on a series of acting master classes.
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In 2014, Janet Suzman was criticized for comments regarding arts participation in the theater.
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Janet Suzman was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to drama.
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Janet Suzman holds honorary DLitt degrees from the universities of Warwick, Leicester, London, Southampton, Middlesex, Kingston, Cape Town, Edge Hill and Buckingham.
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Janet Suzman is an Honorary Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute, and was awarded the Pragnell Award for lifetime services to Shakespeare in 2012.
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Janet Suzman is a patron of the London International Festival of Theatre.