58 Facts About Joanna Lumley

Dame Joanna Lamond Lumley was born on 1 May 1946 and is a British actress, presenter, former model, author, television producer, and activist.

Joanna Lumley has won two BAFTA TV Awards for her role as Patsy Stone in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, and was nominated for the 2011 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for the Broadway revival of La Bete.

Joanna Lumley is an advocate and human rights activist for Survival International and the Gurkha Justice Campaign.

Joanna Lumley was made a Dame in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to drama, entertainment and charity.

Joanna Lamond Lumley was born on 1 May 1946 in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, in the last days of British India.

Joanna Lumley's grandfather Lieutenant Colonel Leslie Weir had been born in Ghazipur and served as an army officer in Kashmir; he was a close friend of the 13th Dalai Lama.

Joanna Lumley's father, Major James Rutherford Lumley, was born in Lahore with Scottish and English ancestry.

Joanna Lumley served as an officer in the British Indian Army's 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles in Burma during World War II, most notably at the Battle of Mogaung.

Joanna Lumley has early memories of living in the tropics.

Joanna Lumley attended the Lucie Clayton Finishing School in London, after being turned down by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the age of 16.

Joanna Lumley spent three years as a photographic model, notably for Brian Duffy, who photographed her with her son, born in 1967.

Joanna Lumley worked as a house model for Jean Muir.

Joanna Lumley appeared in an early episode of the Bruce Forsyth Show in 1966.

Joanna Lumley appeared in a British television advertisement for Nimble Bread first screened in 1969.

Joanna Lumley did not receive any formal training at drama school.

Joanna Lumley's acting career began in 1969 with a small, uncredited role in the film Some Girls Do, and as a Bond girl in On Joanna Lumley's Majesty's Secret Service, in which she had two lines as the English girl among the villainous Ernst Stavro Blofeld's "Angels of Death".

Joanna Lumley has worked with Tim Burton on two film projects, in James and the Giant Peach and Corpse Bride.

Joanna Lumley has specialised in upper-class parts throughout her career, thanks to her voice and accent.

Over a decade later Joanna Lumley's career was boosted by her portrayal of the louche, selfish and frequently drunk fashion director Patsy Stone, companion to Jennifer Saunders' Edina Monsoon in the BBC comedy television series Absolutely Fabulous.

From 1994 to 1995, Joanna Lumley starred alongside Nadine Garner and John Bowe in the British television show Class Act, playing the part of Kate Swift, an upper-class lady who had fallen on hard times.

Joanna Lumley appeared in a TV series on Sarawak, where she spent time in her childhood.

Joanna Lumley starred in La Bete at the Music Box Theatre, Broadway, New York which opened on 14 October 2010.

Joanna Lumley was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play, for her performance.

Joanna Lumley, who has one of the most recognised voices in the UK, has gained prominence as a voice-over artist.

Joanna Lumley appeared on the last run of ITV's Parkinson as a guest, on 27 October 2007, discussing the subject of young girls in the UK.

Joanna Lumley was asked to write the introduction to a revised edition in November 2007 of the book called The Magic Key to Charm written by the pioneering female journalist Eileen Ascroft.

Joanna Lumley appeared with Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French and Sienna Miller in the French and Saunders pastiche of Mamma Mia for Comic Relief 2009 in which she played the role of Tanya.

In 2004 Joanna Lumley appeared as the "Woman with the Sydney Opera House Head" in Dirk Maggs's long-awaited radio adaptation of the third book of the Douglas Adams series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

In 2011, Joanna Lumley appeared in Uptown Downstairs Abbey, the Comic Relief parody of the critically acclaimed historical television dramas Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs.

Once again, in 2012, Joanna Lumley travelled for ITV, now in search of Noah's Ark.

Joanna Lumley is known for her support for Gurkhas, the exiled Tibetan people and government, the Khonds indigenous people of India and the Prospect Burma charity, which offers grants to Burmese students, for whom she broadcast a BBC Radio 4 charity appeal in 2001.

Joanna Lumley's father was a commanding officer of a troop of Gurkhas who fought in World War II.

In 2008, Joanna Lumley became the public face of the Gurkha Justice Campaign, a campaign to provide all Nepalese origin Gurkha veterans who served in the British Army before 1997 the right to settle in Britain.

On 20 November 2008, Joanna Lumley led a large all-party group including Gurkhas starting from Parliament Square to 10 Downing Street with a petition signed by 250,000 people.

On 5 May 2009, Joanna Lumley said that she had received private assurances of support from "a senior member of the Royal Family", and attended a meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street the following day.

Joanna Lumley has long been a supporter of Survival International and the cause of indigenous rights, and narrated Survival's documentary, Mine: Story of a Sacred Mountain.

Joanna Lumley contributed her writing for the book We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, released in October 2009 with profits going in support of Survival.

Since 1984 Joanna Lumley has been a Patron of Born Free Foundation founded in the same year by the stars of the popular wildlife film Born Free, Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna.

In May 2016, Joanna Lumley became a Patron of Population Matters, an organisation campaigning for the achievement of a sustainable global population size.

Joanna Lumley has been a Patron of the UK charity Tree Aid, since 1993.

Joanna Lumley is a Patron of the Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa.

Joanna Lumley is a Patron of the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust.

Joanna Lumley is a Patron of the UK environmental charity Earth Restoration Service.

Joanna Lumley is Patron of the UK charity Trust in Children which aims to help children from poor backgrounds to access education and opportunities for non-academic development.

Joanna Lumley has a long association and interest in Nepal and its people that grew out of her father's service as an officer in 6th Gurkha Rifles.

Joanna Lumley agreed to become a Vice Patron of The Gurkha Welfare Trust in 2009.

In February 2013, Joanna Lumley was assessed as one of the 100 most influential women in the United Kingdom by BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

Joanna Lumley was briefly married to actor Jeremy Lloyd during 1970.

Joanna Lumley married the conductor Stephen Barlow in 1986; they live in London.

Joanna Lumley is patron of the Born Free Foundation and passionate about the Free Tibet campaign.

From 2012 to 2016, Joanna Lumley supported the proposals for a pedestrian "Garden Bridge" across the Thames in London, in collaboration with the designer Thomas Heatherwick and former Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

In May 2009 Joanna Lumley supported the Green Party during the 2009 European Elections campaign.

Joanna Lumley endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of Dr Lucas at the 2015 general election.

In July 2021, Joanna Lumley joined an international line-up of actors in backing calls for the Great Barrier Reef to be placed on a list of world heritage sites currently in danger.

In 2023, Joanna Lumley attended the coronation of King Charles of the United Kingdom.

Joanna Lumley was criticised for making comments about her leading a luxurious life while speaking about climate change.

Joanna Lumley was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1995 New Year Honours and promoted Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to drama, entertainment and charitable causes.

Joanna Lumley has narrated a number of audiobooks and provided forewords for works by other authors.