Stephanie Cole, OBE (born October 5, 1941) is an English actress, best known for playing characters a great deal older than her actual age. Her most famous role was in the television sitcom, Waiting for God.
Cole was born in Solihull, then Warwickshire, now West Midlands. She trained at the world famous Bristol Old Vic Theatre School 1958–1960 and like most actors of that time went on to consolidate her acting skills in repertory theatres around the United Kingdom.
One of her most recognised roles was of Dr Beatrice Mason in Tenko, a drama that chronicled the lives of British women in Singapore after the Japanese invasion. She played the role from 1981 to 1984. During this period, she also played the paranoid and morose customer Delphine Featherstone (nicknamed "The Black Widow") in Open All Hours, who was the only rival to Nurse Gladys Emmanuel for shopkeeper Arkwright's affections; though she was only attracted to him because she liked his stingy ways. Arkwright was scared of her advances and often hid when he saw her approaching the shop.
Cole also played the role of crabby ex-photojournalist Diana Trent on Waiting for God from 1990 to 1994. The role of Diana Trent was a sixty/seventysomething woman, and an interesting fact about Cole's casting is that she was merely forty-eight years old when she started taping the first series of the show. She was also two decades younger than her leading man, Graham Crowden.
Cole stars alongside Martin Clunes and Caroline Catz in the ITV comedy-drama, Doc Martin. She plays the aunt of Clunes's character Dr. Martin Ellingham.
In 2005, Cole was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours. Cole was voted Solihull's favourite Silhillian in a competition run by Solihull Council in December 2006. She beat Lucy Davis, Martin Johnson and Richard Hammond to pick up the top crown in 'The S Factor.
Cole also has a role in 2008's romantic comedy Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, as Miss Pettigrew's grumpy boss, Miss Holt.
Television roles
Year
Title
Role
1981 to 1985
Tenko
Beatrice Mason
1982 to 1985
Open All Hours
Mrs Delphine Featherstone
1989
A Bit of a Do
Betty Sillitoe
1990 to 1994
Waiting For God (TV series)
Diana Trent
2004 to -
Doc Martin
Joan Norton
External links
Stephanie Cole at the Internet Movie Database
Stephanie Cole archive at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection, University of Bristol
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Cole"
Categories: 1941 births | Alumni of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School | English film actors | English television actors | Living people | Officers of the Order of the British Empire | People from Solihull
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This page was last modified on 15 September 2008, at 03:18.
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