August 4, 1943 - January 4, 2024
My cousin Georgina Hale was born, to my aunty Dot (Elsie Fordham) and George Robert Hole, in August 1943. They were publicans in Ilford, where I was also born – in the North East London town, not in a pub. Georgina first worked as a hairdresser. She studied acting in the Chelsea Actors’ Workshop and graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts the year after I was born, in 1965.
As a lad, I knew Georgina from afar. She was a glamorous actress, golden-haired and exotic, with elegant poise and a melodious voice. My Dad was protective of his niece, who was eleven years his junior. I knew Georgina was famous, but I had no idea what a great performer she was. One look at her co-stars on the London stage will attest to that: Michael Gambon, Glenda Jackson, Gary Oldman, Colin Blakely, Rupert Everett, Alan Bates, Brenda Blethyn... Georgina played the works of Chekov, Shakespeare, Shaw, Beckett, Neil Simon, Eugene O’Neill, Alan Ayckbourn, Noël Coward... And, in 1981, Georgina was nominated for an Olivier Award for her lead role, nude in a towel, in Nell Dunn’s bathhouse comedy Steaming.
Georgina started acting in movies in the early ‘70s. That's when Ken Russell cast her in The Devils – followed by The Boy Friend, Lisztomania, Savage Messiah, Valentino, and Mahler. The latter psychedelic biopic won Georgina the 1975 BAFTA ‘Most Promising Newcomer’ award for her role as Mahler’s wife, Alma. That was the first film where I saw her act. It astonished me, to see her emerging from a chrysalis on a rocky shoreline as waves crashed around her. She was incredible.
In 1986, Georgina appeared as a missionary nun, offering sustenance to her Ken Russell chum Oliver Reed and Amanda Donohoe in Nic Roeg’s desert island adventure Castaway. The next title in Georgina’s film history, I am humbled to say, was a short film for Channel Four TV’s Four Minutes series – my professional writing and directing debut, Dogplant.
I wrote a part for a ‘Professor’ that I naively imagined as a wild-haired Einstein. But then, I had a brainwave. I asked my Dad if he thought Georgina would be up for it. She graciously agreed if she had script approval. I heartily consented, and Georgina thrillingly said, ‘Yes.’ It was a half day’s work in a farmhouse somewhere in South London. Georgina was a total pro. When I described the shot – low-angle wide, looking up from a dog’s point of view as the professor chatted with my co-stars, Richard Hope and Ruth Hudson – Georgina instantly knew what to do. She sold me on the blocking, chatting with Richard and Ruth, and then turning to view the dog, dominating the camera. We got it in two, I think. Everyone was amazed. Bloody hell: Georgina Hale!
I only saw Georgina a few times after that, at family get-togethers and funerals. She went on to do more work in television, where she first made a splash in the 1970s playing Adam Faith’s wife Jean in Budgie, and then as the upper-class Violet Marshall in Upstairs, Downstairs. She played an evil sorceress with a fondness for tea in a children’s TV show, in the title role of T-Bag. She was in Minder, Hammer House of Horror, Doctor Who, The Bill, and the soaps Emmerdale, Hollyoaks, and Holby City.
Georgina did more movies, but her real love was for the stage. She spent most of her winter months, so I gathered, in her beloved Egypt, where she helped with an orphanage and was involved in theatre. That’s where she died, just a few weeks after her brother, Robert, passed away in England. The last time I saw Georgina, sadly, was at Robert's funeral via the Internet as I’d been forced to do when my Dad passed away during the pandemic. I couldn’t get back for the ceremony just before Christmas, so I sat there watching on my laptop as family and friends popped up on the screen to offer tributes. Georgina stole the show.
I sent a card and was happy to hear that Georgina received it at her little flat in St. John's Wood just before she hopped on a plane to Egypt. I never really got a chance to tell her what an inspiration she was. She was a star, a lovely lady, and a complete original.
Georgina's obituary in The Guardian.
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