Claire Gordon obit

Claire Gordon, actress - obituary

Actress who starred in sex comedies in the 1960s and married Willie Donaldson, alias Henry Root

 She was not on the list.

She was best known for the films Konga and Beat Girl and claimed to be the first British actress to appear completely naked on stage in a 1966 production of The Three Musketeers, produced by her husband-to-be William Donaldson.

Gordon was born in Cambridge to a doctor and a make-up artist.

She was spotted as a teenager at the Queens Ice Rink in London's Bayswater.

This led to her photograph appearing on the cover of monthly magazine Lilliput.

A five-year film contract followed with the agent Bill Watts.

A role as a harem girl in a Bernard Bresslaw film called I Only Arsked! followed, as did her first stage appearance in Meet The Cousin.

The latter led to a meeting with Donaldson, who was starting out as a theatrical producer. He was later better known as the letter-writing Henry Root.

A career followed in films and the West End.

"Watch out for the bath scene, it's a breakthrough," said New Statesman of her role in The Three Musketeers in which she played Lady Fifi de Winter.

She married Donaldson in 1967 after which they gave extravagant parties (Gordon was with Stephen Ward the night he met Christine Keeler).

However the marriage was a difficult one and the couple divorced.

In later years Gordon took a degree in English and American history and literature and played the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella.

She was diagnosed with a brain tumour in December while living in El Gouna, Egypt, but returned to the UK.

She died peacefully in her sleep at an Acton nursing home.

Following a spell in repertory at the New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth, playing a Russian spy in Agatha Christie's Verdict and a gum-chewing blonde in Brighton Rock and some pre-London tours, she made her West End theatre debut on a motorbike in The Darling Buds of May at the Saville Theatre; and then played the role of Peggy, a dumb blonde film starlet, in a show-stopping scene with Michael Crawford in Neil Simon's first hit Come Blow Your Horn at London's Prince of Wales Theatre,

In 1960, she appeared in the third episode of Danger Man entitled "Josetta" playing the role of Sandra, an assassin's conspiratorial girlfriend attempting to entrap John Drake (Patrick McGoohan).

Later, at Donaldson's request, she appeared as an entirely French-speaking Lady Fifi de Winter in an improvised production of The Three Musketeers with Bruce Lacey and The Alberts, at the Arts Theatre. Donaldson's talent for presenting controversial and often money-losing shows didn't desert him; the show ran for two weeks; and Gordon made theatrical history as the first actress to appear naked on stage. ("Watch out for the bath scene; it's a breakthrough", wrote the New Statesman.) Most recently, she played the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella at the Princess Theatre, Hunstanton, and worked with Sarah Louise Young in Clive Evans's two woman show The Nunnery.

Filmography

Films

1958: Six-Five Special

1958: I Only Arsked!

1960: The League of Gentlemen

1960: And Women Shall Weep

1960: Never Let Go

1960: Doctor in Love

1960: Make Mine Mink 

1960: Beat Girl

1960: Surprise Package

1960: The Bulldog Breed

1961: Ticket to Paradise

1961: Konga

1961: The Young Ones

1964: French Dressing

1964: Two Escape from Sing Sing

1965: Licensed to Kill

1968: Great Catherine

1970: Cool It Carol!

1971: Suburban Wives

1972: Commuter Husbands

1973: Sex Farm

Television

1958: The Dickie Henderson Half-Hour

1959: Garry Halliday

1959: Glencannon

1960: Saturday Spectacular

1960: Deadline Midnight

1960: Danger Man

1965: The Worker

1965: Hugh and I

1965: Scott On...

1965: The Arthur Haynes Show

1966: Foreign Affairs

1984: Play for Today