Gillian Taylforth

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Gillian Taylforth

Born	August 14, 1955 (1955-08-14) (age 52) London, England

Gillian Taylforth (born 14 August 1955 in London) is an English actress. She is best known for her roles as Kathy Mitchell (formally Kathy Beale) on the BBC soap opera, EastEnders (1985-1998; 1999-2000) and as Jackie Pascoe-Webb on ITV's Footballers Wives (2002-2006), but more recently as Sgt. Nikki Wright in ITV's The Bill (2006-).

1 Career
2 Personal life
3 Filmography
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career

Taylforth started her career in the 1970s and attended the Anna Scher Theatre School in London. Before securing her big acting break Taylforth worked as a secretary between minor acting roles. Early television appearances include roles in the BBC comedy Hi-de-Hi!, Shelley, Play for Today, On Safari, Minder, Sink or Swim and The Rag Trade. In 1980 she won the role of Sherry in the film The Long Good Friday, which proved to be extremely successful at the box office.

[edit] EastEnders

On 19 February 1985, Taylforth appeared as Kathy Beale in the first episode of the BBC's new soap opera EastEnders. This role earned her huge popularity and public recognition on British television. Taylforth's character was in the show on and off from 1985 until 2000, and covered an array of serious issues including rape, domestic violence, teenage pregnancy, divorce, alcoholism and meningitis. She became one of the longest running characters to feature in the soap, but eventually quit in 1998, and made a brief return in 1999 to aid the departure of actor Ross Kemp, who played her character's brother-in-law, Grant Mitchell. Taylforth made her last appearance as Kathy on 5 January 2000.

Although press rumours throughout 2005 suggested that Taylforth was returning to the show,^[1] this did not occur and the character of Kathy died off-screen in February 2006, in a car crash in South Africa. Taylforth has commented: "I was a bit upset at first because it was 13 years of my life and I didn't like the thought of being killed off. I thought she might come back to see Ian (her on-screen son) and have some illness. But that's the way it goes."^[2]

[edit] Other roles

After quitting EastEnders Taylforth was cast as Jackie Pascoe-Webb in ITV's popular televised drama, Footballers Wives. In a Channel 4 poll for the 100 Greatest Sexy Moments, a time where she ends up having sex on top of a snooker table with Cristian Solimeno, was placed at number 49. She played the role for five series.

In 2006 she played the role of Mandy Searle in the comedy/drama Jane Hall and she also appears as a recurring host on ITV's topical chat-show Loose Women Her latest appearance was on 05/06/08. Her latest project is a regular part in ITV's police drama, The Bill. She plays Sergeant Nikki Wright and made her first screen appearance on 8 November 2006.^[3]

[edit] Personal life

Taylforth is the sister of actress Kim Taylforth. During her time in EastEnders she dated her fellow cast-mate Nick Berry, who played Simon Wicks.^[4] but she has been with her current partner, Geoff Knights, since the late 1980s. The couple live in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. She gave birth to their daughter Jessica in 1992. In 1996 she suffered a miscarriage, and less than a year later doctors told her that the baby she was carrying had severe abnormalities and she was advised to terminate the pregnancy."^[2] In 1999 she became a mother for a second time, to son Harrison.

Knights and Taylforth have an extensive tabloid media history. In January 1994 Taylforth was involved in a high-profile court case when she sued The Sun newspaper for libel after they ran a story claiming she and Knights had performed sexual acts on an A1 slip road in their Range Rover.^[5] Taylforth claimed that her partner had suffered an acute attack of pancreatitis and she was merely massaging his stomache to soothe his abdominal pain; however, a police officer claimed that she was performing fellatio instead. During the court case The Sun's defence entered into evidence a 35 minute home video of Taylforth "suggestively posing with a large sausage [...] graphically simulating masturbation with a wine bottle" and boasting to the camera, “I give very good head”.^[6] The jury returned a 10-2 majority verdict in favour of The Sun, after which Taylforth collapsed and was taken away by an ambulance.^[6] In November 2006, after celebrating their 20 year anniversary, Knights was arrested following a bust-up with Taylforth and spent 18 hours in a police cell. Knights reportedly argued with Taylforth in front of their seven year old son at their home in Herts, and then allegedly punched her so hard she careered over a sofa, requiring three stitches in her scalp. Taylforth was forced to contact the police resulting in his arrest, but she has allegedly dropped all charges against her partner.^[7]

In 1995 Taylforth wrote an autobiography entitled Kathy and Me in which she describes her childhood, her teenage years, her first forays into acting and her lifestyle.