Pauline Melville

Biography

Pauline Melville is an English writer and former actress who was born in British Guiana and moved to south London as a child. After leaving school she worked at London's Royal Court Theatre, which led her into acting; she made her first film appearance in 1967 and was busiest as a performer in the 1980s, appearing in Mona Lisa (1986) and The Long Good Friday and in the sitcoms The Young Ones and Girls on Top. She also performed stand-up comedy as Edie, a northern housewife, and appeared in the television showcases Boom Boom Out Go the Lights and The Entertainers. Her writing career brought the short-story collection Shape-Shifter (1990), winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Guardian Fiction Prize, and the novel The Ventriloquist's Tale (1997), which took the Whitbread First Novel Award. In 2018 the Royal Society of Literature made her a fellow.

78years old

Turns 79 on January 1in 52 days

Born January 1, 1948British Guiana
Star sign: CapricornThe sign runs December 22 to January 19

Movie Career

Films: 4
Career span: 43 years1967 to 2010

Every film, newest first

2010Brighton RockIMDb rating 5.7
1986Mona LisaIMDb rating 7.3
1982ScrubbersIMDb rating 5.6
1967Far from the Madding CrowdIMDb rating 7.2

Genres

Did you know?!

A change of course
Pauline Melville worked at London's Royal Court Theatre after leaving school in the early 1960s, a job that eventually led to her becoming a professional actor.
A change of course
In 1978, while she was with the rock cabaret group the Sadista Sisters, Melville started doing stand-up comedy pieces that mocked hippie attitudes.
A first
Melville took part in an early stand-up show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1981, appearing with Alternative Cabaret alongside Tony Allen, Andy de la Tour, Jim Barclay and pianist Phil Nichol.