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Hello
Magazine - March 9th, 1996
Stephanie
Beacham - The glamorous actress
Stephanie
Beacham - The glamorous actress tells why this wartime drama helped her through a traumatic year.
Anyone hearing that
Stephanie Beacham had returned to England last summer might have
imagined the Hollywood star doing the season - Wimbledon, Ladies' Day
at Royal Ascot, Glyndebourne and so on - and perhaps fitting in a little
work. But the reason Stephanie spent her first summer here in more than
ten years, since her move to California and success in Dynasty and The
Colbys, couldn't have been more different.
She came to Britain not
because of the social calendar, nor to enjoy the fruits of her years of
hard work. She came on account of her father's failing health and her
overwhelming desire to spend time with her parents.
"I've always
been very close to my parents," Stephanie says. "I don't do
anything without discussing it with my mother first. We're always on
the phone. But I decided I wanted to communicate in the same time zone.
It was also the realisation that they aren't going to be around
forever.
"Daddy was starting to
get a little wobbly in the early spring. He's 88 and it was obvious
that my mother, who's 82, couldn't cope any more. It was time for
him to go into a home where he could be cared for properly. That had to
be sorted out and I wanted to spend some time with him.
"I'm sure
people are convinced I had a grand old time, swanning around from one
engagement to another, but in fact it was a nightmare summer for me. For
the first time I'm discovering what middle age is about," says
Stephanie, 49. "My parents were always the rock in my life and I was
the rock and roller. Now I'm having to be their rock as well as my
children's. The responsibility is energising, but it's also quite
overwhelming. It leaves very little time for yourself."
With family matters heavy
on her mind and also saddened by the death of her dog Emily, a cavalier
King Charles spaniel and her constant companion at home in Malibu,
Stephanie then arrived at her daughter's in Bristol to find bailiffs
claiming Phoebe, a student at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, hadn't
paid her council tax.
Having sold her London
home a few years ago, Stephanie had always intended Phoebe's home to
be a sort of family meeting place. "But it had turned into a sort of
student doss house," Stephanie says with a laugh. "When I arrived I
had to put 12 loads through the washing machine and get an industrial
carpet cleaner in!"
If there was one thing
that saved Stephanie's summer, it was work. Before leaving Los
Angeles, she called her British agent and asked if there was anything.
By chance, Alan Dosser, who'd directed Stephanie in Connie in the
mid-Eighties, was making a new series and there would almost certainly
be a part for her.
It came in the form of a
leading role in No Bananas, a major ten-part drama series set in Britain
during the Second World War, due to be screened on BBC1 in May.
Stephanie plays rich socialite Dorothea Grant, who is unable to come to
terms with the changes imposed by war.
"Having the series was
an absolute godsend," Stephanie says. "It helped keep me sane and
gave me something to think about other than my problems. I'm always
astonished by how life responds if you really need something. The key is
knowing what you're looking for - the rest is strategy."
She feels a deep sense of
gratitude to the five people who designed her clothes and did her
make-up. "They were my support team throughout the summer. I'm not
sure I'd have made it without them. They didn't just make me look
good in front of the camera, they made me feel good too. I would arrive
first thing in the morning, feeling so down, and they would listen to
me, pick me up and steer me through."
At the same time
Stephanie was making No Bananas, she was also appearing on stage in
Strindberg's The Father, which was due to go to the West End after a
short tour but never made it. "I was disappointed at the time,"
Stephanie admits, "but in retrospect it was just as well, because I
was probably pushing myself too hard.
"When Emily died I just
cried and cried. I just couldn't stop. Daddy was going from bad to
worse, Mummy was going from poorly to bad, and I hadn't really
accepted that any of it was happening. I was organising and taking care
of them, but I wasn't facing up to things emotionally."
Stephanie has mixed
feelings about having to return to Los Angeles. "It's so empty not
having Emily around," she says. "I'm used to hearing the
pitter-patter of her little paws across the wooden floors. When Phoebe
and my younger daughter Chloe came out for Christmas, we took her
favourite walk to the top of the hill near the house and scattered her
ashes."
Nevertheless she is glad
to be home: "If only because I'm getting back to my own life. For
the whole summer I was there for everyone else. Life was a call sheet,
doing what other people wanted. There's been no room for me.
"I'm not going to do
any work for a while, I'm going to go missing. It's important to
recognise when you are burnt out - and I'm at that point. I need to
relax and have a laugh."
She also plans to make
some changes in her life. She wants to sell her Malibu home and just
keep her apartment in Hollywood. She intends to buy a house in the South
of France which will become her base, plus a London pied-à-terre.
"I've done everything
I've wanted to do with large houses. I've had swimming pools and
large gardens with automatic sprinkler systems, now I want to downscale
and live in cupboards so I don't need to earn so much money. That way
I can choose the projects I want. It means my legacy will be a small
trail of quality projects, too.
"I have to be realistic
and recognise that I've had a fantastic time in Hollywood, with six
series - Dynasty, The Colbys, Sister Kate, seaQuest, Beverly Hills 90210
and Legend - in ten years. It's an amazing run, but it's time to
move on. You have to remember that unlike most people in Hollywood, who
starved to get there, I just fell on my feet. One minute I was playing
Connie and the next I was in Dynasty working alongside people like
Charlton Heston, Barbara Stanwyck and Katharine Ross. Talk about
luck!"
Looking back, she has
nothing but happy memories of that time, the last chance to experience
what life was like as an actress signed to a big studio.
"They were heady days
and the star treatment was wonderful," she recalls. "There was a
strict code: no jeans in public, no appearance without make-up or your
hair done. The studio took care of everything: lent you the most
wonderful clothes, did your hair and make-up and sent a car to pick you
up whenever you went to an event."
"She can remember her
sister Di-Di's horror when she saw Stephanie toss a pair of $10 tights
she'd worn only once into the bin. "My sister gathered them up
because she couldn't bear such waste," Stephanie laughs. "That was
my check-in with reality."
Following Stephanie's
divorce from John McEnery nearly 20 years ago, she has been linked with
a series of glamorous and often younger men. But an older and wiser
Stephanie now says she wants to keep her private life exactly that for
the moment.
"I've had my fingers
burnt too many times in the past and probably said too much. Now I've
made a decision not to discuss a relationship until I feel really sure
about it. When I do, Hello! readers will be the first to know!
"I don't see myself
ever marrying again. But if I do, all my friends will know that it's
for all the right reasons. It'll be because we're wonderfully and
truly in love rather than doing it on a whim or because it seems
romantic. I won't go through some empty charade."
By
Simon Kinnersley |
