Happy Birthday, Lesley-Anne Down! You made the ‘70s awesome.
The beloved 70s British actress, born and raised in London, made her acting debut in the 1969 drama The Smashing Bird I Used to Know.
Over the decades, Down lent her acting chops to numerous films and television series, steadily expanding her portfolio. Assault, Countess Dracula, and Pope Joan, Upstairs, Downstairs were among the many projects that helped find her footing in the treacherous entertainment industry.
But it was her performance in titles like The Great Train Robbery, North and South, The Bold And The Beautiful, among others, that landed her widespread recognition and the love of fans.
Down won her first British Film Award in 1978 for Most Promising Newcomer, followed by Golden Globe nominations for North and South, a Soap Opera Sweep for Sunset Beach, and more recognition pouring in. The Bold and the Beautiful brought the most love and accolades, including the TV Soap Golden Boomerang Award and Rose d'Or Light Entertainment Festival.
As impressive as her ability to slip into and own every role she played was her ethereal beauty — a pale complexion, big brown eyes, a cut-glass accent, and the confidence to command any room she walked into.
Before Down became a name in cinema, her heart belonged to the familiar world of modelling. In her teens, she bagged multiple beauty pageants, and by the age of 15, she held the crown of Britain’s most beautiful teenager.
But her unmatched beauty and big American dream came with a steep price tag. Down faced sexual harassment on several occasions. In an interview with DailyMail, Down recalled one of the earliest encounters, involving a Hollywood legend.
“One night he was screening The Poseidon Adventure and he said, ‘Come and sit next to me.’ He then added, ‘Have some popcorn,’ so I put my hand in the carton and just froze. He’d put his penis up through the bottom of the carton and my hand was now touching it. I just remember being there for what seemed like an eternity, slowly moving my hand away and trying to lean away from him.”
She continued: “I didn’t tell anyone. At the time, you just thought that this was how they behaved and you had to find a way to circumnavigate it. But if one per cent of what was being perpetrated on actresses back then was punished, the entire male film industry would have been in jail for a minimum of 12 years.”
Beyond forging a successful career, Down had a rather tumultuous love life. After ending a 10-year relationship with actor-writer Bruce Robinson for good, she married Argentine assistant director Henrique Gabriel in 1979. A year and a half later, she left him for film director William Friedkin, to whom she remained married until 1985.
Later, while filming the TV miniseries North and South, Down fell for cinematographer Don E. FauntLeRoy, who would become her husband. Their relationship wasn’t without its complications, but the couple has built a life together and shares a son, George-Edward FauntLeRoy.
Lesley-Anne Down was most recently seen in the 2024 biographical film Reagan, in which she portrayed Margaret Thatcher.
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