Cleo Sylvestre

Who is Cleo Sylvestre?

Cleo Sylvestre is an English actress in film, stage and television.

She was brought up in London by her mother, Laureen Sylvestre, a cabaret artist at the Shim Sham Club, who was born in Yorkshire. She was educated at Camden School for Girls and also attended the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. In 1964 she released a single, "To Know Him Is to Love Him" under the name "Cleo", produced by Andrew Loog Oldham and backed by The Rolling Stones. After Brian Jones left the Rolling Stones in 1969, she agreed to rehearse with his new band but abandoned music to concentrate on her theatre and television work. Her West End debut was at Wyndham's Theatre in Wise Child by Simon Gray, in which she starred alongside Sir Alec Guinness and was nominated most promising new actress. She was the first black actress in a leading role at the National Theatre in The National Health by Peter Nichols. She did several seasons with the Young Vic Company, including Molière’s Les Fourbieres de Scapino on Broadway and a tour of Mexico.