Claire Gordon

Who is Claire Gordon?

Claire Gordon is an English film actress and comedienne known for leading and cameo roles in many British movies- from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s, and for working with most of the television comedy stars of that time.

She was born in Cambridge, UK. Her father was a doctor and her mother a make-up artist who worked for Max Factor.

Best known for her leading roles in the cult films Konga and Beat Girl, which featured John Barry's first film score, Gordon is the subject of singer Scott Walker's song "Archangel".

After being photographed by chance at Queens ice rink for the cover of the magazine Liliput she was signed to a five-year contract with film agent Bill Watts and played 'a harem girl' in the Bernard Bresslaw film I only Arsked before making her first stage appearance in Meet the Cousin with Cicely Courtnedge and Jack Hulbert. The show opened at The Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, where she met her husband-to-be William Donaldson, who was also just starting out - as a theatrical producer..

Following a spell in repertory at Portsmouth Theatre Royal playing a Russian spy in Agatha Christie's Verdict and a gum-chewing blonde in Brighton Rock and some pre- London tours, she made her West End Theatre debut on a motorbike in The Darling Buds of May at the former Saville Theatre; and then played the role of Peggy the dumb blonde film starlet in a show-stopping scene with Michael Crawford in Neil Simon's first hit Come Blow Your Horn at London's Prince of Wales Theatre.