This Is Your Life: Stephanie Beacham

Stephanie BEACHAM (1947-)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE – Stephanie Beacham, actress, was surprised by Michael Aspel while dining at the St James's Club in Hollywood, California, USA.

Stephanie, who was born in Barnet, trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before joining the Bristol Old Vic in 1967. She first appeared on television in 1967 and made her film debut in 1970 in The Games, directed by Michael Winner.

Having received acclaim for her roles in the BBC drama series Tenko in 1981 and the ITV drama series Connie in 1985, Stephanie was cast as Sable Colby in the ABC series Dynasty and its spin-off The Colbys – a role which made her a household name on both sides of the Atlantic.

"You got me! Oh no! I'm speechless!"

programme details...

Edition No: 772
Subject No: 762
Broadcast date: Wed 31 Jan 1990
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Thu 16 Nov 1989
Venue: unknown
Series: 30
Edition: 15
Code name: Powder

on the guest list...

Steve Silver - partner
Claire Yarlett
Kim Terry-Costin
cast members of Sister Kate
Marion Rosenberg
Joan - mother
Alec - father
Jenny - sister
Didi - sister
Amanda - niece
Phoebe - daughter
Chloe - daughter
Sue Jones
Robert Guillaume
Anthony Perkins
Richard - brother
Judith - sister-in-law
Charlton Heston
Susan Hampshire
Nyree Dawn Porter
Robert Powell
Susannah York
Joanna Hole
Louise Jameson
Stephanie Cole
3 unnamed cast members of Tenko
Sylvia Iliff

production team...

Researcher: Louise Clover
Writer: Roy Bottomley
Director: Brian Klein
Associate Producer: John Graham
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

An Actor's Life For Me

spotlight on the stars

Susan Hampshire

Susannah York

Screenshots of Stephanie Beacham This Is Your Life

Stephanie Beacham recalls her experience of This Is Your Life in her book, Many Lives...

Tony Perkins was also the first person to make me question my subconscious. He helped me recognise those terribly damaging patterns I'd learned, and to separate these from what was true intuition. If someone shows you something orange and you say, 'Oh no, I hate orange,' chances are you hate orange because there's some story in your past that's led to you having a bad experience with orange. If you can manage to stop yourself, and question those immediate thoughts, you can start to look behind them and see what's really going on.

We've all got horrid bits in our subconscious - ideas and thoughts about ourselves that aren't true. We tell ourselves all sorts of things that are quite simply, false: 'you're not good enough, you can't do that, you're not worthy of that.' Tony would question me the whole time. He wasn't always right, though. Sometimes he'd make me roar with laughter.

'You're looking at people, Stephanie,' he'd say.

'Sure I am,' I'd reply. 'I love people-watching.'

'No, you're the star - they stare at you, you just look straight ahead.'

This was a man who used to wear shoulder pads in his T-shirts because he was so skinny. He'd decided to be the skinniest actor there ever was and he was going for it. I loved him. On my This Is Your Life he made a very flattering speech that made me blush. I didn't watch the programme until two years later. I was in Bristol staying with my friends Sue and Adrian, and they had it on video. At 8:30 one morning I thought I'd watch it. I saw it, then turned on the radio. I caught the news that Tony Perkins had died. He'd just waved me goodbye.

Scriptwriter Roy Bottomley recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is Your Life: The Story of Television's Famous Big Red Book...

Thursday 16 November 1989 saw the Life in the newly restored art deco surroundings of the St James Club on Sunset Boulevard - a building once home from home to the stars of the Thirties - to surprise a devastating young English actress who had first caused a sensation with Marlon Brando in The Nightcomers and was now Sable Colby in Dynasty: Stephanie Beacham.

Charlton Heston - her screen husband in The Colbys - caused a few heart tremors among the team when he telephoned to say, sadly, he could not make the studio 'live' because he was on location that night. His schedule, suddenly, had been switched - a frequent occurrence in Tinsel Town. But he would film a message for Stephanie for us from his home before he left.

We had a wonderful line-up of guests greeting Stephanie in London - Susan Hampshire, Nyree Dawn Porter, Robert Powell, Susannah York and the whole of the cast of the hit TV programme Tenko.

But for the actress who had flown to Hollywood 'with one change of underwear in her bag' to seize the chance to play Sable Colby, we really needed a big Hollywood name to finish the proceedings.

We set out in pursuit of the diffident star with whom she had just made Napoleon and Josephine, Anthony Perkins of Psycho fame. Due to a misunderstanding, when he arrived he was under the impression he would be 'live' with Charlton Heston. Our young lady researcher, however, convinced him he should appear, which he did, much to Stephanie's appreciation. I warned our researcher to avoid stepping under the shower that night...

Series 30 subjects