Charlotte Coleman

Charlotte Coleman
Born	Charlotte Ninon Coleman

Charlotte Ninon Coleman (April 3, 1968 - November 14, 2001) was a British actress.

She was born in London. Her mother was the actress Ann Beach, and her father was the TV producer Francis Coleman. Her younger sister is the actress Lisa Coleman, who has appeared in Casualty as Jude.

She went to the Anna Scher Theatre school in Islington, North London, because she said she was "too cool" to go to the Brownies.

Early TV roles in A Choice of Evils (BBC, 1977) and Two People (LWT, c.1977, as Emma Moffatt) followed. She had a crush on Stephen Garlick, her co-star in Two People. For the role, she had to choose a stuffed toy for Emma to carry; she chose a toy which she named "Haggis", which she still had when interviewed in 1990.

Her first major TV role was as Sue, in Southern Television's Worzel Gummidge. This ran for four series (and a Christmas special), from 1978 to 1981 on the ITV network.

This was soon followed by her role as the teenage rebel Marmalade Atkins, firstly in Marmalade Atkins in Space (a one-off drama shown in 1981 as part of the Dramarama strand), and then in two series, Educating Marmalade (1982 - 1983) and Danger - Marmalade at Work (1984). All three were made by Thames and written by Andrew Davies.

When she was 15, feeling that her upbringing to that point had been too liberal (her parents "didn't believe in restraint"), she used her earnings to enrol in Dartington Hall school in Devon - ironically a very progressive school which students "didn't have to go to any lessons, so I didn't. I spent 15 grand - all my money - and it was just stupid really." After this, she attended cookery school."

In 1990 she appeared as Jess, a girl from Lancashire brought up by a strict Pentecostal mother, in the acclaimed BBC television drama Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit based on Jeanette Winterson's novel of the same name. Coleman won a Royal Television Society Best Actress award for her portrayal of the young lesbian character. She also read the novel for release by BBC Audiobooks.

In the early 1990s she sometimes worked as a waitress in Camden Town at The Blue Bridge café.

Her best known film role was as Scarlett, Charles' punk flatmate, in Four Weddings and a Funeral.

She also appeared in Simon Nye's little-known 1998 sitcom How Do You Want Me?, alongside Dylan Moran.

Other television appearances in the 1980s and 90s included roles in The Bill and Inspector Morse, in the short-lived comedy series Freddie and Max, with Anne Bancroft, the drama about homelessness, Sweet Nothing, and, in 1996, another lesbian role, Barb Gale, in the political satire Giving Tongue.

She died of an asthma attack at the age of 33 years.

External links

• Almost Grown, interview from December 1996
• Charlotte Coleman, Guardian Obituary
• Obit at Socialist site
• fan site by David Brider
• http://www.paulmorris.co.uk/charlotte/