# Sharon Duce

Sharon D. Duce (born 17 January 1948) is an English actress.

## Career

Born in Sheffield, she trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art then became a stage actress at the Sheffield Repertory Theatre, the York Theatre Royal, and the Theatre in the Round, before joining Ian McKellen and Edward Petherbridge's Actors Company. Apart from her career in film and television, she has had leading roles at the Royal Court Theatre and other West End theatres.
Duce began her acting career in 1970; She made her first appearance on the short-lived ITV crime drama series Parkin's Patch, before going on to many television guest appearances throughout the decade, in shows including Armchair Theatre, Z-Cars, Play for Today and Crown Court, as well as film roles in The Tamarind Seed, which was her film debut, and Absolution. Her television guest roles continued into the 1980s in a number of mainstream productions, such as The Professionals, Tales of the Unexpected, In Loving Memory, Rockliffe, and Doctor Who. She had a main role in the short-lived ITV comedy series Funny Man, and in the BBC One series Big Deal, as Jan Oliver.
Duce was cast in the 1991 film Buddy's Song, based on the 1987 novel of the same name; she plays Carol Clark, the mother of Buddy (Chesney Hawkes), who attempts to make it as a musician with the help of Buddy's father and her estranged husband (Roger Daltrey). In 1992, she guest-appeared in the fourth series drama series of CITV drama Press Gang, followed by the leading role of Pat Hollingsworth in BBC One's Growing Pains. She appeared in The Tomorrow People, the revived version of the 1970s series, Wycliffe and Peak Practice.
In the 2000s, she has had guest roles in Playing the Field, Where the Heart Is and The Royle Family, where she made an appearance in the third series' Christmas special. She had a recurring role in London's Burning, and appearances in soap operas Emmerdale, as Millicent Rudge in 2003, and in Coronation Street as Julie Carp's mother, Paula Carp, she departed the soap on 22 May 2009.
She also had multiple guest roles in long running drama series' Casualty, The Bill and Doctors.

## Personal life

She has two children with the former actor Dominic Guard, with whom she appeared in the 1978 film Absolution.

## Filmography

Film :
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1974 | The Tamarind Seed | Sandy Mitchell | |
| 1978 | Absolution | Louella | |
| 1981 | Outland | Prostitute | |
| 1989 | Blackwater Summer | Wife | Short |
| 1990 | Shooting Stars | Paula | |
| 1991 | Buddy's Song | Carol | |
| 1994 | Super Grass | Mum | |
| 1999 | Rogue Trader | Patsy Sims | |
| 2000 | Secret Society | Janice | |
| 2008 | Six and Seven | (unknown role) | Video short |
| 2024 | Look to the Light | Nan | |
| TBA | Signs of Life | Joyce | |
Television :
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1970 | Parkin's Patch | Bobby Tupper | Series 1, episode 17 |
| 1971 | Armchair Theatre | Veronica | Series 13, episode 7 |
| 1971 | Thirty-Minute Theatre | Mirabelle | Series 7, episode 5 |
| 1971 | ITV Playhouse | Sheila | Series 5, episode 3 |
| 1971 | Z-Cars | WPC Cameron | Series 7, episodes 30, 31 & 51 |
| 1972 | Softly, Softly: Task Force | Mrs. Nicholson | Series 3, episode 21 |
| 1972 | Scene | Girl | Series 4, episode 12 |
| 1972 | Mistress of Hardwick | Lady | Series 1, episode 7 |
| 1972 | Crime of Passion | Yvette | Series 3, episode 4 |
| 1972 | Thirty-Minute Theatre | Rosemary | Series 7, episode 33 |
| 1972 | New Scotland Yard | Tricia | Series 1, episode 12 |
| 1972 | Villains | Alice | Series 1, episode 5 |
| 1973 | Full House | Erm in George Reborn | Series 1, episode 12 |
| 1973 | Away from It All | Beth | Series 1, episode 6 |
| 1973 | Helen: A Woman of Today | Carole | Series 1 (7 episodes) |
| 1975 | 2nd House | Actress in Knots | Series 2, episode 10 |
| 1975 | Z-Cars | Yvonne James | Series 10, episode 23 |
| 1975 | Dawson's Weekly | Sandra Evans | Series 1, episode 6 |
| 1975 | The Wild West Show | Sheila | Series 1, episodes 1 & 4 |
| 1976 | Centre Play | Freda Hayes | Series 3, episode 10 |
| 1976 | Bill Brand | Sian | Series 1, episode 11 |
| 1976 | Play for Today | Joyce | Series 7, episode 5 |
| 1976 | Crown Court | Sylvia Turner | Series 5, episodes 60, 61 & 62 |
| 1977 | The House That Jack Built | Lu | Miniseries (6 episodes) |
| 1977 | The Foundation | Mrs. Sherwood | Series 1, episode 4 |
| 1977 | BBC2 Play of the Week | Ada | Series 1, episode 3 |
| 1978 | Crown Court | Anne Charlton | Series 7, episodes 34, 35 & 36 |
| 1978 | Send in the Girls | Diane | Series 1, episode 7 |
| 1978 | A Woman's Place? | Leila | Series 1, episode 1 |
| 1978 | BBC2 Play of the Week | Aline Charigist | Series 2, episode 11 |
| 1980–81 | Coming Home | Sheila Maddocks | Pilot & Series 1 (6 episodes) |
| 1980 | The Professionals | Annie | Series 4, episode 6 |
| 1980 | Premiere | Mrs. Hammond | Series 4, episode 2 |
| 1981 | BBC2 Playhouse | Bridget | Series 7, episode 14 |
| 1981 | Funny Man | Kath Gibson | Series 1 (11 episodes) |
| 1981 | Take the Stage | Herself | Series 1, episode 6 |
| 1982 | Tales of the Unexpected | Sophie Trent | Series 5, episode 1 |
| 1981 | In Loving Memory | Hermione Hepworth | Series 3, episode 6 |
| 1983 | The Hard Word | Vicky Clough | Series 1 (6 episodes) |
| 1983 | The Bounder | Doreen | Series 2, episode 1 |
| 1984 | Weekend Playhouse | Susan | Series 1, episode 7 |
| 1984–86 | Big Deal | Jan Oliver | Series 1–3 (30 episodes) |
| 1987 | Running Wild | Wanda | Series 1, episode 6 |
| 1988 | Casualty | Thea | Series 3, episode 9 |
| 1988 | First Born | Emily Jessop | Miniseries (episode 2) |
| 1988 | Rockliffe | Judy Maidment | Series 3: Rockliffe's Folly, episodes 1 & 2 |
| 1988 | Boon | Anita Wilberforce | Series 3, episode 4 |
| 1989 | Singles | Stephanie | Series 2, episode 3 |
| 1989 | Doctor Who | Control | Serial: "Ghost Light" |
| 1991 | The Bill | Mrs. Cook | Series 7, episode 21 |
| 1991 | The Play on One | Joan Glenn | Series 4, episode 1 |
| 1992 | Press Gang | Katherine Hill | Series 4, episodes 5 & 6 |
| 1992–93 | Growing Pains | Pat Hollingsworth | Series 1–2 (20 episodes) |
| 1992 | Natural Lies | Maggie Fell | Series 1, episodes 1, 2 & 3 |
| 1994 | 99-1 | Ronnie | Series 1, episode 3 |
| 1995 | The Tomorrow People | Penny Weston | Serial: "The Living Stones" |
| 1995 | Trafford Tanzi | Tanzi's Mum | TV movie short |
| 1996 | Casualty | Isabel McEnery | Series 10, episode 19 |
| 1996 | Into the Fire | Anita | Miniseries (3 episodes) |
| 1996 | Shakespeare's Shorts | Maria | Series 1, episode 4 |
| 1996 | Short Sharp Shocks | Mother | Series 1, episode 3 |
| 1997 | Wycliffe | Supt. Le Page | Series 4, episodes 2, 3 & 5 |
| 1997 | Peak Practice | Carol-Anne Kern | Series 5, episode 14 |
| 1998 | The Bill | Cathy Cross | Series 14, episode 77 |
| 1998 | Maisie Raine | Eileen Slayburn | Series 1, episode 6 |
| 2000 | Holby City | Jill O'Hanlon | Series 2, episode 16 |
| 2000 | Playing the Field | Sheila Hurst | Series 3, episode 5 & Series 4, episode 4 |
| 2000 | Where the Heart Is | Shelley Wilson | Series 4, episodes 11 & 12 |
| 2000 | The Royle Family | Valerie Kavanagh | Series 3, episode 7 (Christmas special) |
| 2001–02 | London's Burning | Elaine Reeve | Series 13–14 (18 episodes) |
| 2001 | Merseybeat | Holly Ormerod | Series 1, episode 9 |
| 2001 | Doctors | Rachel Wilson | Series 3 (5 episodes) |
| 2002 | Clocking Off | Vicky Sullivan | Series 3, episodes 4, 6 & 8 |
| 2003 | Grease Monkeys | Bernie | Series 1, episode 5 |
| 2003 | Emmerdale | Millicent Rudge | 5 episodes |
| 2004 | Casualty | Alesia Pamboris | Series 18, episode 22 |
| 2004 | Conviction | Sandra Buliegh | Miniseries (5 episodes) |
| 2005 | Dalziel and Pascoe | Jenny Challoner | Series 9, episodes 3 & 4 |
| 2006 | The Royal | Norma Smithson | Series 5, episode 3 |
| 2006 | Sorted | Helena | Series 1, episode 6 |
| 2008 | Casualty | Sheila Denham | Series 22–23 (3 episodes) |
| 2008 | HolbyBlue | Linda Jackson | Series 2, episode 7 |
| 2008 | The Bill | Doreen Hutton | Series 24, episode 40 |
| 2008 | Missing | Mrs. Susan Greenside | Miniseries (2 episodes) |
| 2009 | Moving On | Sue Morgan | Series 1, episode 3 |
| 2009 | Coronation Street | Paula Carp | 16 episodes |
| 2010 | A Passionate Woman | Christine | Miniseries (episode 2) |
| 2012 | Midsomer Murders | Mandy Gideon | Series 15, episode 2 |
| 2015 | Doctors | Celia Armstrong | Series 16, episode 171 |
| 2015 | Black Work | Barbara | Miniseries (3 episodes) |
| 2016 | Vera | Marcia | Series 6, episode 1 |
| 2016 | Casualty | Meg Stuart | Series 30, episodes 26 & 27 |
| 2019 | Doctors | Sandra Blackwell | Series 20, episode 55 |
Podcast series :
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2022 | Cupid | Hera, Fury 2 | |