Samantha Bond
Samantha Bond (born 27 November 1961) is an English actress, who is best known for playing Miss Moneypenny in four James Bond films during the Pierce Brosnan years, and for her role on "Downton Abbey" as the wealthy widow Lady Rosamund Painswick, sister of Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham. She is also known for originating the role of "Miz Liz" Probert in the "Rumpole of the Bailey" series. Bond is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. In her television career, she is known for her role as "Auntie Angela" in the sitcom "Outnumbered" and the villain  Mrs Wormwood in the CBBC "Doctor Who" spin-off, "The Sarah Jane Adventures". Early life. Samantha Bond is the daughter of actor Philip Bond and TV producer Pat Sandys, and is the sister of the actress Abigail Bond and the journalist Matthew Bond. Bond's paternal grandparents were Welsh. She was brought up in London, in homes in Barnes and St Margarets. She attended the Godolphin and Latymer School, and studied acting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Career. Early career. Bond's first acting role came at the age of 21, as a student in the original stage  production of Denise Deegan's play about a girls' school, "Daisy Pulls It Off", which opened at Southampton's Nuffield Theatre in 1983. Her earliest television roles took place during the same year, when she played Maria Rushworth (née Bertram), in the BBC mini-series adaptation of Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park", and Rumpole's pupil in chambers "Miz Liz" Probert in the fourth series of "Rumpole of the Bailey". In 1985, she appeared as Julia Simmons in the BBC's televised adaptation of Agatha Christie's crime novel "A Murder is Announced", part of the Miss Marple series. Theatre . Bond's association with the Royal Shakespeare Company (known as the RSC) began in 1987; she performed in three of the company's stage productions that year: "Les Liaisons Dangereuses", "Hero and Leander", and "Lorca's Women". In 1992, the RSC cast her as Rosalind in Shakespeare's "As You Like It", which she performed in their Stratford-upon-Avon and London theatres, and as Hermione in "The Winter's Tale", also at the company's two theatres. She then toured with the RSC as Hermione in 1993. Bond starred as the titular Amy in the Royal National Theatre's  West End production of David Hare's play "Amy's View", opposite Judi Dench, in 1997 and into early 1998. Later in 1998, she co-starred in playwright Shelagh Stephenson's "The Memory of Water", also in the West End. In 1999, Bond and Dench reprised their roles in "Amy's View" on Broadway for a limited run at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Their performances garnered Bond a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play, and Dench the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Play. Hare received a special citation from the New York Drama Critics ' Circle. Bond revisited "The Memory of Water", making her directorial debut on a short touring production of the play in 2000, the same year it won an Olivier award for Best New Comedy. She also performed in numerous stage productions during the 2000s, among them: Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 2001, as Hippolyta and Titania, again for the RSC; Donald Margulies's Pulitzer prize-winning "Dinner with Friends", as Karen, opposite her "Downton Abbey" co-star Elizabeth McGovern and directed by McGovern's husband Simon Curtis, in 2001; "The Vagina Monologues" in 2002; and in Shakespeare's  Macbeth, as Lady Macbeth opposite Sean Bean in the title role, on tour in 2002 and 2003. Other stage performances include Oscar Wilde's "A Woman of No Importance" in 2003; "The Rubenstein Kiss" in 2005; Michael Frayn's "Donkey's Years" at London's Comedy Theatre in 2006; and David Leveaux's West End revival of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" at the Duke of York's Theatre, in 2009 as Hannah, alongside another "Downton Abbey" co-star, Dan Stevens. The next decade brought Bond onstage in Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband", as Mrs. Cheveley opposite her real-life  actor husband Alexander Hanson as Mr. Cheveley, in 2010–2011, and as Nell in Passion Play by Peter Nichols in 2013. In 2014, Bond acted and sang in the West End musical production of "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels", playing the role of Muriel Eubanks. Bond stated in an interview that she hadn't sung on stage in over 30 years and had many moments during rehearsals where she turned her back toward anyone listening to her sing and frequently shook "with terror" at the prospect. In a Radio Times review of the play, the critic described Bond as "stage royalty" and "hilarious ." In October and November 2017, Bond appeared in the English language premiere of Florian Zeller's modern French farce, "The Lie", once again alongside her husband, Alexander Hanson, at an Off-West End theatre called the Menier Chocolate Factory. Television and film. In 1989, Bond starred as Mary MacKenzie, a young Scottish woman, in the television adaptation of Oswald Wynd's novel "The Ginger Tree", and was featured in "Erik the Viking", an independent fantasy film with Tim Robbins in the title role. She appeared in a 1990 adaptation of Agatha Christie's short story, "The Adventure of the Cheap  Flat", for the series "Agatha Cristie's Poirot" on ITV, starring David Suchet as Hercule Poirot. Bond was also seen on ITV in an episode of the "Inspector Morse" detective drama series based on novels by Colin Dexter, in 1992, and in a 1995 episode of "Ghosts", an anthology series of ghost stories on the BBC. In 1996, she portrayed Mrs. Weston in the television movie "Jane Austen's Emma", starring Kate Beckinsale as Emma, a Meridian-ITV/A&E production that has been described as grittier and "more authentic" to Austen's story than the theatrical film starring Gwyneth Paltrow  that was released the same year. The television movie was broadcast in the US in 1997 on PBS. From 1995 to 2002, Bond played Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary at MI6, in the four James Bond films with Pierce Brosnan as Agent 007: "GoldenEye", "Tomorrow Never Dies", "The World Is Not Enough", and "Die Another Day". The role of Miss Moneypenny is the smallest role she ever played, yet the character remains a favorite among James Bond fans. In a BBC interview, Bond remarked that she retired from the role when Pierce Brosnan stepped down as the lead. However, she  later appeared as Miss Moneypenny in an advertisement for London's 2012 Olympic bid, alongside previous Bond actor Roger Moore. Bond co-starred in 2004 with Peter Davison, as a married couple who uproot themselves to a remote island to save their marriage, in the ITV drama-comedy "Distant Shores". In 2007, she played the villain Mrs. Wormwood in the pilot episode of the BBC children's drama series "The Sarah Jane Adventures", a spin-off of "Doctor Who". She later came back to play the same character in the two-part finale of the show's second series, "Enemy  of the Bane". Bond guest-starred in three episodes of the long-running and popular murder mystery series "Midsomer Murders": "Destroying Angel" in 2001, "Shot at Dawn" in 2008, both starring fellow RSC member John Nettles in the lead role of DCI Tom Barnaby, as well as the first episode in 2011's series 14, "Death in the Slow Lane". The 2011 episode is notable for Neil Dudgeon's debut as DCI John Barnaby, who takes over as the new detective in Midsomer after his cousin Tom Barnaby retired. From 2007 to 2014, Bond had a recurring role as Auntie  Angela in the BBC's semi-improvised comedy series "Outnumbered", alongside Hugh Dennis, Claire Skinner and David Ryall. She appeared in all five series. From 2010 through 2015 (in the UK), Bond appeared as Lady Rosamund Painswick in the ensemble cast of ITV's drama series "Downton Abbey", written and produced by Julian Fellowes. The show quickly became an unprecedented worldwide hit. Each series was shown in the US on PBS's Masterpiece program one year following its broadcast in the UK; according to PBS, Downton Abbey rose to become the most popular drama ever shown on the station, and  the most popular series in the history of Masterpiece. Lady Rosamund is the widowed, wealthy, and sometimes meddling sister of Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham. Bond's first appearance was in the last episode of the first series; she appeared in 18 episodes overall, throughout the entire show. The ITV show "Home Fires" featured Bond as Frances Barden, a woman working to strengthen connections among the women in her small English village by keeping the local "Women's Institute" operating during the early days of World War II. The show premiered in the UK in 2015 and was cancelled  in 2016, to which fans reacted by petitioning ITV to reinstate the popular drama, to no avail. It played in the US on PBS's Masterpiece in 2016 and 2017, where viewers were similarly disappointed to learn of the show's demise. The series creator, Simon Block, has stated he intends to continue the story in written form, as novels. In 2020 Miss Bond played Joanne Henderson in "Death in Paradise" (S9:E5). Audiobooks. Bond has narrated a number of audiobooks including Mary Norton's "The Borrowers", Joanna Trollope's "An Unsuitable Match", Anthony Horowitz's "Magpie Murders" and Helen  Fielding's "Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries' 'Goldeneye". She has most recently released S J Bennett's novel, "The Windsor Knot". She received an Earphones Award for "Magpie Murders". Personal life. Bond lives in St Margarets, London, and has been married since 1989 to Alexander Hanson, with whom she has two children, Molly and Tom. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of Northampton in 2014.