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Died: January 16, 2021. CHARLOTTE Cornwell, who has died aged 71, was an actress of fearlessness and class, who combined tenures with the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre with a TV career that tapped into a more contemporary grit. Beyond acting, as a political activist and champion of justice, she was, as fellow actor Ian McKellen described her in a tribute on Twitter, ‘indomitable’. She found fame in Rock Follies (1976), Howard Schuman’s Fringe theatre-styled musical drama that charted the fortunes of the girl group, The Little Ladies. She played Anna, the most strident and driven of the group, alongside Julie Covington as the punky Dee and Rula Lenska as the aristocratic Q.
Charlotte Cornwell, actress who made her name in Rock Follies – obituary
Her half-brother John le Carré advised her to take up acting, and later based the actress Charlie in The Little Drummer Girl on her
Charlotte Cornwell in Rock Follies
Credit: Fremantle Media/Shutterstock
Charlotte Cornwell, who has died of cancer aged 71, was the half-sister of David Cornwell, the novelist John le Carré, and a successful actress in her own right, performing leading roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, at the National Theatre and on television, and also finding success in the US.
She had a small role in the film version of le Carré’s novel Russia House (1989), and he based Charlie, the charming but feckless starlet manipulated into becoming an Israeli secret agent in The Little Drummer Girl (1983), on Charlotte after seeing her playing Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing – “Except the central character was an unsuccessful actress – which I wasn’t,” she pointed out.