Kate O'Mara

O'Mara was born to John F. Carroll, an RAF flying instructor, and actress Hazel Bainbridge (born Edith Marion Bainbridge; 25 January 1910 – 7 January 1998).

Her younger sister is actress Belinda Carroll.

After boarding school she attended art school before becoming a full-time actress.

Kate O'Mara (born Frances Meredith Carroll; 10 August 1939 – 30 March 2014) was an English film, stage and television actress, and writer.

O’Mara’s earliest television appearances, in the 1960s, included guest roles in Danger Man, Adam Adamant Lives!, The Saint, Z-Cars and The Avengers.

O'Mara made her stage debut in a 1963 production of The Merchant of Venice.

O'Mara made her stage debut in a production of The Merchant of Venice in 1963, although her first film role was some years earlier (under the name Merrie Carroll) in Home and Away (1956) with Jack Warner, as her father, and Kathleen Harrison.

She had two sons, Dickon Young (1964–2012) and Christopher Linde (born 1965), both from previous relationships.

Dickon took his stepfather's surname but Christopher, having been given up for adoption, was named by his adoptive parents, Derek and Joy Linde.

Christopher, from whom O'Mara was long estranged, was the son of actor David Orchard.

Her first major TV role was as Julia Main, wife of the main protagonist in the ITV series The Main Chance (1969).

In the cinema, O'Mara acted in two 1970 Hammer Horror films: The Vampire Lovers and The Horror of Frankenstein.

In 1970, she appeared in two Hammer Studio horror films: The Vampire Lovers and The Horror of Frankenstein.

In the former, she had an erotically charged scene with Ingrid Pitt, in which O'Mara was meant to be seduced; the two women were left laughing on set, however, as Pitt's fangs kept falling into O'Mara's cleavage.

O'Mara's work in The Vampire Lovers impressed Hammer enough for them to offer her a contract, which she turned down, fearful of being typecast.

O'Mara was married twice, first to Jeremy Young in 1971; the couple divorced in 1976.

Her other stage roles included Elvira in Blithe Spirit (1974), Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (1982), Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra (1982), Goneril in King Lear (1987) and Marlene Dietrich in Lunch with Marlene (2008).

On BBC television, she had regular roles in The Brothers (1975–1976), Triangle (1981–1982) and Howards' Way (1989–1990), and portrayed Doctor Who villain the Rani three times (1985–1993).

She had a regular role in the BBC drama series The Brothers (1975–1976) as Jane Maxwell, and in the early 1980s, O'Mara starred in the BBC soap opera Triangle (1981–1982), sometimes counted among the worst television series ever made.

She played the villainous Rani in Doctor Who in two serials, The Mark of the Rani (1985) and Time and the Rani (1987), and also in the Doctor Who 30th anniversary spoof Dimensions in Time (1993), part of the Children in Need charity event.

Between these appearances in Doctor Who, she auditioned for a leading role as one of the sisters on the American primetime soap The Colbys, a spin-off of the American prime time soap opera Dynasty.

Eventually, O'Mara was offered one of the roles alongside Stephanie Beacham, but declined since was still under contract with a production of stage play Light Up the Sky at the Old Vic Theatre.

Shortly after, she was offered the part of Caress Morell on Dynasty.

On American television, she played Caress Morell, the scheming sister of Alexis Colby in the primetime soap opera Dynasty (1986).

As the sister of Alexis Colby (Joan Collins), O'Mara appeared in 17 episodes of the sixth season and 4 episodes of the seventh during 1986.

"We had a tremendous bitchy tension between us", the actress recalled about performing opposite Collins.

“My character Caress was like an annoying little mosquito who just kept coming back and biting her.” O'Mara disliked living in California, preferring the change of seasons in Britain, and to her relief was released from her five-year contract after Collins told the producers that having two brunettes in the series was a bad idea.

After returning to the UK, she was cast as another scheming villain, Laura Wilde, in the BBC soap Howards' Way (1989–1990).

O'Mara spoke on several occasions about her experience with the casting couch.

O'Mara continued to make television appearances throughout the 1990s, including Cluedo (1990), and playing Jackie Stone (Patsy's older sister) in two episodes of Absolutely Fabulous (1995–2003).

In 1993, she married Richard Willis, but the marriage was dissolved in 1996.

On an episode of The Word in 1994, O'Mara claimed that American producer Judd Bernard pulled down her panties during a hotel-room audition for the Elvis Presley vehicle Double Trouble.

In her autobiography Vamp Until Ready: A Life Laid Bare, O'Mara described this incident and "many other close encounters with... this very unpleasant and humiliating procedure", including with a well-known television casting director, the boss of Associated Television at ATV Elstree Studios, and the director of Great Catherine.

She also appeared as Jackie Stone in two episodes of the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1995–2003) and as Virginia O'Kane in four episodes of the prison drama Bad Girls (2001).

In 2000, she reprised her role as the Rani in the BBV Productions audio play The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind, and in 2006 she made a guest appearance in the radio comedy series Nebulous.

In 2001, she had a recurring role in the ITV prison drama series Bad Girls before appearing in the short-lived revival of the soap opera Crossroads.

She continued to perform on stage and in March 2008 she played Marlene Dietrich in a stage play entitled Lunch with Marlene.

From August to November 2008, she played Mrs Cheveley in Oscar Wilde's stage play An Ideal Husband directed by Peter Hall and produced by Bill Kenwright.

She performed in radio and audio plays.

In 2012, O'Mara appeared in a theatre adaptation of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile.