In a career spanning 60 years, Stephanie Beacham has brought her sultry looks to powerhouse roles such as Sable Colby in 1980s US show Dynasty alongside fellow icon Joan Collins.
And back on this side of the pond this week, she returned to Coronation Street as Ken Barlow’s former love interest heartbreaker Martha Fraser.
While some roles, she says, are harder to play, she is thrilled to have landed the perfect part as an interfering mother to fellow glamazon Liz Hurley.
She admits: “I play the naggy mum – and I’m afraid that character is not a stranger to me.”
Stephanie, who has daughters Chloe, 45, and Phoebe, 48, with late ex-husband John McEnery, laughs: “Chloe, in particular, has often made the sign of the cross, as if to say, ‘Devil! Back off!’
“It’s just that terrible thing of thinking, you’ve got all the best advice!”
Stephanie has teamed up with Liz for an upcoming Christmas rom-com. And even the story of how they came to work on it is about as showbiz as it gets.
She recalls: “Liz and I sort of re-met at Joan’s 89th birthday. We were nattering when Liz said, ‘For heaven’s sake, I’ve been wondering who should play my mother. Of course, it’s Stephanie!’
“She got her director to phone me. How delightful that was. Because I think Joan has often played her mother and I was more than happy to.”
Stephanie, 75, was not in the slightest bit insulted to play mum to 57-year-old Liz. She jokes: “I’m not fortunate enough to be able to wear bikinis like Liz.
“She’s a completely down-to-earth, lovely creature who happens to be absolutely beautiful, and we had a lot of fun.”
In the movie, Christmas in the Caribbean, Liz plays theatre critic Rachel Webb, who discovers Mr Right is Mr Wrong when he jilts her at the altar – much to Mum’s (Stephanie’s) dismay.
But when her mother also suggests she still goes on her honeymoon with some girlfriends, love blossoms, rather predictably, abroad.
Her own experience of being a mother and working actress has not been without its challenges, she admits. “It really was sink or swim,” she says. “If I was playing something incredibly serious I was not such a good mother because I was too
involved. It’s hard to split yourself into six, don’t you think?
“I remember one time, we had an au pair who hadn’t returned from a class and I had a matinee at the Piccadilly Theatre in London.
“So I led my two year-old and four year-old over the road to the nunnery, knocked on the door and begged to the nuns, ‘Would you possibly look after my children? Hopefully for only 20 minutes, but I have to leave’.”
There were other times when she felt torn. She talks of lying awake at night praying her kid’s temperature of 104F would subside when work beckoned the next day. “When you take on a role and you sign your contract, you do not have a clause that says you’ll work ‘unless my children are really ill’,” she says. “But things have probably got better now.”
Quitting was never an option. “At that time I had to have the money,” she says. “I wasn’t getting anything from my disreputable ex-husband.”
She split with actor John six years after they wed in 1973, later calling him an adulterer. Does she still resent him?
“He died three years ago but we became very good friends and I looked after him towards the end of his life,” she says.
Stephanie also dated legend Marlon Brando, who she appeared with in 1971 film The Nightcomers. Today she and fiance Bernie Greenwood have been together 15 years. He is a dashing doctor she met via friends.
“I’ve been lucky enough to find a lovely partner – and as mammals I think we tend to live best in pairs, don’t we?” she says.
She sees life at 75 as freeing her up to endless possibilities.
“I love motherhood, I love grandmotherhood. But now I’ve no responsibilities, in the way I used to, so I can give 100% to
any project.”
Tomorrow she is helping raise money for Centrepoint, the charity that helps support homeless young people, at London’s Lyric Theatre by taking part in a homage to Judy Garland called Judy – No Place Like Home.
“It’s going to be such a hard winter for so many people and we have to help,” she says.
Next week she is going to a showing of a film she made called Age. At the start of next year she is appearing in action film Renegades, with Nick Moran, Lee Majors and Patsy Kensit.
There’s also an upcoming film called Grey Matter, where she plays a granny with Alzheimer’s.
“That was wonderful to do, and such a relief to be working from the inside rather than from the externals of what you look like.
“My father died of Alzheimer’s. That was incredibly painful to witness and experience and to deal with. But I loved playing this.
“I’ve got 75 years of living experience, 60 of acting and I’m really longing to just come out to play with that,” she says. Now she is returning to Corrie after a 13-year hiatus, working with Bill Roache, who she describes as a “joy”.
Stephanie is also making a guest appearance in the second series of Whitstable Pearl on Acorn TV, playing an aged Hollywood star.
She says: “After a certain age you can only do a parody of beauty in an ironic way, or a retrospective way like with Whitstable Pearl,” she says.
“I feel so lucky. But I just feel my toy box is still full. In the future I’m very happy to lay the false eyelashes in their coffin as I continue to flourish as a human being.
“I know I’ve got my best work ahead of me,” she says, laughing.
Christmas in the Caribbean is on digital platforms (Sky, iTunes, Amazon, Virgin, Google and Xbox) on Dec 5. Whitstable Pearl is on Acorn TV, also on the same day.
