Memory Alpha
Register
Advertisement
Memory Alpha
Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)

Samantha Eggar (born 5 March 1939; age 85) is an Academy Award-nominated British actress who portrayed Marie Picard in the Star Trek: The Next Generation fourth season episode "Family". She was born Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar in Hampstead, London, England.

Film work[]

Eggar was acting in a production of a William Shakespeare play in 1961 when she was discovered by producer Betty Box and cast in her first film, The Wild and the Willing. Two years later, director Alexander Singer cast her in his mystery film Psyche 59.

Eggar was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in the 1965 film The Collector, making her one of the only six Star Trek performers nominated in the category Best Actress in a Leading Role (the others are Jean Simmons, Louise Fletcher, Winona Ryder, Whoopi Goldberg and Michelle Yeoh, with Fletcher and Yeoh being the only winners). She also won a Golden Globe for her portrayal, and was named Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival. As a result of the international success she achieved with The Collector, Eggar began starring in more American films, including the romantic comedy Walk Don't Run (which co-starred George Takei), the classic 1967 family comedy Doctor Dolittle, and the 1970 historical drama The Molly Maguires (with Anthony Zerbe).

In the 1976 film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, based on the novel by Star Trek film writer and director Nicholas Meyer, Eggar portrayed the wife of Sherlock Holmes' sidekick, Dr. John Watson. Star Trek: Voyager guest actor Joel Grey also appeared in this film.

After appearing in The Uncanny (1977), Eggar portrayed the female lead in David Cronenberg's The Brood (1979, with Felix Silla), which earned Eggar a Genie Award nomination for Best Performance by a Foreign Actress. Eggar followed this with starring roles in two more horror films, Demonoid: Messenger of Death (with Roy Jenson) and Curtains (also featuring William Marshall).

Eggar focused on television for the remainder of the 1980s, returning to feature films in 1991 with Ragin' Cajun. The following year, she worked alongside Voyager star Kate Mulgrew in the 1992 comedy film Round Numbers and co-starred with Ed Begley, Jr. in the drama Dark Horse. She later appeared in The Phantom (1996, with Leon Russom, Bill Smitrovich, and Cary-Hiroyuki). Eggar's most recent film credit was The Astronaut's Wife (1999, co-starring Donna Murphy).

In addition, Eggar was the voice of Hera, the mother of Hercules, in Disney's 1997 animated film Hercules and the television spin-off series of the same name. Matt Frewer was the voice of Panic in both of these projects.

Television work[]

In 1972, Eggar starred as Anna Leonowens in the short-lived television series Anna and the King (based on the 1956 film The King and I), which aired for thirteen episodes on CBS. Fellow Star Trek alumni Rosalind Chao, Keye Luke, and Brian Tochi also appeared regularly on this series.

Eggar starred in several made-for-TV movies during the 1970s. In 1973, she played Phyllis Dietrickson in the TV adaptation of the film noir classic Double Indemnity, appearing with John Fiedler and Joan Pringle. The following year, she co-starred with John Savage in All the Kind Strangers, and in 1976, she and Mariette Hartley appeared in The Killer Who Wouldn't Die (along with Robert Hooks). Eggar also had a role in the 1977 Columbo vehicle The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case, as did Theodore Bikel (playing her husband), Kenneth Mars, and Edwin Rochelle.

In 1977, Eggar and Joan Collins guest-starred together on an episode of Starsky & Hutch, whose regular cast included David Soul. Eggar later appeared in two episodes of Fantasy Island, which starred Ricardo Montalban. Subsequent television shows on which she guest-starred include Murder, She Wrote (in an episode directed by Richard Colla), Hotel (in an episode with Lee Meriwether), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (with John Colicos), Matlock (directed by Robert Scheerer), L.A. Law (with Corbin Bernsen, Robert Curtis Brown, Larry Drake, Harvey Jason, Lawrence Tierney, and Tom Wright), and Burke's Law (with Catherine Hicks).

Eggar was to have portrayed Pamela Capwell Conrad on the NBC soap opera Santa Barbara, but she backed out before she could take on the role. The character was later played by Marj Dusay. [1]

Eggar co-starred with actor Christopher Plummer in the 1990 TV movie A Ghost in Monte Carlo. She later had a role in the 1993 TV movie A Case for Murder, along with fellow Trek alumni Robert DoQui, Rosemary Forsyth, Bruce French, Thomas Kopache, and Eugene Roche. Between 1991 and 1994, Eggar was the voice of Queen Guinevere on the animated series The Legend of Prince Valiant, which also featured the voices of James Avery, Michael Horton, and Alan Oppenheimer.

In 2000, Eggar was briefly a regular cast member on the daytime drama series All My Children. In 2004, she appeared in an episode of the CBS drama series Cold Case (in which she and Johanna Watts played older and younger versions of the same character, along with Bruce Gray and Autumn Reeser) . Most recently, she played the recurring role of Sara Templeton on the drama series Commander-in-Chief.

External links[]

Advertisement