Cleo Sylvestre

Born: 1945-04-19 in Hitchin, Herts, England, UK

Died: 2024-09-20

Known For: Acting

Biography

Cleopatra Mary Palmer (née Sylvestre; 19 April 1945 – 20 September 2024), known professionally as Cleo Sylvestre, was a British actress. She was the first black woman ever to play a leading role at the National Theatre in London, and the first woman to record with The Rolling Stones. Sylvestre was brought up in Euston, north London, by her mother, Laureen Sylvestre (née Goodare), a cabaret artist at the Shim Sham Club in Wardour Street, who was born in Yorkshire in 1911. Laureen was of mixed English and African' heritage, and married Owen Oscar Sylvestre, from Trinidad, in 1944. Owen was a Flight Sergeant in the Air Force and had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal; he and Laureen divorced in 1955. Sylvestre always understood Owen to be her father; her daughter Zoë discovered many years later - whilst working in Sierra Leone - that her biological father was Ben Lewis, a lawyer from Sierra Leone whom the family called Uncle Ben, and that she had 15 half-siblings. Aged eight, she made her film debut in Johnny on the Run. Sylvestre was educated at Camden School for Girls and also attended the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. In 1964 she released a single, "To Know Him Is to Love Him", under the name "Cleo", produced by Andrew Loog Oldham and backed by The Rolling Stones. After Brian Jones left the Rolling Stones in 1969, she agreed to rehearse with his new band but abandoned music to concentrate on her theatre and television work. Her West End debut was at Wyndham's Theatre in Wise Child (1967) by Simon Gray, in which she starred alongside Sir Alec Guinness and was nominated most promising new actress. She was the first black actress in a leading role at the National Theatre in The National Health (1969) by Peter Nichols. She did several seasons with the Young Vic Company, including Molière's Les Fourberies de Scapin on Broadway and a tour of Mexico. She subsequently worked in many regional theatres, including the Theatre Royal, Lincoln, the Theatre Royal, Brighton, the Theatre Royal, York, the Derby Playhouse and the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. She played Phaedre at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2007 and Rosa Parks, Josephine Baker and Wangari Maathai in Alison Mead's A Century of Women at Leicester Square Theatre (2011). She appeared with Antony Sher in his play ID (2003) at the Almeida Theatre, toured with English Touring Theatre in Far from the Madding Crowd (2008) and with Northern Broadsides in its 2010 production of Medea. She also appeared with Michael Sheen in Under Milk Wood (2021) at the Royal National Theatre. Children's theatre work includes seasons at the Unicorn Theatre and the London Bubble Theatre Company. Her television appearances include: Ken Loach's Up the Junction (1965), Doctor Who (1965), Cathy Come Home (1966) and Poor Cow (1967), as well as appearances in the original Till Death Us Do Part, Z-Cars, Callan, Doctors, New Tricks, The Armando Iannucci Shows, Chambers, The Bill, Who Do You Do and A Bird in the Hand, a Tube Tales episode directed by Jude Law. After a brief appearance as a factory worker in soap opera Coronation Street in 1966, she became the first ever regular black British female character on British TV, in the original series of Crossroads, playing Meg Richardson's adopted daughter Melanie from 1970 to 1972.

Filmography

2024

Beautiful Things as Older Bambi

2023

Platform 7 as Layla

2014

Paddington as Marjorie Clyde

2013

The Guilty as Ilse Lawson

2010

Far from the Madding Crowd as Maryann / Mrs Hurst

2004

New Tricks as Milly

1999

Tube Tales as Woman (segment "A Bird In The Hand")

1996

Silent Witness as 1st Neighbour

1993

The Attendant

1992

Black and White in Colour as Self

1988

The Love Child as Cynthia
Catherine as Sister

1987

Sammy and Rosie Get Laid as Mother
Rockliffe's Babies as Mother Superior

1979

Minder as Ward Sister

1978

Grange Hill as Mrs. Dunlop
Life Begins at Forty as Mrs. Montague

1972

The Alf Garnett Saga as Bus Conductress

1970

My Lover, My Son as Dressmaker

1969

The Smashing Bird I Used to Know as Carlien
Some Women as Millie Jackson
Strange Report as Margaret

1968

The Expert as Vicky Hammond
Mrs. Lawrence Will Look After It as Stephanie Ward

1966

Till Death Us Do Part as Nurse

1965

Public Eye as Traffic Warden
The Troubleshooters as Gert
Up the Junction as In the factory

1964

The Wednesday Play as Marge, in the Factory

1963

Doctor Who as Concubine (uncredited)

1960

Coronation Street as Cilla Christie

1953

Johnny on the Run as Susie