was considered to be too tall. She also worked as a model whilst doing her O-levels and A-levels, eventually appearing on the covers of glossy magazines.
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Sophie Ward
I met Sophie Ward after I had seen her performance in the play The Grass is Greener at Nottingham's Theatre Royal in September 2009.
She signed my programme and also a photograph of her from the film Wuthering Heights.
Sophie (born Sophia) Ward was born in London in 1964, daughter of the actor Simon Ward. She has 2 sisters, Kitty and Claudia. C.#
She had acting lessons as a small child, at the Anna Scher Theatre school in Islington. Casting directors visited frequently and by the age of 10 Sophie had landed her first role - as Ja
Jan in The Other Window (1975) (an episode of the horror series Shadows), followed by The Copter Kids (1976) and Full Circle (1977). She
She also had ballet training, but after growing to 5' 8" by the time she was 15, she
Simon Ward
Sophie skipped drama school, but took up theatre, successfully appearing in in her mid-twenties in several roles at the Citizens' Theatre in Glasgow. These included Ophelia in Hamlet, Amanda in Noel Coward's Private Lives and Elvira in Blithe Spirit. Her other theatre credits include
include Mrs Cheveley in The Ideal Husband at Theatre Clwyd; Olgaaa
After small roles in films like A Shocking Accident (1982) and Return to Oz (1985), more substantial roles followed - as Elizabeth Hardy in Steven Spielberg's Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) and as Sister Margherita in Franco Zeffirelli's Young Toscanini (1988). She played Isabella Linton in the version of Wuthering Heights (1992) starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.
Sophie Ward & Liza Goddard in
The Grass is Greener
Sophie Ward in Electricity
Olga in The Three Sisters at Chichester; the Governess in The Turn of the Screw at Coventry; Katherine in Electricity at Leeds and Tanis in Semi Monde at London's Lyric Theatre. She has also toured with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Grass is Greener which I saw in Nottingham.
Sophie Ward aged 20
Her more recent films include playing a headmistress Veronica Van Huet in Out of Bounds (2003), and a psychic researcher Mary Florescu in the horror fantasy Book of Blood (2008) co-starring Irish actor Jonas Armstrong.
With Ralph Feinnes in Wuthering Heights
With George Asprey in Out of Bounds
As Elizabeth in Young Sherlock Holmes
Sophie Ward as Elizabeth Hardy in
Young Sherlock Holmes
Sophie Ward in Book of Blood
Sophie Ward
It is for her TV work that Sophie is probably best known. After appearances as Molly Kendal in Agatha Christie's A Caribbean Mystery (1989) and Aunt Eden in Ruth Rendell's A Dark Adapted Eye (1993), Sophie Ward was offered the lesbian role of Alice Jordan (a bored housewife who leaves her husband for another woman) in the Joanna Trollope's A Village Affair (1995). It remains the only officially gay part that she has played, opposite Kerry Fox as her lover, Clodagh.
Sophie Ward as Aunt Eden in
A Dark Adapted Eye
Sophie Ward & Sheila Ruskin in
A Caribbean Mystery
Sophie Ward as Molly Kendal in
A Caribbean Mystery
Kerry Fox & Sophie Ward in A Village Affair
Later TV roles have included Rosemary in 9 episodes of Dinotopia (2002); Dr Helen Trent in 40 episodes of Heartbeat (2004-06); Sophia Byrne in 4 episodes of Holby City (2008-09) and Lady Ellen Hoxley in 4 episodes of Land Girls (2009).
Sophie Ward's lesbian interview
Sophie Ward as Dr Helen Trent in Heartbeat
In 1988, Sophie Ward married veterinary surgeon Paul Hobson and had two sons, Nathanial (b.1989) and Joshua (b. 1993). They divorced in 1996 after Sophie began a lesbian relationship with the Korean-American writer Rena Brannan, which led to considerable controversy at the time. Sophie met her through friends when she was in Los Angeles. They underwent a civil marriage ceremony in 2000, and have remained together since.
Sophie Ward & Lisa Zane in Dinotopia
Sophie with her two sons
Sophie Ward as Lady Ellen Hoxley in Land Girls
Sophie felt that the experience of making A Village Affair in 1995 helped to clarify her feelings. “It certainly made me more sure of what I already thought, which was that I probably was gay,” she says.
Publicity image for Land Girls
Rena Brannen & Sophie Ward
Sophie Ward has signed this photograph to me
It shows her in a scene from Wuthering Heights
With Sophie, Christopher Cazenove & Liza Goddard at Nottingham's Theatre Royal
Sophie signed my programme
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