Profile of Geraldine Somerville on Famous Like Me

Geraldine Margaret Agnew-Somerville is a British actress. She is the daughter of Sir Quentin Agnew-Somerville, 2nd Baronet and The Hon. Lady Agnew-Somerville.

Somerville is the daughter of a retired financial expert and an antique dealer in County Meath, Ireland. Her mother is a daughter of John Drummond, 15th Baron Strange and sister of the late Cherry Drummond, 16th Baroness Strange. She went to dance classes from the age of six and, at eight, was sent to a boarding school in Tring, Hertfordshire. There she was taught ballet. She left at 16, but continued her studies in London and ended up at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (1989) in London. She was virtually unknown as an actress. She spent three years there, where she always seemed to play old ladies. She did some stage work and appeared on TV in episodes of Agatha Christie's Poirot and Casualty (1993) before landing the role of Penhaligon or Panhandle, in Cracker with Robbie Coltrane (Rubeus Hagrid in Harry Potter).

Somerville has never spoken about her noble family or the bloodline that links her with the Queen. She has dumped her double-barrelled surname and has kept quiet about the regal roll of honour that marks her family tree. She is descended from past Kings of England, Scotland, and France; is a distant relation of the current British Royal Family; and has ancestors who once ruled the ancient kingdom of the Isle of Man, where her parents still live. Somerville's forebears must be proud to see her take acting honours in some of the most harrowing scenes ever screened on BBC TV. Her huge family house, Mount Auldyn, is in the quaint seaside port of Ramsey. Her mother runs her own exclusive antiques shop and Geraldine flew from her London home for the opening in 1995.

Geraldine Somerville has an elder sister, Amelia, 38, who runs a restaurant with her husband in the Australian rain forest, and a younger brother, Lockett, 34, who works in Hong Kong.

Somerville married William (Bill) Osbourne-Young in December of 1995 and has a son, Caspar William (born 2002).

She has recently played Lady Stockbridge in Julian Fellowes's Gosford Park and Harry Potter's mother Lily in all three Potter movies.

Credits

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Lily Potter)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Lily Potter)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Lily Potter)
• Gosford Park (Louisa Stockbridge)
• Cracker (DS Jane Penhaligon)

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