Alison Rosalind Bracknell (12 July 1964 – 15 September 2019), known professionally as Leah Bracknell, was an English actress who played the role of

Zoe Tate Zoe Tate is a fictional character from the British soap opera ''Emmerdale'', played by Leah Bracknell. She made her first screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 12 December 1989. Zoe was involved in many major storylines during her t ...

in the ITV soap opera ''

Emmerdale ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British soap opera that is broadcast on ITV1. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, ...

'' (1989–2005), for which she was nominated for the 2002 National Television Award for Most Popular Actress and won the 2006 British Soap Award for Best Exit. She was also a qualified teacher with the British School of Yoga and designed and produced a jewellery line.

Early life

Born in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

, London, Bracknell was the daughter of English television director David Ian Bracknell (1932–1987) and Chinese-Malaysian actress Li-Er Hwang. Her parents met while filming ''

The World of Suzie Wong ''The World of Suzie Wong'' is a 1957 novel by British writer Richard Mason. The main characters are Robert Lomax, a young British artist living in Hong Kong, and Suzie Wong, the title character, a Chinese woman who works as a prostitute. ...

'' in Hong Kong in 1959. David was an assistant director and Li-Er played the part of "Wednesday Lu" in the film. The adopted name "Leah" is an anglicization of her mother's name "Li-Er". Bracknell grew up in London and

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and spent a year in New Zealand and

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consis ...

Career

Bracknell first appeared on the TV series ''The Chiffy Kids'' in 1976, which was directed by her father, David. Within two years of leaving the

Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art Webber may refer to: * Webber, Kansas, a US city *Webber Township, Jefferson County, Illinois, USA *Webber Township, Lake County, Michigan, USA *Webber International University, in Babson Park, Florida, USA *Webber (surname) Webber (/ˈwɛbər/) ...

she was cast in the

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...

soap opera, ''

'' playing the role of vet and land owner,

. She appeared in the programme for 16 years (with breaks, including two spells of maternity leave) until leaving the series in 2005. She was initially due to leave the series for only nine months, but did not return. The character was the first lesbian in a British soap and at the time was one of the longest-featured gay characters on television. After leaving ''Emmerdale'', she returned to the theatre and appeared as Mrs Manningham in ''Gaslight'' and ''Strangers on a Train''. In 2008, she joined the touring Theatreworks production of '' Turn of the Screw'' to play the lead role, that of the governess. She also appeared in the TV dramas ''

Judge John Deed ''Judge John Deed'' is a British legal drama television series produced by the BBC in association with One-Eyed Dog for BBC One. It was created by G.F. Newman and stars Martin Shaw as Mr Justice Deed, a High Court judge who tries to seek real ...

'', ''

Casualty 1907 ''Casualty 1900s'', broadcast in the U.S. as ''London Hospital'', is a British hospital drama inspired by but otherwise unrelated to BBC One drama ''Casualty''. It places the viewer in the Receiving Room of the London Hospital, in London's E ...

'' and in the daytime soap '' Doctors''. In June 2007, she joined the cast of ITV1 daytime soap ''

The Royal Today ''The Royal Today'' is a British medical soap opera, and a spin-off of the similarly themed drama, ''The Royal ''The Royal'' is a British period medical drama, produced by Yorkshire Television (later part of ITV Studios), and broadcast o ...

'' as Matron Jenny Carrington. Bracknell won the 'Best Exit' award at the

British Soap Awards The British Soap Awards (BSAs) are an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom which honours the best moments in British soap operas. The ceremony is televised on ITV and has been presented by Phillip Schofield since 2006. The trophies gi ...

in May 2006 for her exit from the role of Zoe Tate. In 2002, she was nominated for 'Most Popular Actress' at the

National Television Awards The National Television Awards (often shortened to NTAs) is a British television awards ceremony, broadcast by the ITV network and initiated in 1995. The National Television Awards are the most prominent ceremony for which the results are vot ...

and "Best Dramatic Performance" at the British Soap Awards.

Personal life

Bracknell had two children, and lived her final years in

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Ho ...

, Sussex. She taught

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...

and

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...

in Baildon, Bradford, after leaving ''Emmerdale''. In October 2016, Bracknell announced she had been diagnosed with stage 4 terminal lung cancer. A fundraising appeal to pay for experimental treatment in Germany reached its target of £50,000 within three days. She appeared on '' This Morning'' and ''

Loose Women ''Loose Women'' (previously known as ''Live Talk'' from 2000 to 2001) is a British talk show that broadcasts on ITV1 weekdays from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm. The show focuses on a panel of four female presenters who interview celebrities, talk about ...

'' to talk about her cancer and determination to fight it. She married her longtime partner Jez Hughes in 2017. In August 2019, Bracknell said she was in an immunotherapy clinical trial. She died on 15 September 2019 at the age of 55, which was announced on 16 October.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bracknell, Leah 1964 births 2019 deaths 20th-century English actresses 21st-century English actresses Actresses from London Alumni of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art British actresses of Chinese descent British expatriate actresses in New Zealand Deaths from lung cancer in England English child actresses English expatriates in Fiji English expatriates in New Zealand English people of Chinese descent English people of Malaysian descent English soap opera actresses English stage actresses English television actresses People from Westminster British yoga teachers