Jill Townsend is an Anglo-American actress best known for her roles as Elizabeth Chynoweth in ''
Poldark'' and Dulcey Coopersmith in the 1967 western television series ''
Cimarron Strip
''Cimarron Strip'' is an American Western television series starring Stuart Whitman as Marshal Jim Crown. The series was produced by the creators of ''Gunsmoke'' and aired on CBS from September 1967 to March 1968. Reruns of the original show w ...
''.
Life and career
Townsend was born around 1945 in
Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
,
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. Her father,
Robert Townsend, a former head of
Avis, wrote the bestseller ''Up the Organization''. Her mother was the daughter of Frank Tours, a famous English-born musician and conductor whose credits include an association with Irving Berlin.
Townsend, who was a debutante, graduated in 1963 from The Master's School in Dobbs Ferry, New York. At that time, she moved to England where she had been accepted into the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...
.
After co-starring with
Nicol Williamson
Thomas Nicol Williamson (14 September 1936 – 16 December 2011) was a British actor. He was once described by playwright John Osborne as "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando". He was also described by Samuel Beckett as "touched by genius" an ...
in John Osborne's 1965 London stageplay ''
Inadmissible Evidence'', she became engaged to Williamson and lived with him for 21 months. However, due to his volatile personality, she temporarily split with him, at which time, she married actor Tom Sutton (68-69). After that brief marriage, she reunited with Williamson. They were married from 1971 to 1977. Their son Luke Williamson was born in 1973, but in 1976, she and Nicol Williamson parted temporarily after Townsend began a relationship with
Alan Price, her co-star in ''Alfie Darling''.
Townsend ended her acting career in 1985. She studied at the
London School of Journalism and worked as a journalist for the ''
Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...
'', contributing a page for the financial section. She moved back to the United States in 1989.
She worked as a council trainer and facilitator at
Crossroads School, Santa Monica, California and several other schools from 1989 to 1995.
She was on the Board of Directors at Leadership Directories, Inc. starting in 1993, but is no longer serving.
She is currently married to Bob Sorel, whom she wed in 1993.
Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
*
Living people
American expatriates in the United Kingdom
American television actresses
American film actresses
Alumni of the London School of Journalism
Actresses from Santa Monica, California
20th-century American actresses
American women journalists
Daily Mail journalists
21st-century American women
Year of birth missing (living people)
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