Linda Bassett(I)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Linda Bassett was born in the Kentish village of Pluckley - location
for the television series
The Darling Buds of May (1991).
She was brought up in Pimlico, South London, by her typist mother and
police officer father. She became interested in acting as a child when
she was frequently taken to see plays in London, most notably at the
Old Vic, the famous classical theater. On leaving school, Linda went to
work at the Old Vic as an usherette and catering manager, before going
to read English at Leeds University. However, she dropped out after a
year and became involved in a local drama group which put on plays in
community-based locations, such as schools. She regards this as her
theatrical schooling, having had no formal training. She made her
London stage debut at the age of thirty-two in 1982 and, in 1991, she
joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. Although she was a well-regarded
stage performer, it was the 1999 film version of the play
East Is East (1999) (in which she
had been an original stage cast member) which brought her to a larger
audience and, throughout the 2000s, she has been a familiar face in a
variety of films and television series. In the late 1980s, she returned
to live in Pluckley.
