Suzanne Danielle

Career

Danielle trained as a dancer at the Bush Davies School of Theatre Arts in Romford, Essex, which was her home town, and also went to the Bedfords Park Community School in Straight Road, Harold Hill. At the age of 16, she appeared in the West End musical Billy (1974), starring Michael Crawford. As a result of that, she was invited to appear as a dancer on a Bruce Forsyth show called Bruce and More Girls. An admirer of Cyd Charisse, after leaving school Danielle joined a dance group called The Younger Generation.

Screen

Danielle's first screen role as an actress was as "Pretty Girl" in an episode of The Professionals (Killer With A Long Arm), broadcast in January 1978. Her first film role was in The Wild Geese (1978), but her first credited part, in the same year, was for Carry On Emmannuelle, the last film in the original Carry On... series. One reviewer commented "Many of the stalwarts are featured but, apart from Kenneth Williams, they are reduced to support for the eponymous heroine in the athletic and long-legged person of Suzanne Danielle". In Arabian Adventure (1979) she plays a dancer and does a belly dance for Christopher Lee's Caliph. Her last film was The Trouble with Spies (1987) but filmed in 1984, in which she played opposite Donald Sutherland and Michael Hordern.

Television

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Danielle was reported to have "the monopoly on attractive, promiscuous good-time girls". Between 1979 and 1983, she was a regular face on British television. She was a team member on the TV game show Give Us a Clue and appeared in many other light entertainment shows including the Christmas 1984 edition of Blankety Blank. As an actress, she appeared in Doctor Who in the story Destiny of the Daleks, Hammer House of Horror, Morecambe and Wise, Tales of the Unexpected and became a frequent contributor to the Mike Yarwood series on ITV during the early 1980s, portraying Diana, Princess of Wales, opposite Yarwood's impersonation of Prince Charles.

Theatre

In 1982, she took to the theatre, in a touring production of John Murray's two person comedy The Monkey Walk, opposite Patrick Mower. This travelled as far afield as Singapore and New Zealand. In 1983, she starred in an exercise instruction album on vinyl and cassette, in the Shape Up and Dance series. In 1985, Danielle played the lead in a Christmas pantomime of Jack and the Beanstalk at Richmond, Surrey, supported by Jimmy Edwards, Kenneth Connor and Joan Sims.

Private life

For seven years, Danielle was the girlfriend of the actor Patrick Mower. In 1986, she met the golfer Sam Torrance, who proposed to her in 1987 on a Concorde flight on the way to play in the Ryder Cup in Columbus, Ohio. They got married in 1995, a surprise marriage that was arranged at Skibo Castle. She and Torrance have three children..

Television