Kendall, Suzy: The leggy Blonde from Belper

Belper-born actress Suzy Kendal with her mother, Geraldine Harrison

Remember Suzy Kendall? She was the stunning beauty who was hardly out of the newspapers in the 1960s and 70s, when her career as a model and actress put her near the top of what would have been today’s celebrity ‘A’ list.

Not a bad achievement for the willowy girl from Belper, though one she would probably have hated.

In 1967, less than 18 months after she burst onto the film world “with the brilliance of a starshell”, she was named as one of Britain’s most sought-after young actresses.

For more than a decade newspapers followed her career, among them the Evening Telegraph, which has always been proud of local talent. She invariably got a mention when that other well-known product of Belper – Alan Bates – was in the news.

Suzy was a photographic model for a time and was dubbed in the papers as the “model turned actress”. Her photographs had appeared in countless magazines and newspapers before she took regular parts in television series and went on to star in a number of films.

When she fell in love and married the comedian, Dudley Moore, she moved into the glitterati world of regularly jetting across the Atlantic between London and Hollywood.

Even her mother, Geraldine Harrison, did not know of the marriage until after the Hampstead Register office ceremony. Moore, then 31, had met Suzy three years earlier at London’s Cool Elephant Club.

It was a busy and lively time in her life but the relationship foundered and, three years later, the couple split up, though it was an amicable arrangement which saw them remain friends right up to his death.

Fame never turned Suzy’s head. She stayed close to her roots and her family, with few ambitions other than to be good at whatever she did and happy in her personal life.

She must have had agents and publicists during the decade when she was at the height of her career, yet they rarely distributed information about what she was doing or events she attended.

There was, of course, publicity for her films, her big break coming in 1966 when she was cast in the spy thriller, The Liquidator.

The next year she gained international renown for her role in To Sir With Love, co-starring with Sydney Poitier. Then there was Circus Affair with Christopher Lee, The Penthouse, Thirty is a Dangerous Age, when she starred opposite Dudley Moore, and one of her biggest screen roles as Polly in Up the Junction with Maureen Lipman, Hylda Baker and Alfie Bass.

But her private life, especially after the split with Moore in 1971, always remained that way – very private.

Her second marriage to City coffee trader, Sandy Harper, brought the baby she had always wanted and she moved on to enjoying motherhood, devoting most of her time and efforts to caring for her daughter, Elodie.

For a while, she and model friend Pat Wellington ran a successful business venture making herbal and natural cosmetics, and wrote a book together revealing some of their beauty secrets.

Born in Belper, Suzy attended Belper Convent School and then went on to study painting and design at Derby and District College of Art. She worked for a time as a fabric designer at British Celanese and then became a photographic model

Her late mother moved to Derby with her stepfather, Leonard Harrison, in the 1960s and Suzy used to make regular trips to the city to visit them.

Members of her family still live locally and are in constant touch but they are as protective of her private life as she is.

They are happy to reveal that Suzy enjoys a happy life and is very proud of Elodie, who won a first at Oxford, went into journalism and now works in radio.

But they prefer not to add any detail.

“Her daughter is the most important thing in her life. She is quite happy to be a very loving mum,” said niece, Jane Perera.

The former actress lives quietly in London where her good looks and lively personality still turn heads, though few would ever believe that she now qualifies for a bus pass.

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