G < >

Mariah Gale
Michael Gambon
Romola Garai
Jimmy Gardner
William Gaskill
John Gay
Peter Geddis
Pam Gems
The General from America
Jean Genet
Michel de Ghelderode
Ghosts
John Gielgud
The Gift of the Gorgon
Alexandra Gilbreath
Peter Gill
Jean Giraudoux
Iain Glen
Robert Glenister
Jamie Glover
Julian Glover
The Glowing Manikin
God Bless
Derek Godfrey
Patrick Godfrey
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Nikolai Gogol
Golden Girls
Carlo Goldoni
Stella Gonet
Good
Buzz Goodbody
Henry Goodman
Goodnight Children Everywhere
Rupert Goold
Marius Goring
Maxim Gorky
Gordon Gostelow
Orlando Gough
The Government Inspector
Fraser Grace
Nickolas Grace
Michael Grandage
Harley Granville-Barker
Günter Grass
Trystan Gravelle
Simon Gray
Great Expectations
The Great White Hope
The Greeks
Graham Greene
Paul Greenwood
David Greig
Richard Griffiths
Trevor Griffiths
Pippa Guard
Vladimir Gubaryev
Peter Guinness
Mike Gwilym
Pippa Guard

Brought up in Canada, Pippa Guard returned to Britain to take up a place at RADA. On leaving the academy, she joined the RSC's exceptional 1976 Stratford company. Initially seen in minor parts—a Lady in Romeo and Juliet (Trevor Nunn/Barry Kyle); a Maid in the Donald Sinden/Judi Dench Much Ado About Nothing (John Barton); Mopsa in The Winter's Tale (Barton/Nunn); a Lady in Troilus and Cressida (Barton/Kyle); and Girl at The Porpentine in The Comedy of Errors (Nunn)—she quickly progressed to Luciana, succeeding Francesca Annis, in The Comedy of Errors (RST and Aldwych, 1977); Ursula in Much Ado (Aldwych, 1977); Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Barton/Gillian Lynne, RST and Aldwych, 1977, RST, 1978); and Evie in James Robson's Factory Birds (Bill Alexander, Warehouse, 1977).

A good foundation for a classical stage career, but Guard worked mostly in television for the next ten years: Maggie in The Mill on the Floss (1978); Barbara in The Mallens (ITV, 1978); Ava alongside Peter Firth and Caroline Langrishe in the memorable oddity The Flipside of Dominick Hide (Alan Gibson, 1981) and its sequel Another Flip for Dominick (1982); Prue in a high-class adaptation of To the Lighthouse (Colin Gregg, BBC, 1983); Edith Holden in The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady (ITV, 1984); and, for the BBC Shakespeare, Miranda to Michael Hordern's Prospero in The Tempest (John Gorrie, 1979), Diana in All's Well That Ends Well (Elijah Moshinsky, 1980) and Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Moshinsky, 1981). She played the lead, a young private investigator thrown into the deep end of a mystery, with some style in Christopher Petit's An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1981), but this was, and remains, an isolated role in features. At the National she played the title role in Antigone (John Burgess/Peter Gill, Cottesloe, 1984) and Fay in Ayckbourn's A Chorus of Disapproval (Lyric, 1986).

She returned to the RSC for the 1987/88 season: Mistress Bonavent in Hyde Park (Barry Kyle, Swan, Pit); Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice (Bill Alexander, RST, Barbican); Maria in Twelfth Night (Alexander, RST, Barbican); and Natasha in John Barton's production of Three Sisters (Barbican). She was unfortunate to miss out on the leading roles of Portia, Olivia and Olga. She was outstanding as Rose in Doris Lessing's In Pursuit of the English (Matthew Francis, Lyric Studio, 1990), and as Katherine Uruhart in the RSC's adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Peter Wood, Barbican, 1991).

Screen appearances since 1990: Ronald Pickup's American secretary, an exceptional black comedy performance, in The Riff Raff Element (BBC, 1993); India Wilkes in Scarlett (1994); Daisies in December (Mark Haber, ITV, 1995); All or Nothing At All (ITV, 1993); John Sullivan's Roger Roger (BBC, 1996, 1998); Gobble (BBC, 1997); the situation comedy The Creatives (BBC, 1998); Hope and Glory (BBC, 1999); Hearts and Bones (BBC, 2000); and Dalziel and Pascoe (BBC, 2002).
Actress, b. Edinburgh, 1952
Education: RADA
RSC: Joined 1976
Seasons: 1976/77 (Strat.)-77 (Lond.); 1978 (Strat.); 1987 (Strat.)-88 (Lond.); 1991 (Lond.)
     
    TOP
     
    A Dictionary of the Royal Shakespeare Company by Simon Trowbridge | Copyright © Simon Trowbridge, 2003-04 | HOME