Hannah
Campbell Grant Gordon
Born
April 9th, 1941, Edinburgh, Scotland
Daughter
of William Munro Gordon and Hannah Grant Gordon. Orphaned
at the age of 11 when her father died of Parkinson's disease,
her mother having unfortunately died of a heart attack two
years previously at the early age of 45.
Attended
St. Denis School for Girls, Edinburgh, and later the Glasgow
College of Music & Dramatic Art where she was the winner
of the James Bridie Gold Medal for the most promising student
in 1962. Ms. Gordon is a Fellow of the Royal Scottish Academy
of Music & Drama and holds the Honorary Degree of Doctor
of Letters from the University of Glasgow.
Married
to Norman Warwick BSC from February 5th, 1970 until his
death from cancer at age 74, on August 24th, 1994. They
met during the filming of "Spring and Port Wine",
where he was Director of Photography on the production,
and were wed 6 months later, two weeks before the London
premier of the film.
One
son, Ben Warwick born July 1973, who is an actor like his
mother.
Although diminutive of stature, Miss Gordon is a huge talent,
gifted at both comedy and drama. I first became a fan of
hers when I saw her as "Virginia Hamilton Bellamy"
in "Upstairs Downstairs". It's a character
I still very much love, and one I often revisit. Other notable
performances that especially make my heart sing are, '"Florence
Crompton" in "Spring and Port Wine",
"Sarah Alwyn in two episodes of "Hadleigh"
, "Sylvia Telford" in "Telford's
Change", "Belinda Braithwaite"
in "Joint Account" , "Anne Treves"
in "The Elephant Man" and her magnificently
sensitive portrayal of "Edith Harnham"
in "Day After the Fair", based on a Thomas Hardy
short story called "On the Western Circuit"
and specially commissioned for her. Truthfully, I haven't
yet seen a performance of hers that I didn't like.
Miss
Gordon has also done a truly staggering amount of voice
work, everything from animated features such as "Watership
Down", to a plethora of radio plays. Her "Hedda
Gabler" is amazing, and her "Heloise"
from the 1974 production of "Abelard and Heloise"
with Richard Briers is nothing short of mind blowingly
incredible. She's been the reader on a multitude of audiobooks,
everything from the classics and children's books to recent
popular literature, and various selections of poetry and
prose. Especially worth noting, in my opinion, are her readings
of the works of Lillian Beckworth, Miss Gordon's soft Scottish
lilt fits so beautifully with these Hebridean tales. I'm
continually amazed by the variety of accents she commands,
and how much depth and range of emotion she can convey with
only her voice to work with. A voice smooth and rich and
warm, full of honey and caramel and spice.
I
consider myself very fortunate to have seen and heard as
much of her work as I have, and always look forward to experiencing
more of it. Whether it is finding an old treasure that is
simply new to me, or viewing for the first time recent work
that she has done, it's always a delight. Miss Gordon's
fans have been blessed in the last year with Hannah in two
new TV episodes, from the series "Moving On" and
"Hustle", and the announcement that her episode
of "Love Story" from 1966 is one of the ones being
released on DVD in the fall of 2011 (mine's already pre-ordered).
There
are two flowers named in honour of Miss Gordon. The first
is a peach coloured dahlia introduced by Crutchfield in
1972. The second the well known Hannah Gordon floribunda
rose bred by Kordes of Germany in 1983. The petals are primarily
blush with a decoration of cherry pink along their edges.
Beautiful flowers aptly named for a very beautiful lady.
as
"Sylvia Telford" from "Telford's
Change" 
as
"Ophelia" in the 
as
"Belinda Braithwaite" from "Joint
Account"
as
"Doris" from "Tire a part"