Judi Bowker

When Judi Bowker was just two years old, her family moved to Zambia, then a British colony known as British Rhodesia, where they remained for eight years. During that time, the young girl was trained in painting, horse-riding, and ballet, but acting soon emerged as her true passion. When the family returned home, Bowker was determined to become a professional actress. Enter Italian director Franco Zeffirelli, who had experienced enormous success with casting young unknowns in his 1968 adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet" and decided to repeat the experiment in his 1972 dramatization of the life of St. Francis of Assisi, "Brother Sun, Sister Moon." Co-starring with the equally inexperienced Graham Faulkner (who played St. Francis), Bowker made her screen debut as Francis' disciple Clare, who abandons her rich family to help care for lepers. The prominent part led her straight to British television, which would consume most of her screen career. While she was best known to American audiences for her role as Princess Andromeda in 1981's fantasy "Clash Of The Titans," in England she was more famous as a mainstay of British television productions. After marrying actor and playwright Harry Meacher, the two co-founded the Pilgrim Theatre Company in 1991. Her television and film appearances are now few and far between, as Bowker has concentrated since then on her theatrical career.