Many Lives

Stephanie Beacham is one of the leading actors of her generation. In the course of a career which spans over 40 years, the RADA trained actress has treaded the boards of some of the most prestigious theatres in the world from the National Theatre to Broadway, made countless appearances on television in much loved series such as Tenko, Connie, Bad Girls and Coronation Street and starred in feature films alongside some of the greatest actors of their time such as Marlon Brando and Ava Gardner. But it was in her incarnation as the smouldering super-bitch Sable Colby in the long-running blockbuster soap of eighties Dynasty that Stephanie will perhaps be best remembered. It was a role that would bring the celebrated beauty both worldwide fame and awards and would earn her a fortune. Stephanie’s life has not always been glamour and glitz – for all the highs, she has had her low moments too as she reveals in this extraordinarily candid but heart-warming memoir. Born with just 40% hearing the young Stephanie would have to overcome her deafness to face the world and make it in a profession where hearing meant everything. She would struggle as a young actress, would go through the pain and the heartache of a divorce, raise her children as a single-parent, as well as overcoming a health scare which nearly killed her in her mid-thirties. And it would be this near death experience that would send Stephanie on what she describes as a 'spiritual adventure' to arm her with both the tools and knowledge she believes she needed to propel her through the rest of her life.