Jill Gascoine

• Name — Jill Gascoine • Birth Name — Jill Viola Gascoine • Born — 11 April 1937 • Birthplace — Lambeth, London, England • Died — 28 April 2020 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Occupation — Actress, novelist • Years Active — 1958–2009 • Children — 2

Gascoine was born 11 April 1937, in Lambeth, the daughter of Francis Gascoine, a quantity surveyor, and his wife Irene, née Greenwood. She was sent to a boarding school, which she said she hated, explaining later that she was ridiculed by schoolteachers. After leaving school, in the 1950s, she went to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to appear in a revue.

Early in her career in the 1950s, Gascoine was a soubrette in a Great Britain tour of the Crazy Gang Show. In 1956, she was a chorus dancer in the Christmas season of The Adventures of Davy Crockett starring Hermione Baddeley, at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin. Gascoine also worked alongside Victor Spinetti in a revue in the Irving Theatre, London. By 1959, Gascoine had taken over from Millicent Martin in a British tour of Expresso Bongo. Although in her twenties, Gascoine played one of the schoolgirls in the film The Pure Hell of St Trinian's (1960). While in Dundee, she appeared in productions of the Downfield Musical Societ, and joined the Dundee Repertory Theatre in 1963. From 1970 onwards, Gascoine began appearing on television in series such as Z-Cars, General Hospital, Rooms, Dixon of Dock Green, Softly, Softly: Taskforce, and Within These Walls. She had a part in the British sex-comedy Confessions of a Pop Performer (1975), and then had a main role playing Letty Gaunt in Series 4–7 of the BBC period drama The Onedin Line (1976–1979). She became very notable in 1980 when she took the lead role playing British television's first female detective, as DI Maggie Forbes in the ITV drama series The Gentle Touch. She continued to play Maggie Forbes in the more action-oriented spin-off series C.A.T.S. Eyes (1985-1987). She then appeared as Judy Schwartz, alongside John Thaw, in the final series of the sitcom Home to Roost (1989–1990), She starred opposite Richard Harris and Glenda Jackson in the film King of the Wind (1990). Further stage appearances included playing Dorothy Brock opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones in 42nd Street at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London and in the musical Destry playing Frenchie, the role played by Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again. After a high-profile career that had spanned over twenty years on British television, Gascoine and her second husband, actor Alfred Molina, moved to Los Angeles in the 1990s where she made appearances on US television in series such as Northern Exposure, and Touched by an Angel. Although still living in Los Angeles, she returned to the UK in 2008 to perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the play by Colette Freedman, Sister Cities at the Gilded Balloon Theatre. In October 2009, it was announced that Gascoine was joining the BBC One soap opera EastEnders. She was to play the role of Glenda Mitchell, former wife of Archie Mitchell and mother of Ronnie and Roxy, from early 2010. However, during her first day on set, she withdrew from her filming commitments, as she felt that she "lacked the right experience to film such a big continuing drama", so was replaced by Glynis Barber.

In the 1990s, Gascoine wrote her first novel about a successful television actress in her fifties who embarks on a destructive affair with a younger, half-English/half-Spanish actor in his thirties. Titled Addicted (1994), it is based on Gascoine's real-life second husband, Alfred Molina, an English actor of Italian/Spanish descent, who was 16 years her junior. Her second novel, titled Lilian (1995), is about a woman who begins a love affair while holidaying in California with her best friend. Her third novel, titled Just Like A Woman (1997), details the story of Daisy, a middle-aged woman who is being pressured by her family to have an abortion after she falls pregnant in her fifties.

Gascoine married twice. Her first husband was Dundee hotelier Bill Keith in 1965, with whom she had two sons. However, the marriage ended in 1972. Gascoine was then left to bring up her two sons alone and did not see Keith after they divorced. In 1982, she met actor Alfred Molina when they were both working in the same theatre production. They later married in Tower Hamlets, London, in 1986. Gascoine suffered from clinical depression for most of her life, which she believed stemmed from her unhappy time in a boarding school as a child. In 1997, Gascoine was diagnosed with kidney cancer, though the disease was detected early and she made a full recovery. In June 2013, Gascoine publicly revealed that she had Alzheimer's disease at a Beverly Hills gala which was set up to raise money to fight the disease. In August 2016 her husband Alfred Molina reported that she was "in a very advanced stage of Alzheimer's", and had been in a specialist care home in Los Angeles for more than two years, where she died on 28 April 2020, aged 83.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1958 — Theatre Night — Ensemble — Episode: "Expresso Bongo" • 1970 — Dr. Finlay's Casebook — Marion Bradley — Episode: "A Good Prospect" • 1973 — Z-Cars — Lucy Manning — Episode: "Operation Watchdog" • 1973 — Late Night Theatre — Fred — Episode: "Three Card Trick" • 1973 — Six Days of Justice — Miss Owen — Episodes: "A Regular Friend", "Stranger in Paradise" • 1973 — Oranges & Lemons — Charlotte — Episode: "The Trigger" • 1974 — Dixon of Dock Green — Lorna McDermot — Episode: "The Unwanted" • 1974 — A — Sister Ruth — Episode: "The Angels Want Me for a Sunbeam" • 1974 — Justice — Elizabeth Lee — Episode: "Growing Up" • 1974 — General Hospital — Michelle Hawkins — Episode: "1.177" • 1975 — Within These Walls — Irene — Episode: "Remand Wing" • 1975 — Softly, Softly: Task Force — Maggie Grant — Episode: "Grass" • 1975 — Prometheus: The Life of Balzac — Helene de Valette — Episode: "The Human Comedy" • 1975 — Beryl's Lot — Hilda Monks — Episode: "Safety First" • 1976 — Peter Pan — Wendy (adult) — TV film • 1976 — Plays for Britain — Marion — Episode: "Sunshine in Brixton" • 1976–1979 — The — Letty Onedin — Main role, 33 episodes • 1977 — Holding On — Betty — Episode: "1.4" • 1977 — Raffles — Dolly — Episode: "A Costume Piece" • 1977 — Rooms — Ruth Harris — TV series • 1978 — The — Mrs. Marigold — TV film • 1980–1984 — The — Maggie Forbes — Main role, 56 episodes • 1983 — The — Ilsa — Episode: "The Cannon & Ball Easter Show" • 1985–1987 — C.A.T.S. Eyes — Maggie Forbes — Main role, 30 episodes • 1989 — Home to Roost — Judy Schwartz — Episode: "Bridge of Sighs" • 1990 — Taggart — Jane Antrobus — Episode: "Evil Eye: Part 1" • 1991 — El C.I.D. — Sarah — Episode: "Thursday's Child" • 1991 — Boon — Jo Beckett — Episode: "The Night Before Christmas" • 1992 — Virtual Murder — Victoria Fleming — Episode: "A Dream of Dracula" • 1992 — Screen One — Vivien Empson — Episode: "Trust Me" • 1994 — Northern Exposure — Lady Ann — Episode: "Shofar, So Good" • 1998 — The — Mother Corrine — TV film • 1999 — Touched by an Angel — Ms. Piper — Episode: "Voice of an Angel"

The authorities additionally record the heading Jill Viola Gascoine. Her recorded language was English. She married Alfred Molina. One child is recorded: Adam Gascoine.