Born: 7th November 1950 (as Lindsay Vere Duncan)
Episodes Broadcast: 2009

Lindsay Duncan was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and moved with her family to Leeds, West Yorkshire and then Birmingham, West Midlands while she was still a child. She began acting in school plays but, lacking any knowledge of the route to obtain formal performance training, she then worked odd jobs as a bartender and a bus driver. Duncan finally gained admission to the Central School of Speech and Drama when she was twenty-one. After graduating, she made her on-screen debut in the 1975 telefilm Further Up Pompeii!. Duncan chiefly concentrated on the stage, but other television credits during the Seventies included episodes of One-Upmanship and The New Avengers.

Duncan's stage work was gaining increasing notice and, in 1982, she appeared in a production of Top Girls at the Royal Court which eventually shifted venues to New York City. Around the same time, she could be seen in shows like Muck And Brass and Travelling Man, as well as her first film, 1983's Loose Connections. In 1985, Duncan joined the Royal Shakespeare Company where her work in Les liaisons dangereuses garnered enormous praise. She also met fellow actor Hilton McRae; they would later marry and have a son, Cal, born in 1991. Les liaisons dangereuses transferred to London in 1986 and then Broadway in 1987, with Duncan winning an Olivier Award and gaining a Tony Award nomination. However, she was not invited to appear in the 1988 film version -- made under the Anglicised title Dangerous Liaisons -- for which Duncan's role was instead played by Glenn Close. Meanwhile, she was continuing to earn occasional credits on television, such as Dead Head, Kit Curran and Traffik.

At the behest of her son, Duncan voiced a droid in Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Duncan's television work during the Nineties included GBH, A Year In Provence, Get Real and a 1999 adaptation of Oliver Twist. Her movie roles also became more prominent, encompassing the horror film Body Parts, the Al Pacino drama City Hall, and the Jane Austen adaptation Mansfield Park. At the behest of her son, she even voiced a droid in Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Duncan rejoined the RSC in 1994, although back discomfort forced her to drop out partway through an American tour.

After the turn of the century, Duncan won both an Olivier Award and a Tony Award for her performance in Private Lives opposite Alan Rickman. She had a regular role in Rome, while amongst her other television appearances were Spooks, Criminal Justice and Lost In Austen. On the silver screen, Duncan had a rare opportunity to use her Scottish accent in AfterLife; she could also be seen with Diane Lane in Under The Tuscan Sun and had a supporting role in Starter For 10. She joined Doctor Who in 2009, co-starring opposite the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant, as Captain Adelaide Brooke in the chilling The Waters Of Mars. The same year, Duncan was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to drama.

Duncan's television roles during the 2010s included everything from You, Me & Them to The Honourable Woman to Sherlock to A Discovery Of Witches. At the cinema, she appeared in Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland and its sequel, the time travel romance About Time, and Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Duncan's career continued into the Twenties, and included an appearance alongside Tennant in the 2021 adaptation of Around The World In 80 Days, plus episodes of Inside No. 9 and Sherwood.