Jenny Agutter, who was born on 20 December 1952 in Taunton, Somerset, is a BAFTA and Emmy award-winning English actress. She is born to Catherine and Derek Brodie Agutter and her father is a former British Army officer and live entertainment organizer. On 4 August 1990, Jenny Agutter married Johan Tham, a Swedish hotelier, and gave birth to a son, Jonathan, on 25 December 1990. Jenny Agutter spent her childhood in Dhekelia, Cyprus and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She was greatly interested in learning ballet and so, she joined Elmhurst Ballet School, England. In 1964, at the age of eleven, she was spotted by a casting agent and this led to her first break in the film industry through the film East of Sudan. Since then she has acted in several films and television series.
Jenny Agutter made her cameo appearance in small screen by playing the role of Roberta in the BBC drama The Railway Children. Later, after acting in the film, I Start Counting in 1969, Jenny Agutter was offered the same role in the movie version of Lionel Jeffries's The Railway Children in 1970. In 1971, her impressive acting in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production The Snow Goose television series as Fritha, earned her an Emmy award. The same year, Jenny Agutter played the role of a teenage schoolgirl in the film Walkabout. To improve her acting skills, she joined the National Theatre at the age of twenty-one, where she played the character of Miranda in Sir Peter Hall’s production of The Tempest with Sir John Gielgud. Owing to her impressive acting skills, MGM offered her the lead role in Logan’s Run in 1976. In 1977, her acting in the film Equus was highly appreciated and she won a British Academy Award for the same. Jenny Agutter also gave memorable performances in films like The Eagle Has Landed, An American Werewolf in London and Sweet William.
Jenny Agutter continued her career in theatre and performed in several stage shows, including Royal Shakespeare Company’s King Lear, Edward Bond’s Lear and Elizabethan thriller's Arden of Faversham. Jenny Agutter also performed in plays like Breaking the Silence and Breaking the Code. In 1995, Jenny Agutter played the role of Princess of France in the play Love’s Labour's Lost and the role of Mrs Darling in the Royal National Theatre production of Peter Pan. Jenny Agutter made several appearances in television programmes like TECX, The All New Alexei Sayle Show and And The Beat Goes On. In 2002, Jenny Agutter again appeared in the television series The Railway Children, this time taking up the role of the mother. The same year, she appeared in the BBC television series Spooks and starred in the opening episode of David Jason's ITV series Diamond Geezer. In 2007, Jenny Agutter made a guest appearance in the Doctor Who audio drama The Bride of Peladon. She has also acted in the BBC television series The Invisibles.
Jenny Agutter has a keen interest in photography and has published a book of photographs and words titled Snap in 1983, containing her personal views of Los Angeles and London. She also published several audio recording books like Music and Silence, Bad Blood, I Capture the Castle and The Secret Garden, for which she won the Spoken Word Award under the Best Children’s Book category. Jenny Agutter is involved in various charities like Cystic Fibrosis Trust, an association that raises funds for research into the disease and provides information and support for patients and families, the Diabetic Association and NCH Action for Children, a charity that provides shelter for homeless children.
