| Biography |
Gabrielle Drake was born in Lahore, Pakistan, the daughter of a British engineer who was building a sawmill there at the time. The family returned to England when Gabrielle was eight years old and she was educated at the Wycombe Abbey School for Girls. After leaving school, she spent some time in Paris as an au pair girl looking after a family with four children. She then trained for two years at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts before joining a group of other recently graduated students to form the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool.
Gabrielle stayed at the Everyman for three years and then became the youngest acting member during the reopening season of the famed Malvern Theatre Company. Later she joined the Birmingham Repertory Company and perfected her craft in seasons at Manchester's Royal Exchange, the Bristol Old Vic, the New Shakespeare Company and The Young Vic in productions as diverse as "The Cherry Orchard", "Titus Andronicus", "A Phoenix Too Frequent" and "Comedy of Errors".
Gabrielle made her television debut as a bio-chemist in "Intrigue (1966)" and then guested alongside Ronnie Barker in "The Hidden Tiger", an episode of "The Avengers (1961)". She went on to appear in guest roles in "Coronation Street (1960)", "The Saint (1962)", "The Champions (1968)", "Journey to the Unknown (1968)", and "Virgin of the Secret Service (1968)" before landing the role of Moonbase Commander Lt. Gay Ellis in Gerry Anderson's U.F.O.. She made her feature film debut co-starring in "Crossplot (1969)" with Roger Moore and Francis Matthews, and also appeared with Bette Davis in "Connecting Rooms (1970)".
After completing work on UFO, Gabrielle appeared in a series of sex comedy films such as "There's a Girl in My Soup (1970)", "Suburban Wives (1971)", "Au Pair Girls (1972)", and "Commuter Husbands (1973)", but was also seen on television in episodes of "Special Branch (1969)", "The Adventurer (1972)", "The New Avengers (1976)", "The Professionals (1977)", and "Boon (1986)", and took regular roles in "The Brothers (1972)" (Jill Hammond), "Kelly Monteith (1979)", "Crossroads (1964)" (Nicola Freeman) and "Ffizz (1987)" (Mrs Gosling). More recently, she appeared as Diana Hardy in "Medics (1990)" and guest starred in an episode of the 2000/01 season of "Peak Practice (1993)", while on stage she has been seen in West End productions of "Noises Off", "Court in the Act", "Jeeves", "Present Laughter", and "Lady Windermere's Fan". |