Mona Hammond

About Mona Hammond

Who is it?: Actress, Soundtrack
Birth Year: 1935

Mona Hammond

Mona Hammond was born on 1935, is Actress, Soundtrack. Mona Hammond was born Mavis Chin to a Chinese father and Jamaican mother. She came to Britain in 1959 on a scholarship to work with an architects firm but was soon involved in black theatre productions with contemporaries such as Lloyd and Barry Reckord and Charles Hyatt, under the name Mona Chin. In 1959 she won a scholarship to RADA. Initially known as a stage actress - she played Lady Macbeth in an all-black version of the Shakespeare play at London's Roundhouse in 1970 - she went to co-found the Talawa Theatre Group with fellow actresses Yvonne Brewster and Carmen Munroe. The group performs black versions of plays written for whites as well as staging original Afro-Caribbean productions. In 2005 she was awarded an O.B.E. for services to drama. Having played in the TV soap 'Eastenders' for some years she has a recurring occasional role as a white vicar's outspoken ex-mother-in-law in radio soap 'The Archers.'
Mona Hammond is a member of Actress

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Awards and nominations:

Hammond was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours List, for her services to drama in the UK. In 2006 Hammond was presented with the Edric Connor Inspiration Award - the Screen Nation Film and Television Awards' highest UK honour.

Biography/Timeline

1959

Hammond was born Mavis Chin to a Chinese father from Guangdong, and a Jamaican mother in Tweeside, Clarendon Parish. She moved to the United Kingdom in 1959 on a Jamaican Scholarship and worked for Norman and Dawbarn Architects. She attended evening classes at the City Literary Institute in London for two years and was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

1968

Hammond began her career on stage and made early appearances on television shows such as Softly, Softly (1968) and The Trouble Shooters (1969). Her first leading role was as Lady Macbeth at the Roundhouse in 1970 in Peter Coe's African version of the play. She went on to star in many plays by an array of up-and-coming black writers: Sweet Talk by Michael Abbensetts, 11 Josephine House by Alfred Fagon and several plays written by Mustapha Matura including As Time Goes By, Play Mas and Playboy of the West Indies. She also spent two years at the Royal National Theatre in productions including Fuente Ovejuna and Peer Gynt directed by Declan Donnellan, and The Crucible.

1976

Television work followed, which included roles in The Sweeney (1976); Wolcott (1980–81), a three-part ATV mini-series about a black detective based in East London; Black Silk (1985); Juliet Bravo (1985); Playboy of the West Indies (1985), Casualty (1986) and When Love Dies (1990).

1985

In 1985 Hammond along with Yvonne Brewster, Inigo Espejel and Carmen Munroe founded Talawa Theatre Company, which became one of the UK's most prominent black theatre companies. It has produced award-winning plays from and about the African diaspora and has championed reinterpretations of classical British pieces. Hammond performed in several of its productions including The Black Jacobins, The Importance of Being Earnest and King Lear.

1988

Hammond appeared as Shirley Armitage's mother, Velma, in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street in 1988.

1990

Hammond has played many roles in television sitcoms, including: Susu in Desmond's (1990–94) and its spin-off Porkpie (1995–96); Us Girls (1992–93), in which she played Grandma Pinnock; Chef! (1996), and Grandma Sylvie Headly in The Crouches (2003–05).

1994

Hammond has appeared in ITV's Coronation Street, twice, first playing the role of Jan Sargent and the second time playing Mrs Armitage, mother of Shirley Armitage. In 1994 she was cast as Blossom Jackson in BBC's EastEnders. She remained in the role until 1997. This was Hammond's second role in the soap, having previously played the minor part of Michelle Fowler's midwife in 1986.

1999

In 1999 she played the role of Nan in the children's TV series Pig-Heart Boy, based on a novel by Malorie Blackman. Hammond's other television credits include Making Out (1989); Trial & Retribution (1998) as Bibi Harrow: Sunburn (1999); Storm Damage (2000); The Bill (2001); Babyfather (2001); White Teeth (2002); A Touch of Frost (2003); Holby City (2001; 2005; 2011); Doctors (2006) and Death in Paradise (2011). She also appeared in the Doctor Who episode "Rise of the Cybermen" in 2006. Her film credits include Fords on Water (1983), Manderlay (2005) and Kinky Boots (2006). Hammond appeared in the 2008 movie 10,000 BC, directed by Roland Emmerich.

2005

Hammond was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours List, for her services to drama in the UK. In 2006 Hammond was presented with the Edric Connor Inspiration Award - the Screen Nation Film and Television Awards' highest UK honour.

2010

For a brief stint in October 2010, she reprised her role as Blossom Jackson in EastEnders: appearing in connection with screen great-grandson Billie Jackson's funeral, she returned with her on-screen grandson Alan Jackson.

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