Acting
Sep 11, 1957
Cornwell Manor, Cornwell, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, UK
Rachel Ward
Acting
Biography
Rachel Claire Ward (born September 12, 1957) is an English-Australian actress, film and television director, screenwriter, and former model who has primarily pursued her career in Australia. During her modelling career, she was featured on the covers of Vogue, Harper's & Queen, and Cosmopolitan magazines. After moving to the United States in 1977, she appeared in television advertisements such as the Lincoln Mercury "Cougar Girl" and Revlon's "Scoundrel Girl". In 1981, she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for "New Star of the Year" for her role in the film Sharky's Machine starring with Burt Reynolds. The following year, she starred in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid with Steve Martin. Her big break came in 1983, when she starred opposite Richard Chamberlain as the lead role portraying Meggie Cleary in the television miniseries The Thorn Birds, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film. Also in 1983, U.S. audiences voted Ward one of the world's 10 most beautiful women. In 1984, she played Jess in the film noir remake Against All Odds, with Jeff Bridges. After filming Fortress in 1985, she then disappeared from film for a few years to study acting. In 2001, she was again nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film for her role in On the Beach (2000). Also in 2001, she won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Short Fiction Film for The Big House, and Best Australian Film at Flickerfest. The film also won the Film Critics Circle of Australia award, as did her 2003 film Martha's New Coat — which also won the 2003 ATOM Award. In 2005, she was made a Member of the Order of Australia "for service to raising awareness of social justice through lobbying, mentoring and advocacy for the rights of disadvantaged and at-risk young people, and support for the Australian film and television industry". In 2009, she directed her first feature-length film titled Beautiful Kate, adapted by Ward from a 1982 Newton Thornburg novel, and premiered at the Sydney Film Festival. She has been married to the Australian actor Bryan Brown since 1983. They have three children: Rosie, Matilda, and Joe. Matilda Brown is an actress, writer and director.
Feature Films (30)
A group of friends head out for what is expected to be a vacation of hiking, camping and a good time, but when a backwoods mama finds them on her turf, it becomes anything but a vacation.
The Final Terror
Terry Brogan, a cynical former football star, is hired to find Jessie Wyler, the runaway mistress of ruthless LA nightclub owner Jake Wise. But trouble brews when he tracks down and falls in love with the beautiful Jessie on a Mexican island—and Jake dispatches his henchman to bring the lovers back.
Against All Odds
The world has finally managed to blow itself up and only Australia has been spared from nuclear destruction and a gigantic wave of radiation is floating in on the breezes. One American sub located in the Pacific has survived and is met with disdain by the Australians. The calculations of Australia's most renowned scientist says the country is doomed. However, one of his rivals says that he is wrong. He believes that 1000 people can be relocated to the northern hemisphere, where his assumptions indicate the radiation levels may be lower. The American Captain is asked to take a mission to the north to determine which scientist is right.
On the Beach
Three desperados try to kidnap a wealthy child in hope of turning their lives around.
After Dark, My Sweet
Juliet Forrest is convinced that the reported death of her father in a mountain car crash was no accident. Her father was a prominent cheese scientist working on a secret recipe. To prove it was murder, she enlists the services of private eye Rigby Reardon. He finds a slip of paper containing a list of people who are 'The Friends and Enemies of Carlotta'.
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
Television & Series (12)
The saga of a wealthy Denver family in the oil business: Blake Carrington, the patriarch; Krystle, his former secretary and wife; his children: Adam, lost in childhood after a kidnapping; Fallon, pampered and spoiled; Steven, openly gay; and Amanda, hidden from him by his ex-wife, the conniving Alexis. Most of the show features the conflict between 2 large corporations, Blake's Denver Carrington and Alexis' ColbyCo.
Dynasty
Monarch Cove is a prime time telenovela that premiered on Lifetime Television on November 4, 2006. It ran for 14 episodes, ending on December 16, 2006.
Monarch Cove
Rain Shadow is an Australian television drama series which premiered on 7 October 2007 on ABC TV. It aired on Sundays at 8.30 pm. The six-part series was produced by Southern Star. Music from The Audreys features in the soundtrack for the show, including the main theme. Rain Shadow was shot in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia and is set in the fictional district of Paringa, a dry land farming area in a rain shadow. It tells the story of two characters who become the means of each other's future. It stars Rachel Ward as district vet Kate McDonald and Victoria Thaine as new veterinary assistant Jill Blake.
Rain Shadow
Follows the Cleary family over several decades, focusing on the central, tragic romance between Meggie and Father Ralph, who is torn between his vows and his love for her.
The Thorn Birds
Thomas Linthorne is a farmer, who, with his bride, Kate, settles a parcel of untilled Midwestern farmland in 1866. Linthorne is a dynamic and driven man who eventually becomes a pillar of the close-knit community. But there are trials and tribulations that eventually plague his dreams of the perfect life he has tried to create for his family. Over the span of fifty years, the Linthorne family will weather more than their share of hardship that affects each of them in dramatic ways. The Linthorne saga, set against the daily rituals and chores of life on the land, reveals the determination, strength and indomitable spirit of the families who settled America.
