Françoise Pascal

Françoise Pascal (born 14 October 1949) is a Mauritius-British actress, singer, dancer, fashion model, and producer. She appeared in numerous film and television productions at her peak throughout the late 1960s to early 1980s.

Early life

Pascal was born in Mauritius, then a colony of the United Kingdom, to Marcel and Claire Pascal, who were French citizens. She grew up with her parents and four siblings in Mauritius, until age 6 when her family moved to London. She also lived in Paris for some time where she attended La Sorbonne. Her father died when she was 14.

Career

Acting

Pascal's earliest films were Norman J. Warren's Loving Feeling and Pete Walker's School for Sex (both 1969), and she also appeared in a scene in Incense for the Damned (1970). She also played Paola in There's a Girl in My Soup (1970) with Peter Sellers. She also performed in Burke & Hare. (1972), playing Marie, and another Sellers film, Soft Beds, Hard Battles (1974).

After that appearance, she moved to France where she starred in such films as Et situ n'en Vex Pas (1974) and Les Raisins de la Mort (1978), directed by Jean Rollin. Later she returned to England to appear in Keep It Up Downstairs (1976) alongside Diana Dors, Jack Wild, and Mary Millington.

Her first television work came in October 1971 with a role in Coronation Street, playing Ray Langton's friend. Then came guest starring roles in an episode of Play of the Month for the BBC in "Don Quixote" (1973) with Rex Harrison and for ITV's Sunday Night Theatre "Giants & Ogres" (1971). She was cast in guest starring appearances in many television comedy series such as Happy Ever After (1976) with Terry Scott and June Whitfield, as well as My Honourable Mrs (1975) with Derek Nimmo for the BBC. She co-starred in an episode of the thriller You're on Your Own starring Denis Quilley, for the BBC.

She played Danielle Favre in the first three series of the ITV sitcom Mind Your Language (1977–79); she then took on her stage roles in Happy Birthday (reuniting with Frazer Hines), and starring in a pantomime of Aladdin. Pascal left for the United States in 1980, where she acted in Hollywood, returning to England in 1987.

In 2015, Pascal joined the cast for a new comedy series called For the Love of Ella. The series also starred Ewen Macintosh, Bobby Ball, Alex Reid, Daniel Peacock, Melanie Sykes, Darren Day, and Billy Pearce.^[1]

Pascal is set to appear in and produce her first film Cold Sun, directed by Jason Figgis and starring Tara Reid, Patrick Bergin, and Ian Ogilvy, through her own MFC Productions Ltd and Pascal Productions Ltd.^[2]

In recent years Pascal has introduced a regular music show on Radio Free Marseille.

Filmography

Film

Television

Discography

Personal life

Pascal had a child, Nicholas Johnson, with actor Richard Johnson in 1976 – the same year he divorced his third wife and married his fourth.^[6][7]

On 4 December 2010, she joined Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood at Claygate Village to turn on the village Christmas lights^[8] and sing a solo of "Silent Night".

In December 2012, Pascal took part in the ITV1 programme Storage Hoarders, in which she sorted and sold at auction some of her more valuable possessions which she had kept in storage for months.^[9]

One of Pascal's closest friends was British actress, Lynne Frederick. She first became acquainted with Frederick in 1972, when they co-starred on an episode of the television anthology series, BBC Play of the Month.^[10] The two actresses quickly became "firm friends"^[10] and frequently saw each other during the height of their careers in the 1970s. Pascal recalled that they regretfully lost contact in 1977 after Frederick married Peter Sellers.^[10] Frederick died in 1994. In April 2020, a few weeks before the 26th anniversary of Frederick's death, Pascal tweeted a photo of herself and Frederick, with the caption "I think of her very often! Always had that fresh baby face! RIP Lynne! Xxx".^[11]

References

1. ^ "For the Love of Ella (2015)". IMDb. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
2. ^ Yossman, K. J. (2022-02-09). "Tara Reid to Play MI6 Agent in British Spy Film 'Cold Sun' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 2023-07-07.
3. ^ "When It Comes to Love / Got It Badly by Françoise Pascal", retrieved 2020-10-08
4. ^ "Françoise Pascal - Woman Is Free". Discogs. Retrieved 2020-10-08.
5. ^ "Francoise Pascal* - I Can't Get Enough". Discogs. Retrieved 2020-10-08.
6. ^ Pendreigh, Brian (8 June 2015). "Obituary: Richard Johnson, actor". The Scotsman. Archived 10 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
7. ^ "Family Album". francoisepascal.co.uk. MFC Productions Ltd. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
8. ^ Luke Jacobs, "Ronnie Wood lights up Claygate for Christmas", Surrey News, 7 December 2010.
9. ^ "£62,000 to Store Antiques | Storage Hoarders", 7 February 2020, retrieved 29 May 2022
10. ^ Pascal, Francoise (13 April 2020). "We both worked in a BBC Play of the month called Summer and Smoke, we became firm friends. Then she met Peter S and she told me she was marrying Peter. I was happy for both of them. We lost touch and the last time I spoke to her is when Peter died. Never saw her again.". @fpascal. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
11. ^ Pascal, Francoise (13 April 2020). "I think of her very often! Always had that fresh baby face! RIP Lynne! Xxxpic.twitter.com/G7ckW91bgx". @fpascal. Retrieved 5 May 2020.

Further reading

• [http://francoisepascal.co.uk/as-i-am-autobiographyAs I Am] Archived 4 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Published by Pegasus Elliot McKenzie (2012)
• Sheridan, Simon. Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema (2011, fourth edition), Titan Publishing, London.

External links

• Françoise Pascal at IMDb