Actress Lou Gish Dies After Cancer Fight, Aged 35Date: 20 February 2006
Actress Lou Gish passed away in the early hours of this morning (Monday, 20 February 2006) after a long battle with cancer, at the age of 35. Her death comes less than a year after that of her mother, the actress Sheila Gish, who was also a cancer victim (See News, 11 Mar 2005).
The daughter of Sheila Gish and Roland Curram, Lou Gish (who previously acted under the name Curram) was born on 27 May 1970. She was raised in London and originally saw herself as an artist rather than an actress. She trained in Camberwell and went on to gain a BA Honours at the Camberwell School of Art. However, a role in a fringe play in Paddington saw her land an agent, and this convinced her to follow in thespian footsteps of her family (which also included her stepfather, actor-director Denis Lawson). Over the course of her career she appeared on both stage and screen.
Gish’s last stage appearance was last summer as a “deliciously malevolent Goneril” to David Warner’s Lear in Steven Pimlott’s production of King Lear at Chichester Festival Theatre, where she also appeared in the 1999 revival of Easy Virtue. In London, she was most recently seen in last year’s production of Tejas Verdes at the Gate, directed by Thea Sharrock.
Gish’s other stage credits included: Design for Living (Donmar Warehouse and West End), Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs (Hampstead and West End), Marlene (tour and West End), Les Parents Terribles (National), Look Back In Anger (Bristol Old Vic), The Duchess of Malfi (Salisbury Playhouse), The Talented Mr Ripley (Palace Theatre, Watford), The Slow Approach of Night (Arts Threshold Theatre) and Forget Herostratus (White Bear).
On film, Gish appeared in Bent for Channel 4 Films and Eight for Eight Thirty for NFTS, which won three 1994 Short Film Festival Awards. On television, she has been seen in Wire in the Blood, Without Motive and The Vice for ITV, Coupling and Hope and Glory for the BBC, Microsoap for the BBC and Disney (which won the 1999 BAFTA and RTS award for Best Children’s Drama Series), Holding the Baby II for Granada, Game On for Hatrick and the BBC and Dead at Thirty for Channel 4. She has also had roles in EastEnders, New Tricks, Casualty, The Playground, Doctors and Shadow Play and, on radio, in I’ll Find You and Les Parents Terribles.
Her agent, Peter Brooks of CAM, told Whatsonstage.com today: “Speaking for myself and all at CAM, we are desperately sad today.” Alan Finch, executive director of Chichester Festival Theatre, added: "We are shocked and saddened by Lou’s death. She was a wonderful actress and was tremendously brave, returning to Chichester to perform in King Lear last summer after the then recent death of her mother. Our thoughts are with her family at this sad time."
- by Caroline Ansdell
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