Fiona Richmond
| Fiona Richmond | ||
 | ||
| Background information | ||
| Alias(s): | Amber St. George, Amber Harrison | |
| Birthdate: | Mar 2, 1945 | |
| Born as: | Julia Rosamund Harrison | |
| Location: | Hilborough, Norfolk, England | |
| IMDB #: | 0725099 | |
Fiona Richmond (born 2 March 1945) is an English former glamour model and actress. She became a British sex symbol in the 1970s for her appearances in numerous risqué plays, comedy revues, magazines, and films.
Early life
Richmond was born Julia Rosamund Harrison in Hilborough, Norfolk, the daughter of the Reverend John Harrison. At school, she qualified for university but chose to audition for drama schools with the aim of becoming an actress. She worked as a nanny, an air stewardess, and a Playboy Club croupier.
Acting career
Richmond met the British strip club owner and publisher Paul Raymond when she auditioned for a part in the nude farce Pyjama Tops at the Whitehall Theatre in London. She went on to star at the Raymond Revuebar strip club, appear in nude photoshoots and work as an adult entertainment journalist, writing articles about sex for the UK’s top-shelf magazines. In 1970 she was the subject of a TV documentary The Actress Said. Her column in Raymond's "Men Only" magazine brought her some fame and in 1974 she appeared as a regular sex adviser on the London Broadcasting Company, British talk radio, and phone-in station. In the same year, she made the TV documentary What the Actress said to the Bishop which won a gold award at the Atlanta International Film Festival.
She made her film debut (billed under the name Amber Harrison) in Not Tonight, Darling (1971), which led to larger roles in X-rated movies such as the psychological thriller Exposé (1976). Others included Hardcore (1977)[Note 1] – also titled Frankly Fiona – a sex comedy in which she played herself, partially based on an autobiography she had written, and Let's Get Laid (1977), a mistaken-identity comedy that had no connection to the stage show of the same name. Her later film roles included the Queen of France in the Mel Brooks comedy History of the World, Part I (1981), and Fiona the KGB agent in the all-star black comedy Eat The Rich (1987). She also recorded the spoken word album, "Frankly Fiona", in 1973, in collaboration with Anthony Newley, adding erotic talk to Newley's songs.
Richmond appeared in many of Paul Raymond's stage shows. From 1970 until 1974 she starred as a nude swimmer in Pyjama Tops, the West End's first nude production, which ran at the Whitehall Theatre for five years from 1969. The play, set around a transparent-sided swimming pool into which nude actresses periodically plunged, was an English version of the French farce Moumou. Richmond also starred in the play's 1972 tour. In 1974 she appeared on stage at the Windmill Theatre with John Inman in Let's Get Laid, a sex sketch comedy written by Victor Spinetti. The play was the first to be performed in the newly re-opened theatre, and to promote it she rode a horse through Piccadilly Circus in the style of Lady Godiva. In 1977 she starred opposite Divine in the women's prison comedy Women Behind Bars at the Whitehall Theatre. In 1979 she went on tour as the star of Yes, We Have No Pyjamas, another of Raymond's nude productions. She starred in the 1981 Paul Raymond production of Wot! No Pyjamas! at the Whitehall Theatre and its subsequent tour. Semi-naked photos of Richmond appeared on posters outside the Whitehall Theatre, and the Greater London Council took legal action against them. In 1982 she starred in the nude stage farce Space in My Pyjamas which toured the provinces for over 15 weeks. In a TV interview promoting the tour, she expressed her intention to give up nude shows in favor of more serious acting.
Richmond has published many fictional and autobiographical books based on her sexual experiences, including Fiona (1976), Story of I (1978), On the Road (1979), Galactic Girl (1980), Remember Paris (1980), Good, the Bad and the Beautiful (1980), From Here to Virginity (1981), In Depth (1982) and Tell Tale Tits (1987). Her last showbusiness appearances in were in the 1990s, including guest spots on James Randi: Psychic Investigator (1991), The Truth About Women (1992), and as an uncredited extra in The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous (1997).
In The Look of Love, the 2013 biopic about Paul Raymond directed by Michael Winterbottom, Richmond was played by Tamsin Egerton. Upon its release Richmond said that the film portrayed a sleazy side of her life that never happened.
Personal life
During the 1970s she was Paul Raymond's companion and the pair had celebrity status. Raymond admitted adultery with Richmond, and his wife Jean divorced him in 1974. He gave Richmond a yellow Jaguar E-Type sports car with the personalized number plate FU2, and she became recognized driving it around the West End. Following Raymond's death on 2 March 2008, Richmond gave an interview to the Daily Mirror about him:
We had fabulous times touring the world looking for acts for the Raymond Revue bar[sic] ... Paul Raymond had a boat on the south of France called Veste Demitte. The closest translation from the Latin language is "Get ‘Em Off...." He was one of the last great showmen. Everyone today is just so much more boring.
By 1978 the relationship between Richmond and Raymond had ended and she was expressing her intention to marry James Montgomery, the presenter of Southern Television's regional news program Day by Day. Richmond had met Montgomery when she appeared on a TV show he was producing to promote a book she had written. The pair were married in 1983 and had one daughter, Tara, born in 1984. In that year Richmond retired from show business, going on to run a fashion company and work as a journalist. The couple divorced in 1998 but she retained her married name.
Richmond subsequently became a hotelier with her partner, former pig farmer Peter Pilbrow. By 2001 they owned and ran two establishments: "Petit Bacaye Cottage Hotel" on the Caribbean island of Grenada, and "The Onion Store", an English bed and breakfast house in Hampshire, England.
Further reading
- Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema by Simon Sheridan (fourth edition) (Titan Publishing, London) (2011)
Notes
- ↑ Not to be confused with US film Hardcore (film) with George C. Scott
External links
- Fiona Richmond and Paul Raymond ultimate memorabilia website at www.fionarichmond.co.uk ( X Site down 12/20 R/ )
Chat rooms • What links here • Copyright info • Contact information • Category:Root