A hard-looking brunette with high cheek bones, Leicester-born actress Kate O'Mara was the daughter of actress Hazel Bainbridge and John Carroll and prodded into performing as a child. Educated at the Aida Foster School, she began an early career as a speech therapist at a Sussex Girls' School,but her attraction to acting got the best of her and she switched gears, making her debut in a stage production of "The Merchant of Venice" in 1963 at the age of 24. She continued to appear in classical works throughout the next two seasons until TV series spots started coming her way. Kate attracted gothic notice in Hammer Studio horrifics as tawdry, darkly alluring femmes in both The Horror of Frankenstein (1970) and The Vampire Lovers (1970), but her film load over the years would remain sporadic. She has remained focused on stage endeavours in the ensuing years and has appeared in many British TV series as well as various femme fatales or shady ladies. She made little leeway in America but did appear as Joan Collins equally bitchy sister for one season of "Dynasty" in 1986. She was also delightfully vindictive in episodes of "Doctor Who" and "Absolutely Fabulous" in England. She relished a standout role in the long-running British soap opera "Crossroads." In the 80s she founded and toured in a theatre company which has continued running into the millennium. She has since published two books: "When She Was Bad" in 1991 and "Good Time Girl" in 1993. She has been married and divorced three times, all to actors.