50 facts about Dawn French, writer, and comedian

50 things about English actress, writer, and comedian Dawn French.

1. Dawn Roma French is an English actress, writer, and comedian, best known for starring in and writing for the comedy sketch show French and Saunders with comedy partner Jennifer Saunders and for playing the lead role as Geraldine Granger in the sitcom The Vicar of Dibley.

2. Dawn French has been nominated for seven BAFTA Awards and also won a Fellowship BAFTA with Jennifer Saunders.

3. Dawn French was born in Holyhead, Anglesey, Wales to English parents, Denys Vernon French and Felicity Roma French (née O'Brien) who married in their hometown of Plymouth in 1953.

4. Dawn French was educated at the independent St Dunstan's Abbey School (now absorbed by Plymouth College).

5. Dawn French has a brother, Gary (born 1955).

6. Her father, Denys served in the Royal Air Force, stationed at RAF Valley.

7. The RAF partly funded her private education.

8. When her father was stationed at the former RAF Faldingworth, she attended Caistor Grammar School in Caistor, Lincolnshire, boarding in the school's Lindsey house.

9. Dawn French later won a debating scholarship that brought her to study at the Spence School in New York.

10. Dawn French has claimed that her self-confidence and self-belief stem from her father, who told her how beautiful she was each day. She tated, "He taught me to value myself. He told me that I was beautiful and the most precious thing in his life."

11. Her father had a history of severe depression and attempted suicides but managed to conceal his illness from Dawn and her brother.

12. Dawn French studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in 1977, where she met her future comedy partner, Jennifer Saunders. Both came from RAF backgrounds.

13. They had grown up on the same base, even having had the same best friend, although never meeting.

14. At first, as far as Saunders was concerned, French was a "cocky little upstart".

15. Dawn French considered Saunders snooty and aloof.

16. The comic duo originally did not like each other as French wanted to become a drama teacher whereas Saunders loathed the idea and thus disliked French for being enthusiastic and confident about the course.

17. French and Saunders shared a flat whilst at college and were influenced to do comedy by their flatmates as part of their projects for college.

18. After talking in depth for the first time, they came to be friends.

19. While at college she broke up with her fiancé, David Smyth, a former Royal Navy officer.

20. After they graduated, they formed a double-act called the Menopause Sisters.

21. Saunders has described the act, which involved wearing tampons in their ears, as "cringeworthy". The manager of the club recalled, "They didn't seem to give a damn. There was no star quality about them at all."

22. French and Saunders came to public attention as members of the Comic Strip, part of the alternative comedy scene in the early 1980s.

23. Dawn French has also written a best-selling epistolary autobiography, which she has titled Dear Fatty.

24. Dawn French was paid a £1.5 million advance for the book, which was released in 2008.

25. On an appearance on The Paul O'Grady Show on 6 October 2008, French said that "Fatty" is her nickname for Jennifer Saunders, as a joke about her own size.

26. Dawn French said that she became great friends with Saunders well before they started working together, which was "over 30 years ago". The book consists of letters to the different people who have been in her life.

27. Dawn French has had an extensive career on television, debuting on Channel 4's The Comic Strip Presents series in an episode called "Five Go Mad in Dorset" in 1982. Each episode presented a self-contained story and, in addition to French and Saunders, showcased Comic Strip performers Peter Richardson, Rik Mayall, Robbie Coltrane and Adrian Edmondson.

28. Dawn French acted in 27 of the 37 episodes and wrote two of them.

29. Some of French's first exposure to a wider audience occurred when comedy producer Martin Lewis recorded a Comic Strip record album in 1981 which featured sketches by French & Saunders. The album was released on Springtime!/Island Records in September 1981 and presented French and Jennifer Saunders to an audience outside of London.

30. In 1985, French starred with Saunders, Tracey Ullman and Ruby Wax in Girls on Top, which portrayed four eccentric women sharing a flat in London.

31. Dawn French has co-written and starred in her and Saunders' comedy series, French & Saunders, which debuted in 1987. On their show, the duo have spoofed many celebrities such as Madonna, Cher, Catherine Zeta-Jones and the Spice Girls.

32. They have also parodied films such as The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

33. After 20 years being on television together, their last sketch series, A Bucket o' French & Saunders, began airing on 8 September 2007.

34. French and Saunders have also followed separate careers.

35. During French's time starring in Murder Most Horrid, from 1991 to 1999, she played a different character each week, whether it was the murderer, victim or both.

36. In 2002, French appeared in the comedy/drama mini-series Ted and Alice. In the series, set in the Lake District, French played a tourist information officer who falls in love with an alien.

37. French's biggest solo television role to date has been as the title figure in the long running and popular BBC comedy The Vicar of Dibley, which Richard Curtis created for her. She starred as Geraldine Granger, a vicar of a small village called Dibley. An audience of 12.3 million watched the final full-length episode to see her character's marriage ceremony.

38. She was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance in the last episode of The Vicar of Dibley.

39. Dawn French played a major role in Jam & Jerusalem as a woman called "Rosie" who has dissociative identity disorder and with it an alter ego called "Margaret".

40. In films, French played The Fat Lady in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, replacing Elizabeth Spriggs, who played the character in the first film of the series.

41. In 2005 French provided the voice for the character Mrs. Beaver in Disney and Walden Media's film adaptation of C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

42. She has also taken roles in the theatre. French has appeared in plays such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, My Brilliant Divorce, and Smaller, which last is about a schoolteacher caring for her disabled mother.

43. Dawn French was chosen as the face of Terry's Chocolate Orange, until August 2007, when she was dropped.

44. She has also been in advertisements for Churchill Insurance Company.

45. French has appeared in the videos to Alison Moyet's songs "Love Letters" (which also featured Saunders) in 1987 and "Whispering Your Name" in 1994. She also appeared in a Comic Relief version of the Spice Girls hit "Who Do You Think You Are" in 1997. In 1986 she appeared as a blonde in Kate Bush's music video entitled "Experiment IV".

46. Dawn French met Lenny Henry on the alternative comedy circuit. The couple married on 20 October 1984 in Covent Garden, London. They adopted a daughter, Billie.

47. On 6 April 2010, French and Henry announced they were separating after 25 years of marriage. It was reported that the separation was amicable.

48. French began dating charity worker Mark Bignell in 2011. On 22 April 2013 it was reported that they had just married.

49. In September 2014 French was named as the new Chancellor of Falmouth University.

50. French and Saunders won the honorary Golden Rose of Montreux award in 2002 and in 2003, she was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.

Source: Wikipedia.org