Sandy Ratcliff
| Sandy Ratcliff | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Alexandra Ratcliff 2 October 1948 London, England, UK |
Alexandra "Sandy" Ratcliff (born 2 October 1948 in Islington, London) is a former English actress. Ratcliff made an impression as a model and film actress in the 1970s, but she is best known for being one of the original cast members in the BBC soap opera EastEnders in the 1980s. She received acclaim for her portrayal of the tragic Sue Osman, but left the role in 1989 after it was revealed that she was a heroin addict. Since leaving EastEnders, things have been professionally quiet for Ratcliff, though her private life brought her into the headlines once again in the early 1990s. In 2010, she revealed she gave up acting to train as a counsellor, but has since retired.
Ratcliff - the daughter of an insurance salesman - had a turbulent youth. She was expelled at 12 from her grammar school. Within two years she was heavily smoking cannabis and she later went on to serve time in prison for selling it. She had numerous jobs before she took up acting, including waitressing, disc-jockeying and performing as a guitarist in the rock groups Tropical Appetite and Escalator.
Ratcliff's career changed direction at 23, when she made a big impression as a model and was cast as "The face of the '70s" by royal photographer, Lord Snowdon. This later facilitated a move into film. Her first major role was in the Ken Loach BAFTA-nominated film Family Life (1971), where she took the title role of a schizophrenic teenage girl. This was followed by roles in slightly less well-received films including The Final Programme (1973), Yesterday's Hero (1979), and Hussy (1980) with Helen Mirren. In 1979 she appeared in Chris Petit's cult British road movie Radio On (1979). Ratcliff subsequently acted in several television productions including Minder, Couples, Play for Today, Target, The Sweeney, Shoestring and Shelley and on stage in 1981 in the Ray Davies/Kinks musical, Chorus Girls.
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