Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar (5 March 1939 – 15 October 2025) was an English actress. After beginning her career in Shakespearean theatre she rose to fame for her performance in William Wyler's thriller The Collector (1965), which earned her a Golden Globe Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award, a Sant Jordi Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Eggar later appeared as Emma Fairfax in Doctor Dolittle (1967) and the American drama The Molly Maguires (1970). In the early 1970s Eggar moved to the United States and Canada, where she later starred in several horror films, including The Dead Are Alive (1972), The Uncanny (1977) and David Cronenberg's cult thriller The Brood (1979).
Eggar also worked as a voice actress, as Hera in Disney's Hercules (1997) and in several video games, including Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned (1999) and as M in James Bond 007: Nightfire (2002). Her television work included roles on Fantasy Island and a recurring part as Charlotte Devane in the soap opera All My Children in 2000.
Early life
Samantha Eggar was born Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar on 5 March 1939, in Hampstead, London, to Ralph Alfred James Eggar, a brigadier in the British Army, and Muriel Olga Palache-Boumam, who was of Dutch and Portuguese descent. Eggar also had Irish ancestry through her grandmother. in the same year she appeared on stage again as Olivia in a production of Twelfth Night by George Devine.
In 1963, Eggar played the lead role of Claire Avery in "Marcia", a second-season episode of The Saint. After her appearance in The Saint, Eggar did not make a guest appearance on television for 10 years. In 1965, Eggar appeared in the thriller The Collector, directed by William Wyler, playing a kidnap victim. Of her time working on the set of the film "Ms. Eggar told The Daily Mirror in 1965 that working on the set ... was 'the hardest three months of my life;" she noted that during the shoot she lost about 14 pounds. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won a Golden Globe award for her performance. She was also awarded Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 1966.
The following year Eggar starred in the comedy Walk, Don't Run (1966) with Cary Grant (his last motion picture) and Jim Hutton, followed by a lead role as Emma Fairfax in Richard Fleischer's musical adaptation of Doctor Dolittle (1967). and The Uncanny, a horror movie directed by Denis Héroux. In 2009, she played the mother of Jack and Becky Gallagher in season 1, episode 11 ("Lines in the Sand") of the Fox television series Mental.
Personal life
In 1964, she married actor Tom Stern and the couple had two children: film producer Nicolas Stern and actress Jenna Stern. Eggar and Stern divorced in 1971.
In the early 1970s, Eggar had an affair with her The Walking Stick co-star David Hemmings.
Eggar held dual British and American citizenship, obtaining the latter in 1973.
Death
Eggar resided in Los Angeles, According to her daughter, Eggar had been diagnosed with this illness 22 years earlier.
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| Dr. Crippen
| Ethel Le Neve
| Robert Lynn
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| 1963
| Doctor in Distress
| Delia Mallory
| Ralph Thomas
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| 1964
| Psyche 59
| Robin
| Alexander Singer
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| rowspan=2|1965
| Return from the Ashes
| Fabienne 'Fabi' Wolf
| J. Lee Thompson
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| 1966
| Walk, Don't Run
| Christine Easton
| Charles Walters
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| rowspan=3|1970
| data-sort-value="Molly Maguires, The" | The Molly Maguires
| Miss Mary Raines
| Martin Ritt
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| data-sort-value="Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun, The" | The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun
| Danielle "Dany" Lang
| Anatole Litvak
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| 1971
| data-sort-value="Light at the Edge of the World, The" | The Light at the Edge of the World
| Arabella
| Kevin Billington
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| 1972
| data-sort-value="Dead Are Alive, The" | The Dead Are Alive
| Myra Shelton
| Armando Crispino
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| rowspan="3" |1977
| data-sort-value="Uncanny, The" | The Uncanny
| Edina Hamilton
| Denis Héroux
|Segment: "Hollywood 1936"
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| 1979
| data-sort-value="Brood, The" | The Brood
| Nola Carveth
| David Cronenberg
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| rowspan=2|1981
| data-sort-value="Hot Touch, The" | The Hot Touch
| Samantha O'Brien
| Roger Vadim
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| 1993
| The Magic Voyage
| Isabella I of Castile (voice)
| Michael Schoemann
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| 1994
| Inevitable Grace
| Britt
| Alex Monty Canawati
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| 1982
| Darkroom
| Miss Alexis St. Clair
| Episode: "Exit Lane"
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| 1993
| L.A. Law
| Camille Bancroft
| Episode "Where There's a Will"
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| 2011
| The Nine Lives of Chloe King
| Olivia Rezza
| Episode: "Beautiful Day"
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| 2012
| Metalocalypse
| Whale (voice)
| 2 episodes
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|1975
| The Legendary Curse of the Hope Diamond
| Evalyn Walsh McLean
|Delbert Mann
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| rowspan="2" | 1976
| The Hemingway Play
| Glynis
|Don Taylor
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|1990
| data-sort-value="Ghost in Monte Carlo, A" | A Ghost in Monte Carlo
| Jeanne
|John Hough
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| 1996
| Everything to Gain
| Diana Keswick
|Michael Miller
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| 1998
| Loss of Faith
| Insp. Strong
|Allan A. Goldstein
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| rowspan="4" | 1985
| rowspan="2" data-sort-value="Lonely Road, The" | The Lonely Road
| rowspan="2" | Irene Herms
| rowspan="2" | Christopher Fettes
| Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
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|Old Vic Theatre, London
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| rowspan="2" data-sort-value="Seagull, The" | The Seagull
| rowspan="2" | Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina
| rowspan="2" | Charles Sturridge
| Oxford Playhouse, Oxford
| rowspan="2" |
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|Theatre Royal, Bath
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| 1992
| Auntie Mame
| Vera
| Karin Baker
| Candlewood Playhouse, New Fairfield
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Awards and nominations
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+
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! Institution
! Year
! Category
! Work
! Result
!
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| Academy Awards
|1966
| Best Actress
| rowspan="2" | The Collector
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|<br />
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| Cannes Film Festival
| 1965
| Best Actress
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| Genie Awards
| 1980
| Best Performance by a Foreign Actress
| The Brood
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| Golden Globe Awards
|1966
| Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
| rowspan="6" |The Collector
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| Photoplay Award
|1965
| Favorite Female Newcomer
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| rowspan="3" | Laurel Awards
|1965
| New Faces, Female
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| 1966
| Dramatic Performance, Female
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|1966
| Female Star
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| Sant Jordi Awards
|1966
| Best Performance in a Foreign Film
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