Georgina Cates, the British actress best known for her lead role in “An Awfully Big Adventure,” died on May 6, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She was 51.
Cates was born Clare Woodgate and adopted her stage name to land the role that would define her film career. News of her death comes as fans and colleagues remember a career that spanned British television, feature films and photography.
The Main Development: Georgina Cates Dies At 51
Cates died on May 6, The Hollywood Reporter said, citing her age as 51 at the time of her death. The outlet did not report a cause of death or where she died.
Her daughter, Naiia, addressed her mother’s death in an Instagram post, describing her as “beautiful” and “free-spirited.” Naiia wrote, “I love you, thank you for your creativity, curiosity and your bravery to always be true to yourself, no matter what.”
What It Means For Fans Of ‘An Awfully Big Adventure’
Fans of “An Awfully Big Adventure” knew Cates as Stella Bradshaw, the impressionable young woman at the center of the 1995 Mike Newell film. The movie was adapted from Beryl Bainbridge’s 1990 novel of the same name and premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section at Cannes. In the film, Stella works as an assistant at a Liverpool repertory theater troupe in the years after World War II.
She falls for the troupe’s director, Meredith Potter, played by Hugh Grant, while actor P.L. O’Hara, played by Alan Rickman, falls for her.
New York Times critic Janet Maslin praised Cates’ performance at the time, writing that “she shows an edge of savvy calculation that’s an integral part of the sweet young thing she plays.”
To win the part after an initial rejection, Cates dyed her hair red, adopted a Liverpool accent and built an entire persona as a working-class Liverpool teen to match her character, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Background And Career
Before her breakout film role, Cates played Jenny Porter on the BBC sitcom “2point4 Children” during its first two seasons, which aired in 1991 and 1992.
Her film credits also included the 1994 romantic comedy “Au Pair” and the 1998 black comedy “Clay Pigeons,” directed by David Dobkin, in which she played a cheating wife opposite Joaquin Phoenix and Vince Vaughn. That same year, she appeared in “Illuminata,” a romantic comedy written and directed by John Turturro and set in a turn-of-the-century New York theater company. Cates later appeared in “Jackass: Bad Grandpa” in 2013, and her final onscreen credit came with 2016’s “Everlasting.”
Her other film and television work included “Frankie Starlight” and “Stiff Upper Lips,” both released in 1995, “Big City Blues” in 1997, and the Showtime telefilm “A Soldier’s Sweetheart,” shot in New Zealand alongside Kiefer Sutherland and her husband at the time. She also appeared in “Sinner” in 2007. In a 2016 interview cited by The Hollywood Reporter, Cates said she had “always been odd” and recalled running away from home for a day at age 13 to get herself an agent.
Personal Life
Cates was married to American actor Skeet Ulrich from 1997 until their divorce in 2005. The couple had twin children, Naiia and Jakob, born in 2001. In recent years, Cates had shifted her focus to photography, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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