Uddingston-born actor talks of her impressive acting career

Apr 18 2008 By Carla Callaghan

UDDINGSTON-born actor, Gay Hamilton talks to the Hamilton Advertiser Online about her impressive career and her early childhood in Lanarkshire.

Born in April 1943, to a factory owner father and housewife mother, Gay became interested in acting from a young age.

My father had a chocolate and toffee factory called Haltons and I remember the phone number being Uddingston-one, I used to call it as a young child saying “can my daddy come home to lunch please?”.

Leaving her family home to go off to boarding school, Gay remembers her last night before she left, saying: “I just remember that the night before we went back to school we went to the cinema and I remember the sinking feeling when the film ended that I was off with my packed trunk the next day. 

“Once I got to school I just tried to do well & made friends so it was OK although I'd never send a child of mine!”

She says: “I always played the piano and sang to anyone who would listen as a child and was known as the clown, but I think I wanted to be a journalist for some time.
“After doing well later in school in acting exams, I got the idea that’s what I wanted to do.”

Possessing a somewhat reserved and shy nature after leaving school, Gay says: “Drama school came as a bit of a shock after boarding school – I remember having some lines in a Bertolt Brecht play taken from me.

“I was playing a prostitute and had to say ‘come with me dearie’ and simply couldn’t manage it without blushing!”

Appearing in Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon” and Ridley Scott’s “The Duellists”, Gay has also made appearances in Eastenders as Edwina Dunn and more recently starring in Holby City as Lizzie Holden.

Having appeared in countless numbers of television programmes, dramas and film, Gay talks about some of her favourites : “One of my favourite roles was Nora Brady in Barry Lyndon.

On working with the legendary Stanley Kubrick, Gay says fondly: “I got on well with him (Stanley Kubrick), he was quite a giant of a man, he was great fun.”

“I think the other would be in the only musical I've ever been in at the Bridewell Theatre in London playing Madame Arcati in 'High Spirits' the musical of Noel Coward's play 'Blithe Spirit'.”

Fiercely proud of her Scottish routes, Gay says: “We still do Burns night.”
Laughing slightly she adds: “We are called the mafia down here (London)”
 

On her plans for 2008, Gay says: “Nothing is definitely planned yet for 2008.”

She adds: “When I am not acting I do a singing group, shows and musical songs, it has been running for over ten years, I think we have some dates to do our Cabaret show.”

When asked what her ideal job would be, Gay replies: “I think either playing Robert Redford’s wife in a film or Johnny Depp’s mother!”