Galleries: Theatrical Portraits

Greta Scacchi as Bette Davis/ Baby Jane, Bette and Joan, Arts Theatre, London 2011

36" x 24"
Oil On Linen

This portrait of Greta Scacchi depicts the actress in her dressing room at the Arts Theatre London during the production of Anton Burge's Bette and Joan - it is based on a live sitting. Bette and Joan tells the story of two Hollywood stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, (played by Anita Dobson) meeting on the set of the iconic film ‘Whatever happened to Baby Jane’. Davis and Crawford were well known for their strong dislike of each other and this is the main theme of the play.

Greta Scaachi is an internationally renowned film, theatre and television actress.She trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has worked extensively in Australia, America and Europe. 
Her many film credits include Heat and Dust (1983), The Ebony Tower (1984), The Coca Cola Kid (1985), White Mischief (1987), Presumed Innocent (1990), The Player (1992) and Country Life (1994). 
In 1996 she won an Emmy Award for her work as Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna of Russia in the television film, Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny, and was nominated for a Golden Globe.

Her theatre credits include include Easy Virtue (Chichester Festival Theatre), Simpa Tico and Miss Julie (Sydney Theatre Company), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Original Shakespeare Company), A Doll's House ( Festival of Partti), Uncle Vanya ( Vaudeville Theatre, London), Airbase (Oxford Playhouse and Arts Theatre), In Times Like These (Bristol Old Vic) and Cide With Rosie Phoenix Arts Theatre, Leicester) . 

Television credits include Michael Bogdanov's Macbeth,Rasputin with Ian McKellen and Alan Rickman(for which she won an Emmy for Best supporting Actress)and more recently Miss Austin Regrets,Miss Marple, Daniel Deronda,Jeffrey Archer:the Truth and Broken Trail opposite Robert Duvall (AMC America)for which she was nominated for a screen Actor's Guild Award.