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Back to Tara's page
Date of Birth: 18 September 1967
Place: Sussex, England
Mother: Sarah Fitzgerald (A portrait photographer)
Father: Michael Callaby (An artist)
Stepfather: Norman Rodway (An actor)
Sisters: Arabella and Bianca (Half sister) -- Tara is the eldest
Great-aunt: Geraldine Fitzgerald (An actress)
Tara was born in Sussex, England, on 17 September 1967. Her mother, Sarah
Fitzgerald is Irish and her father, Michael Callaby, was Italian. Shortly
after her birth, her family moved to Freeport, in the Bahamas where her
grandfather, David Fitzgerald, was a well established lawyer. Her sister
Arabella was born there, but the family returned to London when Tara was
three. Her mother and father separated when she was four years old, and
along with her mother and sister, she moved in with her uncle and Aunt
Caroline in a basement flat off the Old Brompton Road in Clapham. Her mother
married the Irish actor Norman Rodway when Tara was six, and the birth of her
half sister, Bianca, followed shortly thereafter. Rodway and Sarah
Fitzgerald separated when Tara was seven.
Tara's formative years were spent moving around -- a lifestyle that saw her
attending five primary schools while living in a variety of locations which
included Glasgow, Dublin, and Stratford-upon-Avon. Eventually, Sarah and her
three daughters returned to South London where Tara attended Clapham
Comprehensive School, but left after passing her "O" level examinations,
which are now known as GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education)
exams, at age 16. Her reason for taking a break from the educational process
was that she was not allowed to pursue her goal of attending drama school.
Tara had auditioned for RADA and the Guildhall, but she was unable to secure
a placement. She now recognizes that at age 17, she really had not been
ready.
Tara spent the next two years working her way around Europe as a waitress, an
experience that provided her with an improved perspective. When she returned
to London and decided to audition for a place at the Drama Centre, she was
accepted immediately. Her training at the Drama Centre leaned heavily toward
method acting which she recalls was like one long therapy session of breaking
down the ego, and then rebuilding it. (Other well known actors who trained
at the Drama Centre include Anthony Hopkins, Colin Firth, Simon Callow, and
Pierce Brosnan.)
Life at the Drama Centre consisted of long days and hard work, but Tara
recalls the time as being one of the best in her life. She was living at
home with her mother, and working as a waitress at The Ark restaurant in
Kensington to repay the bank loan which she had secured to cover her tuition
fees. A theatrical agent noticed her performance in an amateur production,
and arranged for Tara to audition for a co-starring role in the offbeat
comedy Hear My Song. Tara was the first actress to audition, and after the
director had seen another 300 young hopefuls, the role was hers. Two weeks
after graduating from college in July, 1990, Tara was at work on a major film
that turned out to be a surprise success, and generated rave reviews of her
performance. Tara never looked back.
Starring roles in successful television productions during 1991 and 1992
followed. Tara received critical acclaim in The Black Candle, Six Characters
in Search of an Author, The Camomile Lawn, and Anglo-Saxon Attitudes. Her
next major step was a co-starring role in the West End play, Our Song, where
she acquitted herself nightly opposite one of the legends of the London
stage, Peter O'Toole. This success was followed by a role opposite Hugh
Grant in the Australian hit film, Sirens, for which Tara was nominated as
Best Actress in a Lead Role by the Australian Film Institute.
An American made mini-series, Fall From Grace, was followed by the Irish
film, A Man of No Importance, which found Tara sharing honours with Albert
Finney. Then came the two widely different television productions Cadfael:
The Leper of St. Giles and The Vacillations of Poppy Carew.
Tara was back co-starring with Hugh Grant in The Englishman Who Went Up a
Hill but Came Down a Mountain before she embarked upon another major change
of pace by playing Ophelia opposite Ralph Fiennes as Hamlet on the London and
Broadway stages. Ralph received the notoriety, but Tara received the award
for Best Supporting Actress from the New York Critics Circle.
Tara's next success was co-starring with Ewan McGregor in the highly
acclaimed comedy drama Brassed Off. Then it was back to BBC television for
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The Woman in White, and The Student Prince, all
of which were featured on the U.S. mainstay, Masterpiece Theatre. Tara's
next theatrical film was Conquest which was produced in Canada. Back on the
British side of the Atlantic, Tara starred in the contemporary Little White
Lies and the Daphne Du Maurier swashbuckler (also featured on Masterpiece
Theatre) Frenchman's Creek for which she received the award for Best Actress
at the 1999 Reims International Television Festival.
A starring role in Childhood was followed by the harrowing role of a stalked
woman in the psychological drama In the Name of Love. Radio dramatizations
have included A Handful of Dust, Look back in Anger, and most recently The
African Queen. Tara has been heard as the voice of the narrator in such
diverse television mini-series as Wild Thing (Animal Life), The Final Day
(Celebrity Deaths), and Vice - Inside Britain's Sex Business (Self-explanatory).
Recently, Tara can be seen co-starring in New World Disorder with Rutger
Hauer, The Snatching of Bookie Bob with Rod Steiger, and Rancid Aluminium
with Rhys Ifans and Joseph Fiennes.
On stage Tara has appeared in the title role of Antigone and as Blanche Du
Bois in A Streetcar Named Desire. Her current big screen appearance is in
Dark Blue World, a Czech film by Academy Award winning director Jan Sverák (
Kolya).
During her career, Tara has picked her roles cautiously, always seeking to
play the role of a strong woman. She feels that playing characters who have
weak and insipid parts do not provide her with the motivation that the role
of a strong woman can deliver. She has been remarkably successful in a
variety of genre ranging from historical costume dramas (The Woman in White,
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and Frenchman's Creek), to contemporary
psychological suspense dramas (Little White Lies and In The Name of Love), as
well as comedy dramas (Brassed Off and Conquest) and offbeat comedies (Sirens
and The Vacillations of Poppy Carew). Tara recently has evidenced a desire
to move behind the camera and to possibly establish herself in the role of a
producer.
There is only one thing certain regarding the future career of this beautiful
and multitalented actress. Whatever she decides to do, Tara will be a
personal and professional success.
Tara has taken an active part in the quest to find a cure for leukemia, the
illness that claimed the life of her sister's little girl, Lucy. I sincerely
hope that Tara will also achieve success in this meaningful endeavor.
BRIAN J MURRAY
This site was created and is maintained by John Robinson © 1995
This page first published 15 May 2001
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