Haydn Gwynne

Haydn Gwynne (; 21 March 195720 October 2023) was an English actor. She was nominated for the 1992 BAFTA TV Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance for the comedy series Drop the Dead Donkey (1990–1991), and won the 2009 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in the Broadway production of Billy Elliot the Musical. She was also a four-time Olivier Award nominee. Her other television roles included Peak Practice (1999–2000), Merseybeat (2001–2002), and playing Camilla in The Windsors (2016–2023). Early life and education Haydn Gwynne was born on 21 March 1957 in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, to Rosamond ( Dobson) and Guy Thomas Haydn Gwynne (1915–1994). She played county level tennis before studying sociology at the University of Nottingham, and was fluent in French and Italian. After university she took a five-year lectureship in Italy at the University of Rome La Sapienza, where she taught English as a foreign language. Career Gwynne became an actor in her mid-twenties. One of her first television roles was as Cosima in the Lovejoy two-part special "Death and Venice" (1986). She played feminist lecturer Dr Robyn Penrose in the BBC television mini-series dramatisation of David Lodge's Nice Work in 1989.