Vanessa Howard

Vanessa Howard (born Vanessa Tolhurst, 10 October 1948, Shoreham-by-Sea, United Kingdom – 23 November 2010), later known as Vanessa Chartoff, was a British film actress and professional backup singer. Early life Howard was orphaned by the age of three, after which she and her older sister were adopted. Both girls were performers; Vanessa attended the Phildene Stage School, a co-educational independent school at Chiswick, west London, and her sister attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Career After leaving school at fifteen, her first professional job was as a dancer and singer at seaside Llandudno, for Clarkson Roses Twinkle company, in a summer revue. Later engagements included the Players' Theatre, in their Old Time Music Hall, and one year with the George Mitchell Singers as a singer and dancer, leading to TV. In 1966, Howard appeared in On the Level, a musical in the West End. After, she appeared in The Impossible Years, a play, with David Tomlinson.