Gabrielle Drake was born March 30, 1944 in Lahore, Pakistan. Her father
worked in an import/export company or as an engineer and she spent her
first 8 years travelling around Burma, India, and the Orient. The
family returned to England when Gabrielle was eight years old, after
which they moved back near Stratford-upon-Avon. She was educated at
Wycombe Abbey School for Girls in High Wycombe. After leaving school,
she spent some time in Paris as an au pair girl looking after a family
with four children. She then trained for several years at the Royal
Academy for Dramatic Arts, then she joined a group of other recently
graduated students to form the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool.
Gabrielle stayed at the Everyman for three years and then became the
youngest acting member during the reopening season of the famed Malvern
Theatre Company. Afterwards she joined the Birmingham Repertory Company
and perfected her craft at Manchester's Royal Exchange, the Bristol Old
Vic, the New Shakespeare Company and The Young Vic in productions as
diverse as "The Cherry Orchard", "Titus Andronicus", "A Phoenix Too
Frequent" and "Comedy of Errors".
Gabrielle made her television debut in
Intrigue (1966) and then guested in
"The Hidden Tiger", an episode of
Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone (1961). She went
on to appear in guest roles on
Coronation Street (1960),
Simon Templar (1962),
The Champions (1968),
Journey to the Unknown (1968),
and
Virgin of the Secret Service (1968)
before landing the role of Lt. Gay Ellis in
Gerry Anderson's
UFO (1970). Then she made her feature
film debut co-starring in
Tödlicher Salut (1969), and also appeared in
Die Verbindungstür (1970).
After completing work on UFO, she appeared in a series of sex comedy
films such as
Ein Mädchen in der Suppe (1970),
Vorstadtfrauen: Lustgefühle am Vormittag (1972),
Au Pair Girls (1972) and
Commuter Husbands (1972), but
was also much seen on television, in particular as Jill Hammond in
The Brothers (1972) which made
her a household name.
