Françoise Pascal

Pascal was born in Mauritius, then a colony of the United Kingdom.

Her earliest films were Norman J. Warren's Loving Feeling and Pete Walker's School for Sex (both 1969), and she also appeared briefly in an orgy scene in the troubled cult horror film Incense for the Damned (1970), but her breakthrough role was playing Paola in There's a Girl in My Soup (1970) with Peter Sellers. She went on to do the black comedy Burke & Hare (1972), playing Marie, and another Sellers film, Soft Beds, Hard Battles (1974).

After that appearance, she moved to France where she starred in such films as Et si tu n'en Veux Pas (1974) and Les Raisins de la Mort (1978), directed by Jean Rollin. The producer of Rollin's La Rose de Fer, then gave her the lead in the film but it was not a success. Later she returned to England to appear in Keep It Up Downstairs (1976) alongside Diana Dors, Jack Wild and Mary Millington.

Her first television work came in October 1971 with a role in Coronation Street, playing Ray Langton's friend. Then came guest starring roles in an episode of Play of the Month for the BBC in "Don Quixote" (1973) with Rex Harrison and for ITV's Sunday Night Theatre "Giants & Ogres" (1971). She was cast in numerous guest starring appearances in many television comedy series such as Happy Ever After (1976) with Terry Scott and June Whitfield, as well as My Honourable Mrs (1975) with Derek Nimmo for the BBC. She co-starred in an episode of the thriller You're on Your Own starring Denis Quilley, for the BBC.

She played seductive French au-pair Danielle Favre in the first three series of the ITV sitcom Mind Your Language (1977–79); she then took on her stage roles in Happy Birthday (reuniting with Frazer Hines), and starring in a pantomime of Aladdin. Pascal left for the United States in 1982, where she acted in Hollywood with a two-year contract in The Young and the Restless, Gavillan, My Man Adam, Lightning, The White Stallion. She returned to England in 1987.

In 2015, Pascal joined the cast for a new comedy series called For the Love of Ella. The series also stars Ewen Macintosh, Lucy Drive, Bobby Ball, Alex Reid, Daniel Peacock, Melanie Sykes, Darren Day and Billy Pearce.[1]

Since work had been scarce as an actress for some years, Pascal has turned her talent to producing her first film "COLD SUN" starring Patrick Bergen, Ian Ogilvy etc. The film is produced by Pascal's own company MFC Productions Ltd and Pascal Productions Ltd.

Pascal had a child, Nicholas Johnson, by the actor, Richard Keith Johnson.[2][3]

On 4 December 2010, she joined Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood at Claygate Village to turn on the village Christmas lights[4] and singing a solo of Silent Night.

In December 2012, Pascal took part in the ITV1 programme Storage Hoarders, in which she sorted and sold at auction some of her more valuable possessions which she had kept in storage for months.

One of Pascal’s closest friends was British actress, Lynne Frederick. She first became acquainted with Frederick in 1972, when they co-starred on an episode of the television anthology series, BBC Play of the Month.[5] The two actresses quickly became “firm friends”[5] and frequently saw each other during the height of their careers in the 1970s. Pascal recalled that they regretfully lost contact in 1977 after Frederick married Peter Sellers.[5] Frederick later died in 1994. In April 2020, a few weeks before the 26th anniversary of Frederick’s death, Pascal tweeted a photo of herself and Frederick, with the caption “I think of her very often! Always had that fresh baby face! RIP Lynne! Xxx”[6].

• As I Am Autobiography Information, Published by Pegasus Elliot McKenzie 2012
• Simon Sheridan Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema (2011) (fourth edition) (Titan Publishing, London)

• Official website
• Françoise Pascal on IMDb
• 2010 interview
• For the Love of Ella at IMDb