Luan Peters

Last updated 09 January 2020

Carol Hirsch

Born: Tuesday 18th June 1946 (age: 77)

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Luan Peters is an English actress. Also known as Karol Keyes.

Born as Carol Hirsch, she made her stage debut in a pantomime aged four, then went on to win a drama scholarship at aged 16 after a performance of Twelfth Night. She started singing in a band for £2 a night as a way of earning extra money while attending drama school. Her singing career began in Manchester, where under the name Karol Keyes (named after her management Keystone Promotions), she fronted “Karol Keyes and The Big Sound”, a band previously known as “The Fat Sound”. One of her first records was an Ike & Tina Turner number called "A Fool in Love" on Columbia. She split from that band in June 1966; a year later she joined Joan Littlewood’s drama school at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. She continued to sing in nightclubs, leading to a recording contract offer from EMIGordon Mills who had given stage names to Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, suggested she call herself "Delilah Jackson" to capitalize on Jones’ 1968 hit Delilah; however, she chose the name Luan Peters instead.

In 1970, she starred in the 13 part TV series Go Girl, as a go-go dancer who finds herself involved in action oriented story lines. The series was beset by problems, which included the financiers backing out, the production running out of money, and the actors' union closing the production down. The series was never broadcast. The pilot episode only saw the light of day more than a decade after it was made, when it was released twice on UK video in the early 1980s once under the title Give Me a Ring Sometime (which is actually just the pilot episode title) and another time as Passport to Murder.

She is known for her appearances in Hammer horror films of the 1970s such as Lust for a Vampire and Twins of Evil. Other film credits include: The Flesh and Blood ShowVampiraThe Wildcats of St Trinian's and Pacific Banana.

Her stage work includes A Man Most Likely To (1969, with George Cole), Pyjama Tops (1969), Decameron 73 (1973), playing Linda McCartney in John, Paul, George, Ringo and Bert (1974), Tom Stoppard’s Dirty Linen (1976), Shut Your Eyes And Think Of England! (1978 with Donald Sinden and Frank Thornton) and Funny Peculiar (1985).

She was also active on television in series such as: Z-CarsPublic EyeDoctor WhoTargetThe Professionals and the Fawlty Towers episode The Psychiatrist playing Raylene Miles, an Australian tourist. Her last known television role was in an episode in The Bill in 1990. In 2005 she was interviewed for the documentary Fawlty Towers Revisited.

In 1975 she fronted the band 5000 Volts and appeared on Top of the Pops singing their hit song “I’m on Fire”, however the actual vocalist was Tina Charles. Peters continued to release singles (mainly in Europe) throughout the decade.

Biography from the Wikipedia article, licensed under CC-BY-SA