Vera Fusek

Vera Fusek was born in Czechoslovakia. She studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Her first acting role on screen was in an episode of Rheingold Theatre (The Man Who Wouldn't Escape) in 1956, followed by an episode of Assignment Foreign Legion and then a part in the film Escape in the Sun (where she was chased by a toothless lion and rode a one-eyed rhinoceros as a bet!). She then played several roles in the BBC Sunday-Night Theatre before playing Kolin in the series The Schirmer Inheritance. This was followed up by appearances in other television shows like The Vise, The Third Man, The Four Just Men and International Detective, and films like Great Van Robbery and 5 Branded Women.

After a break of several years, she returned to television in The Troubleshooters and later in The Adventurer, and then made her appearance in Doctor Who in 1973. This was her last major acting role for many years, and she left the business in 1980 after playing Madame Morell in Treasures of the Snow.

Theatre work includes playing Anne Frank’s mother early in her career, and also being in the first English production of A View from the Bridge in Liverpool, directed by Sam Wanamaker. She also toured America performing Shakespeare.

Her son is the writer Andrew Fusek Peters.