Kathleen Norris Stark (born April 26, 1956), better known as Koo Stark, is an American photographer and actress, known for her relationship with

Prince Andrew Prince Andrew, Duke of York, (Andrew Albert Christian Edward; born 19 February 1960) is a member of the British royal family. He is the younger brother of King Charles III and the third child and second son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince ...

. She is a patron of the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust, which runs the museum of the Victorian pioneer photographer.

Early life and education

Stark was born in New York. Her parents were Wilbur Stark, a writer and producer, and Kathi Norris, a writer and television presenter in New York City. She is the youngest of three children, the others being Pamela and Brad. At the time of her birth, the family was living in the city's

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

borough. Her grandfather, Edwin Earl Norris, was a cabinetmaker and musician, playing the

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

and the viola in the Newark Symphony Orchestra. Her mother's family were Presbyterians. After a divorce in the 1960s, her mother remarried. Koo Stark attended the Hewitt School in New York and the Glendower Preparatory School in Kensington, London. After training at a stage school, she began her acting career.

Career

Acting

Her first film role was in the comedy '' All I Want Is You... and You... and You...'' (1974), produced by her father. In 1975 she appeared in ''Las adolescentes'' (The Adolescents), opposite Anthony Andrews, and starred in an episode of ''

Shades of Greene ''Shades of Greene'' is a British television series based on short stories written by the author Graham Greene. The series began in 1975, with each hour-long episode featuring a dramatisation of one of Greene's stories, many of which dealt with ...

''. Also that year she had an uncredited role as a bridesmaid in '' The Rocky Horror Picture Show''. Her best-remembered performance is the lead role in the erotic film '' Emily'' (1976), directed by Henry Herbert, 17th Earl of Pembroke. Uncertain whether to accept the part, Stark did so on the advice of Graham Greene, with whom she had worked the year before. Of working with her in ''Emily'', actor Victor Spinetti later wrote "I found Koo Stark to be an enchanting girl and terribly bright and interesting". She also appeared in ''

Cruel Passion ''Cruel Passion'' (also known as ''Justine'') is a 1977 film starring Koo Stark, Martin Potter, Lydia Lisle, and Katherine Kath. It was directed by Chris Boger and based on the 1791 novel '' Justine'' by the Marquis de Sade. Plot Justine is ...

'' (1977), a film based on the novel '' Justine''. Around the same time, she played the part of Camie Marstrap in '' Star Wars'' (1977); the scenes in which she appeared were cut from the film before its original release, but can be seen in '' Star Wars: Behind the Magic'' (1998). Stark also began to work as a fashion model, particularly for Norman Parkinson. In February 1981, she was at the National Theatre as an understudy in the Edward Albee play ''

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' is a play by Edward Albee first staged in October 1962. It examines the complexities of the marriage of a middle-aged couple, Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they receive ...

'' She appeared in the comedy '' Eat the Rich'' (1987), and then featured in " Timeslides", an episode of the sci-fi show '' Red Dwarf'' (1989), playing Lady Sabrina Mulholland-Jjones, the fiancée of a more successful Dave Lister. In September 1987, she returned to the stage, taking the part of Vera Claythorne in Agatha Christie's '' And Then There Were None'' at the

Duke of York's Theatre The Duke of York's Theatre is a West End theatre in St Martin's Lane, in the City of Westminster, London. It was built for Frank Wyatt and his wife, Violet Melnotte, who retained ownership of the theatre until her death in 1935. Designed by th ...

. The ''London Theatre Record'' posed the question "Why has a girl so obviously three-dimensional chosen a part so obviously two-dimensional?" She played Miss Scarlett in the 1991 series of ''

Cluedo ''Cluedo'' (), known as ''Clue'' in North America, is a murder mystery game for three to six players (depending on editions) that was devised in 1943 by British board game designer Anthony E. Pratt. The game was first manufactured by Waddin ...

'', succeeding

Toyah Willcox Toyah Ann Willcox (born 18 May 1958) is an English musician, actress, and TV presenter. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Willcox has had eight top 40 singles, released over 20 albums, written two books, appeared in over 40 stage plays an ...

and befriending

Rula Lenska Rula Lenska (born Róża Maria Leopoldyna Łubieńska, 30 September 1947) is a British actress. She mainly appears in British stage and television productions and is known in the United States for a series of television advertisements in the 19 ...

Photography

Stark has worked as a photographer since the 1980s, and may have been the first person to turn the tables on the pursuing paparazzi by taking photos of them.Liam Clifford
Koo Stark returns to London for first exhibition in 23 years
dated April 12, 2017 at amateurphotographer.co.uk, accessed 12 November 2017

has told how in 1983 a photographic printer, Gene Nocon, invited Stark to take photographs of people taking photos of her, for his exhibition, ''Personal Points of View'', planned for October. She persuaded Nocon to include Andrew's work as well. Her early photographs led to a book deal, for which she took lessons from Norman Parkinson. She travelled to Tobago, where he lived, and he became her mentor. Her book ''Contrasts'' (1985) included about a hundred of her photographs. She went on to study the work of leading photographers, including Angus McBean, whom she met and photographed, developing her interests in photography to include reportage, portraits, landscapes, still life, and other work. The book ''Contrasts'' was launched at Hamiltons Gallery, London, in September 1985, at an exhibition of the same name.''British Journal of Photography'', Volume 132 (Henry Greenwood & Co., 1985), p. 1022 In 1994, the Gallery Bar at the

Grosvenor House Hotel ] JW Marriott Grosvenor House London, originally named the Grosvenor House Hotel, is a luxury hotel that opened in 1929 in the Mayfair area of London, England. The hotel is managed by JW Marriott Hotels, which is a brand of Marriott Internat ...

in Park Lane hosted an exhibition called 'The Stark Image', forty photographs by Stark, including several previously unpublished.''

British Journal of Photography The ''British Journal of Photography'' (BJP) is a magazine about photography, published by 1854 Media. It includes in-depth articles, profiles of photographers, analyses, and technological reviews. History The magazine was established in Liver ...

'', Volume 141 (Henry Greenwood & Co., 1994), p. 58 In 1998, her work was featured at the Como Lario in Holbein Place, Belgravia. In July 2001 she had an exhibition called 'Stark Images" at the Fruitmarket Gallery in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

,''British Journal of Photography'', Volume 148 (Henry Greenwood & Co., 2001), issue 7346 duplicated from June to July 2001 at

Dimbola Lodge The Dimbola Museum and Galleries are located in Dimbola, that was the Isle of Wight home of the Victorian pioneer photographer Julia Margaret Cameron from 1860 to 1875. It is now owned by the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust, which runs the Dimbola ...

on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

.Harriet Lane
The Stark ages
, in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' dated 17 June 2001, accessed 12 November 2017 A solo exhibition of portraits was at the Winter Gardens, Ventnor, from September to October 2010,David Bartlett
Koo Stark Exhibition At Winter Gardens
dated 8th September, 2010, at onthewight.com, accessed 12 November 2017 and another at Dimbola Lodge from February to April, 2011.Events February 2011
at iwcp.co.uk, Isle of Wight County Press, accessed 19 November 2017: "Koo Stark Contrasts Art Exhibition at Dimbola Lodge Museum, Freshwater, closed Mondays." On 22 April 1987, a charity auction at Christie's,

St James's St James's is a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End. In the 17th century the area developed as a residential location for the British aristocracy, and around the 19th century was the focus of the d ...

, for the Campaign to Protect Rural England, featured signed work by David Bailey, Patrick Lichfield,

Don McCullin Sir Donald McCullin (born 9 October 1935) is a British photojournalist, particularly recognised for his war photography and images of urban strife. His career, which began in 1959, has specialised in examining the underside of society, and hi ...

, Terence Donovan, Fay Godwin, Heather Angel, Clive Arrowsmith, Linda McCartney, Koo Stark, and fifteen others, Views by Stark, including some of Kirby Muxloe Castle, were in G. H. Davies's ''England's Glory'' (1987), a CPRE book launched at the same time. Pictures by Stark have appeared in '' Country Life'' and other magazines. Several of her portraits are in the National Portrait Gallery, and work is also in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, both in London. A Leica user, Stark has said her camera transcends mere function and is a personal friend. A solo exhibition hosted by the Leica gallery in Mayfair in May 2017 was entitled ''Kintsugi'', a Japanese word for a way of renovating things that have been broken. Stark explained the title: "Kintsugi is a way of learning to see individual beauty, and to appreciate the value of experience and honesty. It is the antithesis of digital, airbrushed, Photoshop-homogenised 'beauty'." In August the exhibition was repeated in Manchester, to mark the opening of a new Leica store there.Nigel Barlow
Koo Stark exhibition comes to Manchester
dated August 11, 2017, at aboutmanchester.co.uk, accessed 12 November 2017

Personal life

Stark has been a practising Buddhist since meeting the Dalai Lama.''Time'', Volume 149 (Time Incorporated, 1997), p. 19 She continues to live in London and is a member of the

Chelsea Arts Club The Chelsea Arts Club is a private members' club at 143 Old Church Street in Chelsea, London with a membership of over 3,800, including artists, sculptors, architects, writers, designers, actors, musicians, photographers, and filmmakers. The club ...

. She is a Patron of the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust, at Dimbola Lodge on the Isle of Wight, home of the Victorian pioneer photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.

Relationships

Stark met Prince Andrew in February 1981, and they were close for some two years, before and after his active service in the Falklands War. Tina Brown has claimed that this was Andrew's only serious love affair. Tina Brown, '' The Diana Chronicles'' (2011), p. 228 In October 1982 they took a holiday together on the island of

Mustique Mustique is a small private island in the nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which is part of the Grenadines, a chain of islands in the West Indies. The island is located within Grenadines Parish, and the closest island is the uninhab ...

. According to

Lady Colin Campbell Georgia Arianna, Lady Colin Campbell (''née'' Ziadie, born 17 August 1949), also known as Lady C, is a British Jamaican author, socialite, and television personality who has published seven books about the British royal family. They include ...

, Andrew was in love, and the Queen was "much taken with the elegant, intelligent, and discreet Koo". However, in 1983, after 18 months of dating, they split up under pressure from the Queen. In 1997, Prince Andrew became the godfather of Stark's daughter, and in 2015, when the Prince was accused by Virginia Roberts over the

Jeffrey Epstein Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American sex offender and financier. Epstein, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, began his professional life by teaching at the Dalton School in Manhattan, des ...

connection, Stark came to his defence, stating that he was a good man and she could help to rebut the claims. Stark married Tim Jefferies, manager of a photographic gallery, in August 1984, at St Saviour's,

Chalk Farm Chalk Farm is a small urban district of north London, lying immediately north of Camden Town, in the London Borough of Camden. History Manor of Rugmere Chalk Farm was originally known as the Manor of Rugmere, an estate that was mentioned ...

, with the minister, Christopher Neil-Smith, commenting that "It was such a quiet affair you wouldn't have known it was happening." They stayed together for a year, later divorcing. She was later engaged to Warren Walker, an American banker, but he cancelled their wedding before the birth of their daughter, Tatiana, in May 1997.

Legal cases

In 1988, Stark brought a successful libel action against ''

The Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was launched in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first pub ...

'' over an untrue story headed 'Koo dated Andy after she wed'. In 1989, '' The Spectator'' reported that she had received £300,000 from one newspaper "for years of inaccurate persecution" and was also collecting money from others. In another libel action in 2007, Stark won an apology and substantial damages from '' Zoo Weekly'' magazine, which had described her as a

porn star A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts in video that is usually characterized as a pornographic movie. Such videos tend to be made in a number of dis ...

. She commented "I am relieved that my name has been cleared of this false, highly damaging and serious allegation which has been proved to be completely untrue."Koo Stark news release
at carter-ruck.com, accessed 25 May 2018 In 2011 ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' called her an early Kate Middleton prototype and suggested that if she had not appeared in the film '' Emily'' early in her career she might have gone on to become the Duchess of York. In November 2012, Stark appeared at Hammersmith magistrates court accused of stealing a painting by Dutch master

Anthonie van Borssom Anthonie van Borssom (January 2, 1631 in Amsterdam – March 19, 1677 in Amsterdam), was a Dutch Golden Age landscape painter. Biography According to the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD), he was an Italianate landscape painter who ...

, worth £40,000, from the home of her ex-partner, American financier Warren Walker. In November 2022, Stark was awarded substantial damages and received an apology in a court case brought against '' Daily Mail''s parent company for a 2019 article which falsely referred to her as "a soft porn actress".

Health

About 1993, Stark was hit by a taxi in

Old Compton Street Old Compton Street is a road that runs east–west through Soho in the West End of London. History The street was named after Henry Compton who raised funds for a local parish church, eventually dedicated as St Anne's Church in 1686. Th ...

, London, losing two teeth and also suffering a deep wound to her forehead, after a collision with her camera. This accident left her temporarily disfigured, but the wound eventually healed leaving a small scar just under the hair-line. In 2002 Stark was diagnosed with

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a r ...

and underwent a double

mastectomy Mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. A mastectomy is usually carried out to treat breast cancer. In some cases, women believed to be at high risk of breast cancer have the operat ...

and

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs ( chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemothe ...

, causing her to lose her hair for a time.

Films and television

Film

Television

Publications

Photographic exhibitions

*'Contrasts', Hamiltons Gallery, Carlos Place, London, September 1985 *'The Stark Image', Gallery Bar at

, London, 1994 *'Stark Images',

, Isle of Wight, June to July 2001 *'Stark Images', Fruitmarket Gallery, Market Street,

, July 2001 *'Portraits by Koo Stark', Winter Gardens, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, September to October 2010 *'Koo Stark: Contrasts', Dimbola Lodge, Isle of Wight, February to April, 2011 *'Kintsugi', Leica gallery, Bruton Place, Mayfair, May 2017 *'Kintsugi', Leica store, Police Street,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, August 2017 *'Kintsugi Portraits', San Lorenzo, Beauchamp Place, London SW3, November 2017'Kintsugi Portraits' by Koo Stark exhibition launch at San Lorenzo, London, 23 November 2017
accessed 29 November 2017

References

External links

Koo Stark Pictures and Images
at gettyimages.co.uk *
Koo Stark exhibition at Dimbola Lodge, Isle of Wight, Feb 2011
by Birgit Cunningham {{DEFAULTSORT:Stark, Koo 1956 births Living people Actresses from New York City American Buddhists American emigrants to England American female models American film actresses American women photographers Hewitt School alumni Fine art photographers American portrait photographers