Rachel Claire Ward, AM, (born at Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, September 12 1957), granddaughter of the 3rd Earl of Dudley and of the cricketer Giles Baring, is an English actress (and more recently, a director) who has primarily pursued her career in Australia. She attended the Byam Shaw School of Art in London before leaving at 16 to become a top fashion model. In 1983 she was voted one of the ten most beautiful women in the United States.
She became well known when she starred opposite Richard Chamberlain as the lead role portraying Meggie Cleary in the television mini-series The Thorn Birds. She also starred in the films Sharky's Machine with Burt Reynolds, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid with Steve Martin and Against All Odds with Jeff Bridges.
Ward then disappeared from pictures for three years to study acting. She reappeared in 1987 playing opposite her husband, Bryan Brown (whom she met on the set of The Thorn Birds), in The Good Wife. Married since 1983, they have three children: Rose (Rosie), Matilda (who has followed her parents into the acting profession), and Joe.
She briefly dated David Kennedy, son of Robert F Kennedy. In 2003, a portrait of Rachel Ward by artist Jan Williamson won the Packing Room award at the Archibald Prize competition.
In 2007, Ward returned to television, headlining the new ABC Drama Rain Shadow. She is playing a country veterinarian named Kate McDonald, a free spirit who confronts personal and professional obstacles in a rural, drought-affected town.
In 2005, Ward was made a Member of the Order of Australia "for service to raising awareness of social justice through lobbying, mentoring and advocacy for the rights of disadvantaged and at-risk young people, and support for the Australian film and television industry." Ward was a presenter for Best Cinematography at the 1982 Academy Awards.
Former model.
Sister married the Marquis of Worcester in 1987
As a young starlet shared a house with fellow model-actress Daryl Hannah.
Uncle is Great Britain's Earl of Dudley.
She is granddaughter of the 3rd Earl of Dudley and his first wife Lady Rosemary Leveson-Gower (once tipped as a possible bride for the future Edward VIII, later Duke of Windsor). Her uncle the Earl of Dudley is married to former actress Maureen Swanson; her sister Tracy-Louise Ward (now wife of the Marquess of Worcester, eldest son and heir of the 11th Duke of Beaufort) also acted, and her cousin the Honourable Leander Ward is also an actor.
Rachel Ward met her husband, Bryan Brown (I), while working on "Thorn Birds, The" (1983) (mini). She played the heroine, and he played the heroine's husband (who was not however the hero!).
Measurements: 34C-25½-35 (as a young model 1980), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
She has two daughters, Rosie (b. 1984) and Matilda (b. 1986) and one son Joe (b. 1992) with husband Bryan Brown (I).
Appointed Member (AM) of the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in June 2005 for "raising awareness of social justice through lobbying, mentoring and advocacy for the rights of disadvantaged and at-risk young people".
