Helen Fraser

Helen Fraser (born Helen Margaret Stronach; born 15 June 1942) is a retired English actress, who has appeared in many television series since the early 1960s. For international audiences, she may be best known for her roles in Billy Liar and Repulsion (1965). She is also well known in Britain for portraying the role of miserable warder Sylvia Hollamby in the prison drama series Bad Girls. She gained her breakthrough role alongside Courtenay in Billy Liar (1963). They later played the parents of character Dave Best in the Christmas special of The Royle Family (2008).

She is best known to television viewers for her long-running role in the ITV women's prison drama Bad Girls as unpleasant prison officer Sylvia Hollamby from the first episode in 1999 to the last in 2006. She also worked on TV with comedians like Dick Emery and the Two Ronnies in the 1970s. In 2009 and 2010, she toured the UK as Mrs Fisher in a stage version of Billy Liar. In 2011, she joined the tour of Calendar Girls.

Fraser has appeared in the ITV soap Coronation Street twice – in 1998 as Magenta Savannah and again in 2013 as Doris Babbage.

In 2015, she appeared in an episode of the BBC daytime soap Doctors.

Personal life In 1964, she married the recording engineer Peter Handford; the couple had met on the set of Billy Liar.

Filmography +Film Year Title Role Notes 1962 A Kind of Loving Ingrid's Friend (Uncredited) 1963 Billy Liar Barbara 1965 Repulsion Bridget 1966 The Uncle Mary Ream 1968 The Birthday Party Lulu 1970 Start the Revolution Without Me Mimi Montage 1972 Something to Hide Miss Bunyan 1974 From Beyond the Grave Guest Segment 1: "The Gatecrasher" (uncredited) 1977 Joseph Andrews Mrs. Adams 1988 Gorillas in the Mist Mme. Van Vecten 2015 Minions Additional Voices