- Cleo Sylvestre, pioneering British actress, dies aged 79
- Broke barriers as first black lead in National Theatre & UK soap opera Crossroads
- Remembered by Sir Mick Jagger, Ken Loach, and peers as trailblazer and talented performer
Cleo Sylvestre, a pioneering actress and trailblazer in British theater and television, has died at the age of 79, as confirmed by her agent.
Sylvestre was notable for being the first black actress to take on a leading role at the National Theatre and for securing a regular leading role in a UK soap opera, Crossroads. Her impressive career spanned various television series, including Grange Hill and the Channel 5 reboot of All Creatures Great and Small.
Rolling Stones frontman Sir Mick Jagger expressed his sadness over the loss of his “old friend,” recalling Sylvestre as “the first female vocalist to sing with the Stones.” In 1964, Sylvestre released a version of “To Know Him is to Love Him,” featuring The Rolling Stones as her backing singers. She had met the band during a blues night in Soho.
Reflecting on her relationship with the band, Sylvestre shared in an interview with the Masterpiece PBS TV series that her mother often cooked for them. “I mean, the Stones were always round, especially Brian [Jones] and Mick [Jagger],” she recounted. “We lived in a council flat with a tiny little kitchen, and she’d do meals for 15 people.”
Sir Mick honored her memory on Instagram, sharing a black-and-white photograph of Sylvestre with the band, stating, “So sad to hear of the passing of my old friend, the actress and singer Cleo Sylvestre, the first female vocalist to sing with the Stones.”
Her agents, Fulcrum Talent, expressed their sorrow, stating that Sylvestre would be “sorely missed by so many.”
Born in April 1945, Sylvestre was raised and educated in Camden, north London. She began her acting career with a West End debut at Wyndham’s Theatre in the 1967 production of Wise Child, written by Simon Gray. In 1969, she made history by becoming the first black woman to hold a leading role in a National Theatre production with Peter Nichols’ satire, The National Health.
Her television credits included roles in Till Death Do Us Part, Doctors, Coronation Street, The Bill, New Tricks, and Doctor Who. She also had a regular role in the school drama Grange Hill. Sylvestre frequently collaborated with acclaimed director Ken Loach, appearing in his films Poor Cow, Cathy Come Home, and Up the Junction.
In 2010, she featured in Some Women, a dramatization of the real-life stories of imprisoned women on BBC Two. This performance led TV producer Reg Watson to cast her in Crossroads, where she portrayed Meg Richardson’s adopted daughter, Melanie, from 1970 to 1972. The soap opera boasted around 15 million viewers at the time, bringing Sylvestre to a wider audience.
In recognition of her contributions to drama and charity, Sylvestre was honored as an MBE in the 2023 New Year Honours.
Sylvestre’s agent announced her passing with “deep regret,” confirming that she died on Friday morning. “Much-loved and admired by her peers, she will be remembered as a trailblazer and a true friend. She will be sorely missed by so many,” the statement read. “We ask that you respect the privacy of her family at this difficult time.”
Playwright and author Bonnie Greer led tributes on Twitter, stating, “The actor #CleoSylvestreMBE has crossed over. She was one of the reasons that – from my vantage point in NYC – I thought that this country has the best anglophone theatre, and the best place to be a black woman in it. I still think that. Thank you, Cleo!”
