- Born
- Birth nameClare Frances Elizabeth Higgins
- Height5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
- Clare Higgins was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, the second of five children of Paula Cecilia (Murphy) and James Stephen Higgins, who were both teachers, and nursed acting ambitions from childhood. She was sent to a convent school, from which she was expelled, and ran away from home at age seventeen. At nineteen, she gave birth to a son whom she gave up for adoption, but was pleased to be reunited with him in 1995. At 23, she fulfilled her childhood ambition of acting, graduating from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.
Clare honed her craft at the Manchester and the Royal Exchange Theatre, where, among her credits, she had leading roles in the plays "The Deep Man", "Measure For Measure" and "A Streetcar Named Desire", in which she played Stella. At the same time, she was busily carving a niche for herself in numerous television plays which include Pride and Prejudice (1980), Unity (1981), Hideaway (1986), Byron: A Personal Tour (1981) and the ten-part The Citadel (1983) by the BBC, along with Cover Her Face (1985) by ITV. She was also a featured regular on the Channel 4 comedy series Up Line (1987). In 1984, she made her feature film debut in Horton Foote's Nineteen Nineteen (1985). She is also known for her roles in the Clive Barker horror films Hellraiser (1987) and Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988).
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, she consolidated her reputation as a dynamic stage actress, both in London and on Broadway, winning three Olivier awards. In the mid-1990s she also trained, successfully, to become a massage therapist and a psychotherapist.
She's played regular characters in Rogue (2013) by DirecTV, The Syndicate (2012), Parade's End (2012), EastEnders (1985) and The Worst Witch (2017) by the BBC, along with Homefront (2012) by ITV.- IMDb mini biography by: anonymous and don @ minifie-1
- SpouseClive Wood (divorced)
- She found Hellraiser hard to watch. At the premiere, she left and went to the bar. She has never seen the whole movie.
- Despite starring in Hellraiser, she doesn't like horror movies.
- Despite a long and successful career on-stage, she is perhaps best known in films for her sinister portrayal of "Julia" in Hellraiser (1987), a role she also reprised in the sequel, Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988).
- Has won the Laurence Olivier best stage actress award twice - Vincent in Brixton and Sweet Bird of Youth.
- [talking about her character in Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)} I hope you understand Julia's reasons for being an unpleasant character, because you see the depths she's prepared to plumb for love. She's a great deal nastier this time, and if anybody sympathizes with her, I'm doing something wrong. I really want everybody to hate me.
- [talking about the hardest scene she had to do in Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)] The most difficult thing I had to do in "Hellbound" was walk down the wind tunnels with a jet engine blowing at me, keep my eyes open and look evil at the same time! There's a lot of wind in this movie . . . and blood . . . and slime . . . and gore . . .
- [about Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)] I think that "Hellraiser II" will be . . . I think "worst" is the wrong word. "Better" in the sense that we use better special effects, more evil, more disgusting, more blood . . . this is Hellraiser (1987) plus.
- [on Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)] I had to come back, because to be the queen of hell, you see, it's an opportunity that I couldn't miss!
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