Eggar’s daughter, Jenna Stern, announced the news on Instagram, saying her mother passed peacefully surrounded by family. “I was there next to her … holding her hand, telling her how much she was loved. It was beautiful. It was a privilege,” Stern wrote.
Her manager, Christopher Sherman, remembered Eggar as “the brightest, funniest, most talented person I have ever known. A beacon of light wherever she went… I will greatly miss her love of the art, her fabulous voice, her compassion for people and animals, and her spectacular laugh. RIP dear friend.”
Born Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar in London in 1939, she initially pursued fashion design before studying acting at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. She began her career on stage with productions like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Landscape With Figures, the latter leading to her film debut in 1962’s Dr. Crippen alongside Donald Pleasence.
Eggar appeared on early TV shows such as The Saint and Ghost Squad, but soon focused on film, appearing in Return from the Ashes and Psyche 59. Her breakout role came in 1965’s The Collector, directed by William Wyler, in which she played a kidnapped artist opposite Terence Stamp. Eggar earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, won Best Actress at Cannes, and received a Golden Globe for her performance.
She went on to star in Walk, Don’t Run (Cary Grant’s final film), Doctor Dolittle (1967), and numerous 1970s projects, including The Molly Maguires with Sean Connery and Richard Harris, The Lady in the Car With Glasses and a Gun with Oliver Reed, and The Light at the Edge of the World with Kirk Douglas and Yul Brynner. She also appeared in Anna and the King (TV), The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, and Cronenberg’s The Brood, a 1979 psychological horror that remains one of her most iconic roles.
Throughout the late ’70s and ’80s, Eggar guest-starred on popular TV shows including Hawaii Five-O, Columbo, The Love Boat, Starsky & Hutch, Fantasy Island, Magnum, P.I., and Murder, She Wrote. She also returned to stage work in productions like The Seagull and The Lonely Road.
In later years, she lent her voice to Disney’s Hercules as Hera, appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Phantom, and the 1999 film The Astronaut’s Wife. She had recurring roles on All My Children, Commander in Chief, and other TV series, with her final performance in 2012’s Metalocalypse.
Outside of acting, Eggar was a devoted animal lover and active in conservation and charitable organizations, including the Cousteau Society, World Wildlife Fund, Kidney Foundation, and British Olympic Association.
Samantha Eggar is survived by her children, Jenna Stern and Nicolas Stern, leaving behind a legacy of unforgettable performances and a life dedicated to art, compassion, and advocacy.
